California Supreme Court Focused on the Familiar
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
| Publication year | 2011 |
| Pages | 02 |
| Citation | Vol. 09 No. 2011 Pg. 02 |
CBJ - September 2011 #02. California Supreme Court focused on the familiar
September 2011
The California Supreme Court's 2010-2011 Term had a familiar feel to it. The most interesting cases arose out of everyday circumstances and contexts, cases dealing with the ordinary person at work, at the grocery store, at the park. By and large, we see a court that is looking out for the little guy.
California Supreme Court Gov. Brown named Goodwin Liu to replace Carlos Moreno (top left)
Our new judicial leader, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, has settled in nicely at the court, although she now leads a judicial branch that is challenged by enormous budget cuts and internal political turmoil from certain judges who want greater local autonomy in matters of judicial administration. It is a rough introduction to the California judiciary, and as members of the bar, we owe her our confidence and support.
Finally, the Court has been deciding most of its cases this year using various assigned judges from the courts of appeal because Justice Carlos Moreno's retirement left an empty chair at the court. Recently, Governor Brown has nominated Professor Goodwin Liu of the UC Berkeley law faculty to fill that seat. It is a solid appointment, and although Liu's Ninth Circuit nomination was sacrificed at the altar of ideological bickering that now dominates federal judicial appointments, his appointment to the California Supreme Court will cause barely a ripple. He is superbly qualified, and it is good to see a law professor tapped for the high court. A little professional diversity on the court - not every justice needs to have served on the court of appeal - will be a good thing.
And now, on to the cases.
EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye
Our first case involved grocery workers in Los Angeles, and they scored a big win in California Grocers Association v. City of Los Angeles (2011) 52 Cal.4th 177, where the Court upheld by a 6-1 vote a Los Angeles ordinance that vests current employees of certain grocery stores certain individual rights during the 90-day period following a change of ownership of the grocery store. In particular, for grocery stores that are 15,000 square feet or larger that undergo a change of ownership, the ordinance requires (1) the incumbent owner to prepare a list of nonmanagerial employees with at least six months' employment as of the date of transfer in ownership, and the successor employer must hire from that list during the 90-day transition period; (2) during that same period, the hired employees may be discharged only for cause; (3) at the conclusion of the transition period, the successor employer must prepare a written evaluation of each employee's performance, and if an employee's performance is satisfactory, the employer must "consider" offering continued employment (although the ordinance does not required that anyone actually be retained); and (4) if the workforce is unionized, the union and the employer may agree on terms that supersede...
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