California Legal Brief

The Rule of **Cortina v. North American Title Company** is that a trial court's authority to delegate matters to a referee without the parties' consent is strictly circumscribed by the California Constitution and Code of Civil Procedure, and a nonconsensual reference of substantial scope and magnitude is entirely unauthorized and requires reversal, under circumstances where wage and hour class action proceedings are referred to a referee over defendant's strenuous objections without meeting the constitutional and statutory requirements for nonconsensual reference.

The Rule of Martinez v. Sierra Lifestar, Inc. is that a defendant's argument that bonuses were discretionary or in the nature of gifts does not defeat typicality of a class representative's wage and hour claims when the same argument applies to identical bonuses paid to other class members, under circumstances where the employer used a uniform practice of excluding all such bonuses from regular rate of pay calculations.

The Rule of Doss v. Tesla, Inc. is that yard hostlers who move 53-foot trailers containing auto parts shipped from out of state within factory grounds are "transportation workers" engaged in interstate commerce exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, under circumstances where their movement and positioning of trailers for unloading and receiving is a necessary step in completing the interstate journey of goods.