SAN JOSE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – A lawsuit alleging Walmart failed to offer its cashiers somewhere to sit will be on hold for a little while.
Judge Edward Davila on Jan. 7 granted Walmart’s motion for a stay of a lawsuit brought by Barbara Waters and others that claims the company is supposed to be offering chairs to cashiers as the result of a settlement in a separate case.
In that case, plaintiffs have filed a motion for sanctions against Walmart for not complying with the settlement. While that is worked out, the separate lawsuit, in San Jose, Calif., federal court, will wait.
“(I)f the court does not grant a stay, Walmart will be forced to litigate challenges to its compliance with the Brown settlement agreement in two largely duplicative but separate actions,” Davila wrote.
“Proceeding with this litigation also threatens to interfere with the orderly course of justice.”
The 2018 settlement, worth $65 million, drew concerns from Judge Edward Davila, who worried about the vague language of a pilot seating program. The final iteration of the settlement imposed a duty on Walmart to provide seats near checkout lines for cashiers rather than only provide them upon request, the new lawsuit says.
“Walmart, however, never intended to implement or maintain the Seating Program,” it says.
“This was intentionally concealed from the Court, Class Counsel, the Class, the LWDA, and future cashiers. No one had reason to believe that Walmart would have the brass to ignore a federal court judgment.”
Investigators for plaintiffs lawyers visited 45 Walmarts and found that only 21 of 199 traditional cashiers were seated. Of the 82 cashiers monitoring self-checkout lines, only two were seated and only eight seats were made available.
Walmart’s lawyers say the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit can’t support their claim under California’s Private Attorneys General Act.