Appeal Court Decision 2

Appeal Court Decision

Defendant employers challenged a ruling from the Superior Court of Los Angeles County (California), which passed judgment for plaintiff employee in the employee's action to recover wages due for work performed for the employers and for the penalty provided by the Cal. Act of 1911 (Act).

Overview: corporate lawyer

The employers failed to pay wages to the employee, who sought both the wages and the penalty provided by the Act. The employee's complaint for back wages and the penalty failed to allege where the services were contracted for, where the services were performed, where the services were payable, or where the employee quit. Yet, the trial court rendered judgment for the employee for both back wages and the penalty. The employers appealed the penalty, and the court reversed, holding that the judgment for the penalty had no support in either the complaint or the findings. The employee's urgings that the law of the forum controlled regardless of where the contract was made or the wages earned and that there was a prima facie presumption that the law of the place was the same as the law of California were not tenable. The wrong allegedly committed against the employee referred to the law of the place where the wrong was committed. At least one thing connected to the wrong had to be committed in California to invoke the penalty clause of the Act. The court could not presume that the law of the place where the wrong was committed was the same as the law of California.

Outcome

The court reversed the judgment for the employee in the employee's action for back wages and the Act's penalty and remanded the cause with directions to permit the employee to amend his complaint by alleging facts supporting the employee's right to recover the penalty for non-payment of wages and to try the issues thus tendered by amendment, if the complaint was amended.