LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – A California city is facing a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of the area's hotel owners and managers who seek an injunction of a city ordinance that sets limits on the amount of square footage that hotel employees can be required to clean in one shift.
Columbia Sussex Management LLC, individually and on behalf of all other hotel owners and managers operating hotels in Santa Monica, California, filed a complaint Nov. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeking declaratory relief.
Columbia Sussex Management claims in its suit that a Santa Monica ordinance passed on Sept. 27 is preempted by federal and state law and would cause higher administrative costs that will be passed on to clientele. The ordinance limits the square footage hotel employees can be required to clean in an eight-hour workday and requires them to be paid twice the regular rate of pay for all work that day, according to the complaint.
Columbia seeks injunctive relief, monetary and all other just relief. It is represented by Peter Maretz and Jamie Santos of Stokes Wagner ALC in San Diego and Diana Lerma of Stokes Wagner ALC in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California case number 2:19-cv-09991