Wesson

INTRODUCTION

This appeal raises a question of first impression: whether trial courts have inherent authority to ensure that PAGA claims will be manageable at trial, and to strike such claims if they cannot be managed. We hold that courts possess this authority. Appellant Fred Wesson worked for respondent Staples the Office Superstore, LLC (Staples) as a store general manager (GM). He brought this action against Staples, asserting, among other things, a representative claim under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) (Lab. Code, § 2698 et seq.) on behalf of himself and 345 other current and former Staples GMs in California. In his PAGA claim, Wesson sought almost $36 million in civil penalties for alleged Labor Code violations, all premised on the theory that Staples had misclassified its GMs as exempt executives. Staples moved to strike Wesson’s PAGA claim, arguing that given the number of employees it covered and the

2 nature of his allegations, the action would be “unmanageable” and would violate Staples’s due process rights. It contended that its intended affirmative defense -- that it properly classified its GMs as exempt and thus committed no Labor Code…