Pellegrino

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Maria Pellegrino, Nadia Balici, Carolyn Cox, Kelli Maresch, Jennifer McCasland, and James Rossetto (collectively, plaintiffs) sued their former employer, temporary staffing firm Robert Half International, Inc. (RHI), for violations of the wage and hour provisions of the Labor Code and for unfair competition. 1 Plaintiffs’ unfair competition claims were solely based on the wage and hour claims. The trial court bifurcated plaintiffs’ equitable claims for unfair competition from the remaining claims, and the parties first tried to the trial court RHI’s affirmative defense that plaintiffs were exempt employees. After RHI completed its case-in-chief on that affirmative defense, the trial court granted plaintiffs’ motion for judgment under Code of Civil Procedure section 631.8, concluding plaintiffs did not fall within the administrative exemption. Reserving the right to seek recovery of attorney fees, the parties thereafter stipulated to judgment as to all remaining issues in the case and judgment was entered accordingly. The trial court granted plaintiffs’ motion for attorney fees, and an amended judgment was entered, awarding, inter alia, plaintiffs’…