Judge: Elaine Lu, Case: 23STCV15490, Date: 2025-06-10 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV15490    Hearing Date: June 10, 2025    Dept: 9

Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement

Department SSC-9

Hon. Elaine Lu

Jamie Ramires v. Bright Star Schools

Case No.: 23STCV15490

Hearing: June 10, 2025

TENTATIVE RULING

The Parties’ Motion for Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement is CONTINUED for Counsel to address the following:

1)     The Settlement Agreement at ¶40 reads: “PAGA Standing. The Parties have specifically agreed to waive[] the requirement of Labor Code 2699(c)(1) that an employee must have experienced a violation within the year preceding the filing of the PAGA Letter providing notice to the LWDA.” Further, Plaintiff’s LWDA notice letter informs that “Employers employed Jamie Ramires from approximately June 2018 to August 2019”. Why would this be proper and under what authority do the parties believe that they can stipulate to waive the applicability of the statute here?

2)     Defendant should file a declaration and supporting documents evidencing the need for a payment plan.  If Defendant wishes, Defendant can concurrently file an application to file its financial documents under seal.  In doing so, Defendant should note that “[a] record must not be filed under seal without a court order. The court must not permit a record to be filed under seal based solely on the agreement or stipulation of the parties.”  (Cal. Rules of Court, Rule 2.551(a).)  Rather, “[a] party requesting that a record be filed under seal must file a motion or an application for an order sealing the record. The motion or application must be accompanied by a memorandum and a declaration containing facts sufficient to justify the sealing.”  (Cal. Rules of Court, Rule 2.551(b).) Accordingly, any stipulation or application to seal must be accompanied by a declaration or other evidence establishing all five elements of Cal. Rules of Court, Rule 2.550(d): (1) an overriding interest exists that overcomes the right of public access to the record; (2) the overriding interest supports sealing the record; (3) a substantial probability exists that the overriding interest will be prejudiced if the record is not sealed; (4) the request is narrowly tailored; and (5) no less restrictive means exist to achieve the overriding interest. (Cal. Rules of Court, 2.550(d).)  As a reminder, when filing a stipulation or application to seal, the moving party must: (1) publicly file a redacted version of the document(s) to be sealed with narrowly tailored redactions, and concurrently, (2) lodge conditionally under seal an unredacted version of the document(s) to be sealed.

3)     In the Settlement Agreement at ¶8.ee, the reference to statutory penalties in the Class Released Claims (“, and any other claims, including claims for statutory penalties, pertaining to the Class Members”) is broad enough to include PAGA penalties.  The quoted language should be removed.

4)     The Settlement Agreement at ¶17 refers to the PAGA Employee Amount as 25% of the PAGA Amount but should be corrected to 35% of the PAGA Amount in light of the new statutory change. (See Settlement, ¶13.)

5)     Provide Proof of Service for the submission of the Settlement Agreement to the LWDA, and for any further revised versions.

If the Settlement Agreement is modified pursuant to this checklist, please submit both a red-lined copy showing changes made as well as a clean final version signed by all parties. Do not submit an addendum in lieu of a full amended settlement agreement including all operative settlement terms.  The Court requests that any revised Settlement and any revised Notice be submitted in three formats: (1) a clean version signed by all parties, (2) a redlined version highlighting changes made from the current Settlement and Notice (filed April 1, 2025), and (3) a redlined version highlighting changes made from the Model Class Action and PAGA Settlement Agreement and Notice on the L.A. Superior Court website.

Please modify the Class Notice to match any alterations to the Settlement Agreement and also submit a clean and redlined version of the Class Notice highlighting any changes made from the current Notice (filed April 1, 2025).

Counsel must file and serve text searchable supplemental documents correcting the above issues no later than July 22, 2025.

Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Approval is CONTINUED to the Court’s first available date of August 7, 2025 at 10:00 a.m., Department 9.

Plaintiff is ordered to give notice of this order and file proof of service of such.