In re United Parcel Service
Plaintiff and appellant Oscar Ellis brought an action against his former employer, defendant and respondent United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), seeking recovery of unpaid overtime compensation, penalties for missed meal and rest periods and other related claims.[1] UPS moved for summary adjudication of its 17th affirmative defense based on the federal Motor Carrier Act, contending the federal law barred Ellis’s first cause of action for overtime compensation. Ellis concurrently filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings seeking to dispose of UPS’s 17th affirmative defense. The trial court denied Ellis’s motion and granted UPS’s motion. UPS then moved for summary judgment on Ellis’s complaint. UPS’s primary contention was that, under state law, Ellis was a management-level employee, exempt from the overtime provisions and other benefits afforded nonexempt employees. The trial court granted UPS’s motion for summary judgment and entered judgment in its favor.
Ellis contends the court erred in concluding the federal Motor Carrier Act applied to bar his overtime claim, and that there were triable issues of material fact as to whether he was misclassified as an exempt executive or administrative employee under California law. We conclude the trial court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of UPS on the grounds Ellis was an exempt executive employee under state law and affirm on that basis. Therefore, we need not consider here, or add to, the considerable authority that Ellis’s overtime claims were barred by the federal Motor Carrier Act, nor do we consider his other claims of error. (Sutter Health Uninsured Pricing Cases (2009) 171 Cal.App.4th 495, 513; Coalition for L.A. County Planning etc. Interest v. Board of Supervisors (1977) 76 Cal.App.3d 241, 246.)
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