No class certification for film volunteer who wanted pay

The 2nd District Court of Appeal denied a plaintiff's motion for class certification against the American Film Institute in a dispute over compensation for volunteer work.

The appellate court agreed Friday with the ruling made in Los Angeles County Superior Court that "common issues would not predominate over individual ones" and "a volunteer for a nonprofit organization cannot be classified as an employee unless the worker expects some compensation ... This would splinter any potential class action into hundreds of individual trials." Woods v. American Film Institute, B307220, (2nd Dist. Ct. Appeal, filed Aug. 18, 2020).

The film institute was represented pro bono by Aileen M. McGrath, Jonathan P. Slowik and Victor A. Salcedo of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in San Francisco and Los Angeles and former Akin Gump partner Gary M. McLaughlin of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles.

Slowik said in an interview Tuesday, "We are pleased with the court of appeal's decision. We think it affirmed an important principle in California law that nonprofit organizations can accept help from volunteers who wish to donate their time."

The plaintiff, Laurie Woods worked as a volunteer for one of the American Film Institute's festivals and claimed the organization solicited thousands of volunteers "under the false pretense that volunteers will get to enjoy the event in exchange for their services."

Her attorneys, Chaim S. Setareh and Thomas A. Segal of Setareh Law Group in Beverly Hills, filed a putative class action alleging the American Film Institute, a nonprofit organization, does not qualify to have unpaid volunteers as it is not a religious or charitable organization that helps the needy or suffering.

According to the Friday appellate ruling, the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied class certification because it lacked commonality. The trial court also said under the plaintiff's interpretation of the law, "volunteerism in California would grind to a halt overnight."

The proposed class was every person who worked at the AFI Festival and did not receive payment, regardless of their expectations.

California law allows nonprofit organizations to accept help from people who choose to donate their time. The ruling said none of the volunteers who testified were paid, "and none testified that they expected payment."

"Determining whether any particular class members expected compensation would therefore require separate, individual mini-trials," the appellate court said. "The court also found that whether AFI had an unlawful meal and rest break policy that it uniformly applied to its workers could not be determined through common proof. ... Thus, if the case were to proceed as a class action, the trier of fact would need to decide whether each class member expected to be paid or was in fact a volunteer."

Attorneys for the plaintiff were on vacation and could not be reached for comment.