Northern California Daily Digest

Here are some other cases in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Ulin v. Lovell's Antique Gallery is a wage/hour dispute between Mr. Ulin and his employer.  Mr. Ulin argued that he worked ten hours a day and six days a week for $65-$75 a day in violation of various California wage and hour regulations (he had no breaks, overtime compensation, etc.) including that he did not receive pay stubs.  His employer argues that he worked seven hours a day five days a week for a salary and was not authorized to work overtime.  After the suit began the employer learned that Mr. Ulin submitted false work documents and it now argues that this should prevent him from recovering at all. Magistrate Elizabeth D. LaPorte was not willing to write off Mr. Ulin's earned wage claim because of his immigration status, but she was willing to rule that notes written on a piece of paper did not comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act requirement for pay statements.  She otherwise denied the motion for summary judgment.

In Zamora v. Astrue, Ms. Zamora seeks Social Security Disability Insurance for chronic lower back pain she contracted while working at Costco.  This caused her to obtain attention decencies which Ms. Zamora argues precluded her from finding any work in the national economy.  The Commissioner disagreed stating that she was able to pay attention for two hours at a time and could find work in the national economy.  Ms. Zamora argued that her treating physician described her limitations and that this should indicate she is incapable of working.  Judge Jeffery S. White, disagreed stating that the Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) opinion that she was capable of "light work" encompassed the physician's findings.  He granted summary judgment to the commissioner.

Miller v. Facebook is a copyright infringement lawsuit where the plaintiff is having difficulty finding Yao Wei Yeo and serving him with process. In May, the Court ordered Mr. Miller to serve Yeo by the end of July or face dismissal.  That hadn't happened and Facebook moved to dismiss for lack of prosecution.  However, Mr. Miller provided a pile of subpoenas stating that it found the address for Mr. Yeo's phone bill was a UPS store in New York.  Miller served a copy of the complaint and summons to that address which were signed for by an employee pursuant to a Master Service Agreement which gave the UPS store authority to sign for letters.  Judge William Alsup stated that was sufficient for service in California and denied the motion to dismiss.