California Supreme Court Says Neither Party Gets Attorney's Fees In Meal And Rest Period Suit

On Monday, the California Supreme Court held in Kirby v. Immoos Fire Protection, Inc. that neither plaintiffs nor defendants can recover attorney's fees in meal or rest break cases under statutes that provide attorney's fees in actions to recover "wages." The decision is largely favorable to employers as it decreases incentives for plaintiffs' lawyers to bring meal and rest period suits and lowers employers' potential exposure in such suits. Nonetheless, because prevailing party fees are not available to either party, employers cannot recover fees in meal and rest period cases, which may make it more difficult to combat some frivolous meal and rest period suits.

The California Supreme Court had previously held that the remedy for failing to provide a meal or rest break (an hour of pay) constitutes a "wage" rather than a "penalty" for purposes of triggering a longer statute of limitations. Thus, the argument went that meal and rest period cases qualified for attorney's fee awards as they were actions to recover wages. In Kirby, however, the Supreme Court finely parsed the attorney's fee statutes and held that, while the remedy for meal and rest break claims was a wage, the action itself was an action for a failure to provide a meal and rest period as opposed to an action to recover wages. Under this interpretation, meal and rest break claims do not qualify for recovery of attorney's fees under the statutes at issue.

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