Harris v. KM Indus., Inc., 980 F.3d 694 (9th Cir. 2020)
KM Industrial removed from state to federal court the putative wage/hour class action under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), asserting that the amount in controversy exceeded $5 million. Plaintiff’s motion to remand was based on the argument that KMI unreasonably assumed that the hourly employee class members missed meal and rest periods in each of the workweeks at issue in the case – i.e., that all members of the hourly employee class also were members of the two subclasses (the meal period sub-class and the rest period sub-class). Since KMI failed to establish that all members of the hourly employee class worked shifts that were long enough to make them eligible for meal and/or rest periods, it failed to meet its burden to produce evidence supporting its assertion that the amount in controversy exceeded $5 million. Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s remand order in a 2-1 ruling.