Victor Garibay v. Archstone Communities LLC

MEMORANDUM

Archstone Communities, LLC and Arch-stone Property Management California, Inc. appeal the district court’s order granting Victor Gariba/s motion to remand his class action complaint, which alleges violations of various California wage and employment laws, to state court. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1453 (c), and we affirm.

The district court correctly held that the defendants did not meet their burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million as required for federal jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (d). See Abrego Abrego v. The Dow Chem. Co., 443 F.3d 676, 685 (9th Cir.2006) (per curiam). The only evidence the defendants proffer to support their calculation of the amount in controversy is a declaration by their supervisor of payroll, which sets forth only the number of employees during the relevant period, the number of pay periods, and general information about hourly employee wages. Beyond this, the defendants rely on speculative and self-serving assumptions about key unknown variables. The district court correctly concluded that Archstone’s evidence was insufficient to…