Case warrants second look at staffing agency contracts, settlement agreements

A nurse who sued her staffing agency for wage and hour violations filed a second lawsuit for the same violations against the hospital to which she was temporarily assigned. The staffing agency intervened in the second lawsuit, arguing the hospital couldn't be sued because it was a party in "privity" and had been released from liability in the settlement agreement. The court of appeal disagreed and allowed the second lawsuit to continue. That ruling is completely at odds with another recent ruling by a different court of appeal.

Court says employees can sue alleged joint employers separately

In February 2012, Lynn Grande was assigned by her staffing agency, FlexCare LLC, to work as a nurse at Eisenhower Medical Center. She worked at Eisenhower for a total of nine days. After her assignment ended, she joined in a purported class action filed against FlexCare by other nonexempt nursing staff in Santa Barbara County.

The matter was settled in January 2014, and Grande was paid more than $20,000 in exchange for signing a settlement agreement and releasing all claims. However, the settlement didn't release Eisenhower or any other FlexCare client by name, nor did it release the category of clients that included Eisenhower. Then, in December 2015, Grande filed a second putative class action in Riverside County Superior Court, this time bringing claims against Eisenhower. In the new case, Grande purported to represent all nurses employed by any staffing agency who were assigned to work specifically at Eisenhower—a different definition of class member than the one that was used in the Santa Barbara action.