Opinion ID: 6346803
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Damages Capable of Class-wide Measurement

Text: We first consider CoreCivic’s arguments that the members of the California Labor Law class have not presented “a fully formed damages model” and thus cannot be certified. Owino claims that CoreCivic misclassified the detainees participating in the Work Program as “volunteers” rather than “employees” and thus failed to pay them the minimum wage required in California for “employees,” in violation of California wage and hour law. The district court certified the class, holding that Owino had met the “evidentiary” burden of “present[ing] proof that damages are capable of being measured on a class-wide basis.” We agree with the district court that Owino did not need to present a fully formed damages model “when discovery was not yet complete and pertinent records may have been OWINO V. CORECIVIC 17 still within Defendant’s control.” Rather, “plaintiffs must show that ‘damages are capable of measurement on a classwide basis,’ in the sense that the whole class suffered damages traceable to the same injurious course of conduct underlying the plaintiffs’ legal theory.” Just Film, Inc. v. Buono, 847 F.3d 1108, 1120 (9th Cir. 2017) (quoting Comcast, 569 U.S. at 34). In other words, “plaintiffs must be able to show that their damages stemmed from the defendant’s actions that created the legal liability.” Vaquero v. Ashley Furniture Indus., Inc., 824 F.3d 1150, 1154 (9th Cir. 2016) (citation omitted). There is a clear line of causation between the alleged misclassification of detainee employees as “volunteers” and the deprivation of earnings they may have suffered as a consequence of the violation of California wage and hour laws. See id. at 1155 (holding that, “[i]n a wage and hour case . . . the employer-defendant’s actions necessarily caused the class members’ injury”). According to evidence from a CoreCivic manager, spreadsheets of wages paid, and CoreCivic’s corporate policy itself, ICE detainees participated in the Work Program across CoreCivic’s facilities, for which they were almost never paid more than $1.50 per day. If CoreCivic did indeed misclassify these participants as “volunteers” (e.g., because the detainees should have been considered “employees”), CoreCivic would necessarily have failed to pay the minimum hourly wage required by California law. Thus, any damages that the class members are owed necessarily “stemmed from [CoreCivic’s] actions.” Id. Owino presented sufficient evidence to show that damages are capable of measurement on a class-wide basis. This evidence includes documentation of “typical” shift lengths, the days worked by ICE detainees, the wages paid, 18 OWINO V. CORECIVIC and the job assignments. Additional testimony and CoreCivic records can establish details about which detainees participated in the Work Program, see Ridgeway v. Walmart Inc., 946 F.3d 1066, 1087 (9th Cir. 2020), and as the Supreme Court emphasized in Tyson Foods, sufficiently reliable representative or statistical evidence can be used to establish the hours that a class of employees had worked. 577 U.S. at 459.