Post-Sav-On Victory: Not All Wage-And-Hour Classes Will Be Certified

Employers did not necessarily get bad news when the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled last August that class certification was appropriate in Sav-On Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court. The Sav-On decision came out in the middle of McDermott Will & Emery’s defense of a wage-and-hour action brought against Starcrest Products of California, Inc. Our subsequent success in defeating class certification in Williams, et al. v. Starcrest tests the California Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Sav-On. Although many observers predicted Sav-On would open the floodgates on wage-and-hour class action filings in California, this recent post Sav-On employer victory demonstrates employers have not lost the ability to fight class certification successfully in California.