In Shaw v. Superior Court, 78 Cal. App. 5th 245 (2022), the California Court of Appeal held that trial courts have discretion to apply the doctrine of exclusive concurrent jurisdiction to stay a later-filed PAGA action when there are two or more pending Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) actions arising from the same facts and theories.
On July 21, 2020, Plaintiff Ashley Shaw gave notice to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) that she intended to represent aggrieved employees of Beverages & More, Inc. (BevMo). Shaw subsequently filed a PAGA complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court, contending that as a result of BevMo’s “two persons in the store at all times” policy, BevMo had violated numerous provisions of the Labor Code. Over one year before Shaw filed her PAGA complaint, however, another plaintiff, Tatiana Paez, had filed a PAGA complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court against BevMo. The claims in Paez’s complaint overlapped with Shaw’s claims (with Paez’s complaint including several additional claims).
It was undisputed Shaw’s PAGA claims overlapped entirely with those in Paez, and BevMo moved to stay Shaw’s case under the doctrine of exclusive concurrent jurisdiction.
The trial court granted BevMo’s motion, rejecting Shaw’s argument that the doctrine does not apply in PAGA cases. Shaw then moved to lift the stay, arguing collateral estoppel is the appropriate mechanism to shield defendants from potential vexatious...
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