Benton

INTRODUCTION

Lorenzo Benton filed this wage-and-hour class action in 2006 against Telecom Network Specialists, Inc. (TNS)—a company that maintains and upgrades equipment at cell sites in California—on behalf of several hundred technicians who serviced the equipment at the sites. In 2012 the trial court denied Benton’s motion for class certification. We reversed. (Benton v. Telecom Network Specialists, Inc. (2013) 220 Cal.App.4th 701 (Benton I).) On remand the trial court, after granting Benton’s motion for class certification, granted the class plaintiffs’ motion for summary adjudication on some of the causes of action, found in favor of the plaintiffs on other causes of action following a court trial, and entered judgment. We reversed again, holding (among other things) the trial court erred in granting summary adjudication in favor of the class on the causes of action for failure to provide meal and rest breaks. (See Benton v. Telecom Network Specialists, Inc. (Oct. 13, 2023, B312572 [nonpub. opn.] (Benton II).) While the appeal in Benton II was pending, the trial court issued an order on Benton’s motion for attorneys’ fees—an order from which both parties now appeal. Because…