Dunbar

Plaintiff Maurice Dunbar, a grocery manager for defendant Albertson’s, Inc., seeks overtime compensation and other relief on the theory that defendant erroneously classified him as an executive employee exempt from the overtime wage laws. He appeals from the order denying his motion for certification of a class of defendant’s grocery managers to pursue these same claims. He contends that the order must be reversed because the court failed to apply proper criteria, and neglected to perform necessary analysis, in deciding whether common questions were predominant in the case. We find no error in the court’s determination of the matter and affirm the order.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Evidence

Defendant owns and operates approximately 500 grocery stores in California. Each store generally has a grocery manager, and a store director to whom the grocery manager reports; the grocery manger is “the second person [in charge] in the store.” The putative class consists of approximately 900 individuals who have worked as grocery managers for defendant since March 2000.

In support of the motion for class certification, plaintiff filed among other things his declaration and virtually…