Luis H. Oliva Paiz v. Voxelmaps Inc.

Background

Luis H. Oliva Paiz, a former Voxelmaps employee, filed a putative wage-and-hour class action in Santa Clara County Superior Court on behalf of certain hourly or non-exempt Voxelmaps employees in California. Voxelmaps removed the case to federal court under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332, 1441, and 1446, asserting diversity jurisdiction. Diversity jurisdiction requires that opposing parties be citizens of different states and that the amount in controversy exceed $75,000.

Paiz moved to remand, arguing that the federal court lacked jurisdiction. The court stated that Voxelmaps, as the party that removed the case, had the burden of showing that the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000.

Amount-in-Controversy Analysis

Voxelmaps estimated the amount in controversy at $115,733.33. Its estimate included $9,200 for unpaid minimum and overtime wages, $8,000 for meal and rest break penalties, $2,000 for unreimbursed business expenses, $23,250 for wage-statement penalties, $4,800 for waiting-time penalties, $39,550 in Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) penalties, and $28,933 in attorneys’ fees.

The court accepted, for purposes of the motion, Voxelmaps’s assumption that Paiz worked 200 shifts over 20 pay periods. It nevertheless found that several other assumptions were unsupported or unreasonable:

- Unpaid wages: The court included $6,000 for unpaid overtime wages. It rejected Voxelmaps’s separate $3,200 estimate for unpaid minimum wages because the estimates improperly double-counted the alleged violation. - Meal and rest breaks: The court applied a 20% violation rate rather than Voxelmaps’s assumed 100% rate, resulting in $1,600 for these claims. - Business expenses: The court excluded Voxelmaps’s estimate of $2,000 because Voxelmaps provided no facts or legal authority supporting its assumption that Paiz incurred $100 in unreimbursed expenses per pay period. - Wage statements: The court reduced the estimate to $1,950, the maximum statutory amount based on 20 pay periods, rather than the $4,000 assumed by Voxelmaps. - PAGA penalties: The court reduced the estimate from $39,550 to $30,950. It excluded penalties for waiting-time violations because a 2024 amendment to PAGA barred an aggrieved employee from collecting civil penalties for violations of California Labor Code sections 201, 202, and 203. It also excluded penalties tied to business expenses and reduced the calculation to avoid counting both minimum-wage and overtime violations where the complaint alleged that Paiz was paid below the minimum overtime wage. The court accepted the wage-statement penalty calculation. - Attorneys’ fees: The court excluded Voxelmaps’s $28,933 estimate. Voxelmaps had based that estimate on a one-third common-fund fee model used in other class-action settlements. The court explained that any fees on Paiz’s individual claims would instead be calculated under California fee-shifting statutes using the lodestar method, which generally multiplies reasonable hours by a reasonable hourly rate. Voxelmaps provided no evidence supporting a lodestar calculation.

Ruling

The court calculated the remaining amount in controversy as $40,500: $6,000 in unpaid overtime wages, $1,600 in meal and rest break premiums, $1,950 in wage-statement penalties, and $30,950 in PAGA penalties. Because that amount was below $75,000, the court held that Voxelmaps had not established federal diversity jurisdiction.

The court granted Paiz’s request for remand by ordering that the case be remanded to Santa Clara County Superior Court. The order addressed federal jurisdiction and the amount in controversy; it did not decide the merits of Paiz’s wage-and-hour claims.