Opinion ID: 2844019
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Summary Judgment on Commute-Time Claim

Text: Alcantar challenges the district court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Hobart on Alcantar’s commute-time claim. The district court’s decision was based on its conclusion that § 1194 does not require Hobart to compensate Alcantar for commute time where there is no dispute that Hobart does not expressly require the technicians to commute in its vehicles. An employee’s commute is not typically compensable under California labor law, even “when the employee commutes in a vehicle that is owned, leased, or subsidized by the employer.” Cal. Lab. Code § 510(b). The time may be compensable, however, if the employee can classify it as “hours worked.” The Industrial Welfare Commission has defined “hours worked” as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer,” including “all the time the employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether or not required to do so.” See Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8, § 11040(2)(K). In Morillion v. Royal Packing Co., the California Supreme Court elaborated on what constitutes control. 995 P.2d 139 (Cal. 2000), as modified (May 10, 2000). The plaintiff in Morillion represented a class of agricultural laborers. Their employer, Royal Packing Company, required them to meet at specific departure points each morning so that it could transport them to the fields where they worked. At the end of the day, Royal took them back to the departure points. Id. Royal prohibited the workers from using their ALCANTAR V. HOBART SERVICE 15 own transportation to get to and from the fields. The California Supreme Court held that the workers were entitled to compensation for the time they spent traveling to and from the fields, reasoning that they “were foreclosed from numerous activities in which they might otherwise engage if they were permitted to travel to the fields by their own transportation.” Id. at 146. The court rejected Royal’s argument that its decision would render all activities an employer requires (even grooming) compensable. The court explained that “[t]he level of the employer’s control over its employees, rather than the mere fact that the employer requires the employees’ activity, is determinative.” Id. Alcantar does not assert that Hobart exercises control over him should he commute in his own vehicle. Therefore, to prevail at trial he must prove not only that Hobart’s restrictions on him during his commute in Hobart’s vehicle are such that he is under Hobart’s control, but also that, despite Hobart’s profession that use of its vehicles is voluntary, employees are, as a practical matter, required to commute in Hobart’s vehicles. The first is a question of law which we return to the district court. The second is a question of fact, which we find is appropriate for a jury as Alcantar has raised a genuine issue of material fact. Alcantar acknowledges that Hobart has no official policy requiring technicians to commute in the service vehicles but argues that, in reality, service technicians have no meaningful choice. Each vehicle is equipped with tools and service parts. Although the parties dispute the value of the tools and parts (Hobart argues that the value ranges from $5,000 to $12,000; Alcantar insists a stock inventory places it at over $80,000), they agree that the technicians are responsible for them. Thus, Alcantar argues, if the tools or parts are stolen, the 16 ALCANTAR V. HOBART SERVICE technicians must pay for them. Alcantar contends that because Hobart does not provide sufficient secure parking spaces, the technicians have to take the vehicles home or risk theft of the tools and service parts. Alcantar submits numerous declarations from service technicians supporting this contention. The declarations state that even though Hobart did not have a policy requiring technicians to drive the vehicles home, the technicians could not risk having to pay for stolen tools or parts. In addition to the declarations, Alcantar offers deposition testimony from Hobart’s Rule 30(b)(6) representative, who conceded that although there is enough unsecured parking at each branch, there is not enough secured parking for every technician to leave a service vehicle overnight. Alcantar also submits an excerpt from Hobart’s personnel manual in which Hobart acknowledges the value of the tools and service parts: This vehicle is provided to you for business purposes only. When you consider the high dollar value of the truck parts inventory, the value of the tools, along with the information contained in the technical bulletins you are required to carry, you can understand why the use of the vehicle is limited to business purposes only. Alcantar has gone beyond the pleadings and has pointed to declarations and deposition testimony that raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether technicians are, as a practical matter, required to commute in Hobart’s vehicles. It is not for the court to evaluate the persuasiveness of this evidence. Alcantar need only show that a reasonable jury ALCANTAR V. HOBART SERVICE 17 could find for him at trial. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 257 (1986). Hobart maintains that Alcantar’s claim cannot survive summary judgment because the agreement between Hobart and the technicians gives technicians the choice to commute in their vehicles or leave them at their branch office. But as we explained above, there is a dispute of material fact as to whether that choice is genuine or illusory. To the extent Hobart argues that Alcantar’s claim is foreclosed as a matter of law, the court is unpersuaded. Hobart cites no precedent stating that an employer must expressly require employees commute in their vehicles for the employees’ commute time to be compensable. Nor does the court read Morillion or the cases interpreting it as imposing such a condition. Indeed, Morillion’s chief concern was with what happened in practice—that Royal determined “when, where, and how” the laborers commuted to work. See Morillion, 995 P.2d at 146. Cases applying Morillion have looked at employees’ behavior in evaluating plaintiffs’ claims that their employer required them to take certain transportation. See Overton v. Walt Disney Co., 136 Cal. App. 4th 263, 271 (Ct. App. 2006), as modified (Feb. 1, 2006) (concluding that the employer did not require its employees to take an employer-provided shuttle where there was evidence that some employees used alternative means of transportation); see also Rodriguez v. SGLC, Inc., No. 2:08-CV-01971, 2012 WL 5705992, at  (E.D. Cal. Nov. 15, 2012) (finding that because there was evidence that all employees took employer-provided transportation, even though the employer did not explicitly require they take it, there was a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether plaintiffs were free to choose their mode of transportation). Thus, we conclude that Alcantar’s argument is not foreclosed as a matter of law. 18 ALCANTAR V. HOBART SERVICE Nor are we persuaded by the reasoning of the dissent, which relies on a provision of Hobart’s Personnel Policies and Procedures. That provision states that technicians are responsible for the replacement of any tool lost or stolen through the technicians’ negligence and directs technicians to ensure that their vehicles are locked when left unattended. Relying on this provision, the dissent contends that “any argument that the employees are somehow required to drive their service vehicles home for the security of the vehicle’s contents has no basis in the record. ” Citing the lack of evidence that Hobart has ever held a technician liable for a break-in at the facility, the dissent overlooks the fact that no one has ever actually parked there. In contrast to the provision on which the dissent relies, the “Service Technician Rules/Understandings” document states that technicians are absolutely responsible for the tools, regardless of culpability. It provides that service technicians “accept full responsibility” if tools are “lost, misplaced or . . . not . . . available when regularly inventoried.” In addition, as noted above, Alcantar has submitted numerous declarations from other technicians, stating that they could not risk leaving the vehicles at Hobart’s facilities because they would be forced to pay for stolen tools or parts. These declarations say nothing of negligence, and suggest that technicians have received the message from Hobart, implicitly or explicitly, that they are absolutely responsible for the tools. Hobart’s apparently inconsistent policies make the testimony of witnesses necessary to resolve the extent to which technicians are held responsible for the tools and parts. This is unlike the employees in Overton, who demonstrably had options other than riding a shuttle bus to work. ALCANTAR V. HOBART SERVICE 19