On Monday morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc. and California Medical Association v. Aetna Health of California, Inc. (Briefs here; oral argument videos here (see also here) and here.) Ten amicus curiae briefs were filed in each case.
These will be the fourth and fifth opinions in the nine cases argued in early-May. Three of the remaining cases should be decided by August 7. Because of post-argument briefing, the opinion in the other case — People v. Martinez — isn’t due until August 28.
In the much-watched Adolph case, the court court granted review in July 2022 and it later limited the issue to: “Whether an aggrieved employee who has been compelled to arbitrate claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) that are ‘premised on Labor Code violations actually sustained by’ the aggrieved employee (Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana (2022) 596 U.S. __, __ [142 S.Ct. 1906, 1916] (Viking River Cruises); see Lab. Code, §§ 2698, 2699, subd. (a)) maintains statutory standing to pursue ‘PAGA claims arising out of events involving other employees’ (Viking River Cruises, at p. __ [142 S.Ct. at p. 1916]) in court or in any other forum the parties agree is suitable.”
The CMA opinion is expected to answer these questions: (1) Does an organization that expends resources and diverts them from other activities in order to counteract a defendant’s allegedly unfair competition practices satisfy the requirement of injury in fact or lost money or property in order to have standing to bring an action under the Unfair Competition Law (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et seq.)? (2) Does organizational standing depend on whether the organization has members who are also injured by the practices and who would also benefit from the requested relief? CMA is seeking to challenge a health insurer’s policy restricting or eliminating patient referrals by in-network physicians to out-of-network physicians. The court granted review in July 2021.
The opinions can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.