Newspaper Carriers Get Mixed Result in Employee Misclassification Lawsuit

A group of newspaper carriers was misclassified as independent contractors, but the damage award they won in an employee misclassification lawsuit must be recalculated, according to a California appellate court.

The court ordered the recalculation of over $3 million in damages and $1.7 million in interest in the employee misclassification lawsuit. According to the appellate court, the damage award failed to account for reimbursements that the newspaper carriers already received from defendant The Copley Press, which published the San Diego Union-Tribune.

While the final damage amount is yet to be determined, the appeals court upheld the allegations of that the newspaper company had misclassified employees as independent contractors and are therefore entitled to the legal protections that employees get.

Plaintiffs in the employee misclassification lawsuit alleged that The Copley Press had failed to honor some of their legal rights as employees. They alleged the defendant failed to reimburse them for business expenses like mileage and failed to provide accurate and timely wage statements.

In the trial court, the judge of the San Diego court had found the newspaper carriers were owed restitution for on the job related expenses, in which the company allegedly tried to use misclassification to avoid paying. The presiding judge cited numerous pieces of evidence to uphold the decision, including the employment nature of the carriers.

However, the panel of the court of appeals partially reversed the ruling, after finding the original $3 million award to be inaccurate. The jury panel stated the initial award dd not reflect whether or not the lower court had taken the plaintiffs’ “limited success” into account, as the lower court had previously partially dismissed some of the claims.

Overview of Employee Misclassification Lawsuit

The employee misclassification lawsuit dates back to January 2009, when a group of newspaper carriers had filed a putative class action lawsuit claiming the publisher had misclassified carriers as independent contractors. The Union-Tribune allegedly did this to avoid paying the carriers reimbursement for mileage on their cars and other business related expenses.

The court had granted class certification in September 2011, after finding that numerous carriers shared similar allegations. In December 2013, the court found the carriers to be employees and not independent contractors.

Final judgment was issued in June 2014 in the amount of $3.1 million for the carriers’ business expenses. The judgment had also included prejudgement interest of $1.7 million.

The newspaper had appealed the amount, stating it had already reimbursed carriers for business related expenses. The appeals court noted that the total amounts of reimbursements were documented in the same evidence used to calculate the original damage award.

This Employee Misclassification Lawsuit is Liliana Espejo, et al. v. The Copley Press Inc., Case No. D065397, in the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One.

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