Top Appellate Reversal: Fowler Packing Company Inc. v. Lanier

In December a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel sided with two California farming companies, plaintiffs Fowler Packing Company and Gerawan Farming Inc., in finding that a portion of a one-year-old law, Assembly Bill 1513, helps the United Farmworkers of America union and hurts companies, with little regard to public interest.

Judge Ronald M. Gould ruled 3-0 that in response to recent state appellate court decisions that exposed employers to significant and unexpected minimum wage liability and the state passing AB 1513, the law created a "safe harbor" that gave employers affirmative defense against new claims so long as the employer made back payments under certain conditions. In that, the state violated the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause in enforcing a carve-out provision of AB 1513.

The winning firm for the plaintiffs, Irell & Manella LLP, found that it was fairly rare that an equal protection challenge could succeed against legislation.

"I think it's an important affirmation of the constitutional safeguard against the arbitrary exclusion under equal protection of the law, whether targeting based on nationality, race or political retribution," said David A. Schwarz, partner at the firm, who represented the plaintiffs along with attorney Michael D. Harbour. "And the court concluded it could not find a plausible legitimate basis, only that it was a concession to United Farmworkers in support of the law."

Deputy Attorney General Thomas M. Patton, who represented the defense in the case, declined to comment but supplied the 43-page petition for a rehearing.

"The court's observation was that legislators may not draw lines for purposes of arbitrarily excluding individuals, which is what they did," Schwarz added. "I think it is an important message from the courts to the state's legislature and one we're happy reaffirms the concept of equal protection."

— Matthew Sanderson