Facts

Plaintiff Mark Gabriele filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of other similarly situated individuals against Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, Service Employees International Union, Local 1020, the National Education Association of the United States, the California Teachers Association and the California Faculty Association claiming that defendants violated their First Amendment rights. Plaintiffs claimed that defendants unlawfully deducted agency fees from their paychecks prior to the decision rendered by the Supreme Court in "Janus v. American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, Council 31," where the court ruled that payment to a union cannot be collected from a non-member employee without the employee's consent.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs contended that defendants violated plaintiffs' First Amendment rights and that defendants' deduction of agency fees from plaintiffs' paychecks was unconstitutional. Thus, plaintiffs' further contended that the agency should refund the agency fees collected and apply the ruling in "Janus" retroactively.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant denied plaintiffs' contentions.

Result

The court first held that the case was misjoined, and dismissed the claims of those plaintiffs suing defendants Service Employees International Union, Local 1020, the National Education Association of the United States, the California Teachers Association and the California Faculty Association. This left only the claims brought by plaintiffs Mark Gabriele and Jen-Fang Lee against defendant SEIU Local 1000. Subsequently, the court granted defendant's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint without leave to amend and entered final judgment in favor of defendant SEIU Local 1000.