See's Candy Shops, Inc. v. Superior Court

Pamela Silva brought a wage and hour class action complaint against her former employer, See’s Candy Shops, Inc. After certifying a class of current and former California employees, the trial court granted Silva’s summary adjudication motion on four of See’s Candy’s affirmative defenses and entered an order dismissing the four defenses. In a writ petition, See’s *892 Candy challenged the dismissal of two of the affirmative defenses. These defenses pertained to See’s Candy’s timekeeping policy that rounds employee punch in/out times to the nearest one-tenth of an hour (nearest-tenth rounding policy).

After we summarily denied the petition, the California Supreme Court granted See’s Candy’s petition for review and ordered this court to vacate its prior order and issue an order to show cause in the matter. We thereafter issued the order to show cause and the parties filed extensive writ briefing. We also granted requests by several amici curiae to file briefs in the matter.

We conclude See’s Candy’s petition has merit. Based on the factual record before it, the trial court erred in granting summary adjudication on the two affirmative defenses pertaining to See’s Candy’s…