Review Granted

Solus Industrial Innovations v. Superior Court (People), S217651—Review Granted and Transferred to CA 4/3—June 18, 2014

Two factory workers were instantly killed when a water heater exploded in the defendant’s manufacturing facility. After the Division of Occupational Safety and Health determined the explosion had been caused by the defendant’s failure to provide a proper safety valve, the district attorney filed a civil action against that included a request for civil penalties. The question presented is “whether federal law preempts the effort by a district attorney to recover civil penalties under California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) (Bus. & Prof. Code, §17200 et seq.) based on an employer’s alleged violation of workplace safety standards.”

The district attorney argued California retains significant discretion to determine how it will enforce its safety standards on the grounds that California’s workplace safety plan has been approved by the U.S. Secretary of Labor (the Secretary).  Accordingly, California “may empower prosecutors to enforce those standards through whatever legal mechanism is available when such a case is referred to them.”  The trial court concurred and overruled the defendant’s demurrer.

In a published opinion, Solus Industrial Innovations, LLC v. Superior Court (2014) 224 Cal.App.4th 17, the Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Three, vacated the trial court’s order and directed it to sustain the defendant’s demurrer without leave to amend. The court reasoned that “because the [federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. §651 et seq)] “allows a state to avoid federal preemption only if it obtains federal approval of its own plan, it necessarily follows that a state has no authority to enact and enforce laws governing workplace safety which fall outside of that approved plan.” Accordingly, the Court of Appeal reasoned, since “California’s workplace safety plan, as approved by the Secretary, does not include any provision for civil enforcement of workplace safety standards by a prosecutor through a cause of action for penalties under the UCL,” it is preempted by federal law.

The Supreme Court granted review and transferred the matter to the Court of Appeal “with directions to reconsider the matter in light of Statutes 1972, chapter 1084, pp. 2020-2021.”

Review Denied (with dissenting justices)

None.

Depublished

None.