Sanchez

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

PABLO SANCHEZ, et al., Case No. 20-cv-05147-VC

Plaintiffs,

ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR

v. CLASS CERTIFICATION WITHOUT

PREJUDICE

HEARST COMMUNICATIONS, INC.,

Re: Dkt. No. 74 Defendant.

Pablo Sanchez and Violet Alvarez sued Hearst Communications, seeking to represent a class of similarly situated workers and claiming that Hearst violated California law by misclassifying them as independent contractors rather than employees. Hearst publishes and distributes newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including (among others) the San Francisco Chronicle. Sanchez and Alvarez served as newspaper dealers, having signed agreements to pick up and deliver papers for Hearst. They assert a series of claims under California state law for Hearst’s alleged misclassification and ask for damages, penalties, and injunctive relief. Sanchez and Alvarez move for class certification. They seek to certify a class of everyone “who personally delivered newspapers for Hearst . . . solely pursuant to a contractor home delivery agreement in the State of California” since July of 2016. The proposed class…