On December 14, 2021, the Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles approved a $2 million settlement, including $5000 to each Named Plaintiff, in Moore v. Department of State Hospitals, Case No. 19STCV16858. Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP, along with co-counsel from Rukin Hyland & Riggin LLP, brought Moore on behalf of a class of all patients civilly committed to the Department of State Hospitals (“DSH”) who performed work for DSH and who DSH paid less than the relevant California minimum wage. As alleged in the complaint, DSH had a policy and practice of having patient-workers perform work for DSH—primarily, cleaning floors, tables, bathrooms, and showers—and paying them less than California minimum wage, often as little as $1 per hour. The settlement class includes all patient-workers who performed such work and were paid less than minimum wage during the time period from March 29, 2018 to June 27, 2019.
The court’s order is here. A copy of the First Amended Complaint can be accessed here. On March 30, 2021, the Court granted a motion to preliminarily approve the proposed $2,000,000 settlement
Class members received their settlement payments in Spring 2022. On April 15, 2022 the Daily Journal listed the outcome as of of their weekly Top Verdicts and Settlements.