Krueger Bros. Builders, Inc. v. San Francisco Housing Authority

This is an appeal from an order granting summary judgment in favor of plaintiff and respondent Krueger Brothers Builders, Inc. and against San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) on the grounds that a stop notice filed and served by the California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) was untimely. The issue presented is whether a verified claim and stop notice filed by DLSE is governed by the statute of limitations contained in the Civil Code provisions concerning stop notices or the Labor Code sections dealing with penalties for failure to pay workers the prevailing wage on public work projects. We reverse the ruling of the trial court.

Preliminarily, we note that the order appealed from is not a judgment but rather an order granting summary judgment which is not appealable. (Code Civ. Proc., § 904.1.) DLSE asks us to treat the order as a judgment in the interest of judicial economy and to avoid delay; Krueger does not object to this procedure. We will construe the order to include a judgment in favor of Krueger and interpret the notice of appeal to be from that judgment. (Avila v. Standard Oil Co. (1985) 167 Cal.App.3d 441,…