It's not been a good couple of days if you're Safeway.
Yesterday, Safeway lost Heyen, an individual wage-and-hour case that Safeway lost at trial to the tune of around $24,000 and in which the Court of Appeal took little time in squarely rejecting Safeway's appeal (filed by their counsel at Littler Mendelson). So that's bad precedent for Safeway, lost money on their own attorney's, and a cost award -- likely including the other side's attorney fees -- against them. Not a good day. Would have been better not to appeal.
Then, this morning, Safeway wakes up to discover that the Court of Appeal has published Bluford. This one is another wage-and-hour case, but this one's a putative class action involving Safeway drivers. This time, however, Safeway won below, getting the class decertified, and so is the respondent in the Court of Appeal.
No matter. Same result. Safeway loses. The Court of Appeal reverses, and orders the trial court to certify the class.
So if you're an officer, director, shareholder, or attorney for Safeway, the last couple of days did not come out as you'd have hoped.
But let's look on it from the bright side. If you're an employee with Safeway -- especially a manager or a driver -- it's probably been a good 24-hour period. Some victories stayed victories, and some defeats became victories as well.
I'll look at it that way. Staying positive as the week ends.
