Reynolds

In this action for recovery of unpaid overtime compensation, the question presented is whether plaintiff has stated a cause of action against any of eight individuals who were officers or directors and shareholders of the Delaware corporation, or its California subsidiary, that owns the automobile painting business for which he formerly worked. The Court of *1082 Appeal upheld the trial court’s sustaining of a demurrer. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

Background

Plaintiff Steven Reynolds, on behalf of himself and those similarly situated, 1 alleges he was employed by defendants Earl Scheib, Inc., and Earl Scheib of California, Inc. (hereafter jointly Scheib, or the corporate defendants), and by defendants Bement, Buchalter, Colburn, Helm, Kyman, Seigel, Sunkin, and Smith (hereafter collectively the individual defendants), as a “shop manager” and an “assistant shop manager” at several locations of defendants’ automobile painting business. Defendants own and operate approximately 50 automobile painting shops in California.

The individual defendants are shareholders of the corporate defendants and have at material times been agents (officers or directors)…

I concur.

In Labor Code section 1194, the Legislature has given workers a private right of action to recover unpaid overtime wages without specifying who is liable. (Lab. Code, § 1194.) 1 Liability logically should attach to the person or entity owing the unpaid overtime wages—the employer—but neither in section 1194 nor in other relevant provisions of the Labor Code (e.g., §§ 500, 510) has the Legislature defined “employer” for purposes of section 1194.

Faced with this lacuna in the Labor Code, plaintiff would look to the definition of “employer” in wage orders promulgated by the Industrial Welfare Commission, the administrative agency to which the Legislature has granted plenary power to formulate regulations governing employment in California. (Tidewater Marine Western, Inc. v. Bradshaw (1996) 14 Cal.4th 557, 561 [ 59 Cal.Rptr.2d 186 , 927 P.2d 296 ].) As defined in the relevant wage order for purposes of this case, an employer is any individual “who directly or indirectly, or through an agent or any other person, employs or exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of any person.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11090, subd. (2)(F).) Armed with this…

Van Bourg, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, Ellyn Moscowitz, Oakland, Joanna Mittman and M. Suzanne Murphy, Oakland, for The Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, The Building and Construction Trades Council of Contra Costa County, The Building and Construction Trades Council of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, The Building and Construction Trades Council of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, The District Council of Iron Workers for the State of California and Vicinity, The Northern California Carpenters Regional Council, The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11, The Painters District Council Local 36, The Roofers Union Locals 81, 36 and 220 and The Sprinkler Fitters United Association, Local 483 as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant.

Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, David Borgen, Oakland, Darci Burrell and Joshua Konecky, San Francisco, for The Impact Fund, Asian Law Caucus, Inc., Asian Pacific American Legal Center, California Employment Lawyers Association, The Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, La Raza Centro Legal, Inc., and Women's Employment Rights Clinic at Golden Gate…