The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on March 18, 2022, applying de novo review, affirmed the district court’s dismissal of plaintiff Cesar Moreno’s wrongful termination claims against his former employer, UtiliQuest, LLC, as preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Additionally, Moreno’s wage-and-hour claims were dismissed as preempted because of a class action settlement reached in California Superior Court, that Moreno did not opt out of, during the pendency of his appeal. The court held the state law claims raised by Moreno, including intentional misrepresentation, fraud and deceit, whistleblowing retaliation, and wrongful termination in violation of public policy, potentially implicated the NLRA sections 7 and 8, and were subject to Garmon preemption. San Diego Bldg. Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236 (1959).
Background
Moreno, who had the role of lead field technician at the time of his termination, alleged that UtiliQuest promised him that if he could convince all of his fellow coworkers to “sign away” their union rights, they would each receive a 10% raise. However, once Moreno obtained the signatures from his coworkers releasing their union rights, UtiliQuest provided only Moreno with a 10% raise, and did not give a raise to Moreno’s fellow employees. Moreno alleged he was terminated after confronting his supervisors about UtiliQuest’s failure to follow through on its promise. Moreno asserted multiple state law claims in connection...
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