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The San Ramon Valley Unified School District is set to pay out a $190,000-plus settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by a former bus driver with the district, with the case that was initiated years ago over unpaid labor coming to a close as of last week.
Representatives for neither party in the lawsuit Murrell v SRVUSD appeared in for a hearing on the final approval of a class action and representative action settlement July 27 at the Contra Costa County Superior Court, meaning a tentative ruling issued ahead of the hearing goes into effect.
The ruling by Judge Charles S. Treat grants a motion by plaintiff Christopher Murrell to provide final approval for a class action and Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) lawsuit that he first brought against the district in 2019, marking an end to several years of litigation in the matter.
With final approval uncontested in the most recent hearing, SRVUSD is set to pay out a $193,470 settlement to Murrell and other former bus drivers in the district. Murrell is set to receive $5,000 plus $64,490 in attorney’s fees. The settlement administrator’s fee is set at $4,500, with PAGA penalties of $3,000 including a $2,250 payment to the state Labor and Workforce Development agency.
A majority of the settlement, however — approximately $105,826 — is set to be paid out to the estimated 76 members of the class represented in the lawsuit, amounting to an average payment of approximately $1,392 each.
“The proposed settlement will certify a class of all current and former non-exempt employees employed at defendants’ facilities as bus drivers or transportation vehicle drivers between April 24, 2016 and May 10, 2022,” Treat wrote in the final decision on July 27.
Murrell, a former bus driver with the district, initially filed the class action complaint for damages, restitution and injunctive relief with the county superior court in April 2019, alleging that SRVUSD failed to pay minimum wages to him and other bus drivers in the district, approximately six years after starting the job in 2013.
Specifically, Murrell alleged in the complaint that some requirements of the job — such as cleaning and maintaining vehicles, and time between driving on split-shifts, time to travel between work sites, and time spent traveling to acquire required certifications — amounted to unpaid labor by bus drivers in the district. The complaint defined the subclass in the settlement as SRVUSD drivers who were not paid minimum wages for all hours worked.
Following the years-long litigation process, Treat’s ruling favors Murrell and finds substance behind the allegations that the school district failed to pay bus drivers at a minimum wage for all hours worked, and contends with arguments from the district’s legal counsel that the issues raised by Murrell failed to identify a class of plaintiffs, and that they had adjusted the way in which drivers were paid as of 2020.
“Plaintiff’s counsel provides a reasonable and detailed analysis, showing that the settlement represents approximately 100% compensation for a reasonable estimate of the value of the claims,” Treat wrote in his final decision.
Given that the settlement is meant to make up for unpaid work, the amount paid out to each subclass member will depend on the amount of time worked prior to the district’s policy update in 2020.
“The individual payments will vary considerably, however, because of the allocation formula prorating payments according to the number of weeks worked during the relevant time,” Treat wrote.
Since Treat’s preliminary approval of Murrell’s motion ahead of the final approval last week, 76 current or former bus drivers with the district were sent out, none of whom objected to the complaint or elected to opt out. Those receiving funds from the settlement aren’t required to take any additional actions, with funds being disbursed based on the number of weeks they worked during the period between 2016 and 2022.
While the final decision by Treat is largely the same as the preliminary ruling issued ahead of last week’s hearing, the final decision solidifies the $5,000 payment to Murrell on the grounds that he took on additional risks to his reputation and future employment during the more than four years of litigation, which Treat estimated he spent hundreds of hours of work on.
Following the payment and disbursement of the settlement, Murrell and the district are subject to a compliance hearing through the court, with 5% of the awarded attorney’s fees being withheld by the settlement administrator until satisfactory compliance is determined by the court.
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In the past week, SRVUSD paid out $200,000 in lawsuits for special education and now another almost $200,000 for another management failure. Almost half a MILLION dollars wasted because the district management team even with its excessive bloat, still can’t function to the point of actually doing its job. The Trustees, particularly Board President Rachel Hurd, are an embarrassment for allowing this to happen without any accountability for management. But, this should be expected given that SRVUSD district management pays Rachel Hurd’s LeadershipSanRamonValley thousands of dollars every year.