Delaware Court Declines To Apply California Labor Code Despite California Choice Of Law

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Keith Paul Bishop

Do California Labor Code provisions governing employees apply to persons performing work outside of California?  What if that work is performed pursuant to an agreement that includes the following provisions?

"The Parties shall comply with all laws and regulations applicable to their respective performance of this Agreement."

"This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without regard to that state's conflicts of law principles."

In Tressa v. CareFusion Sols., LLC, 2018 Del. Super. LEXIS 123, the Delaware Superior Court ruled that a choice-of-law clause alone is insufficient to permit Plaintiffs a cause of action under the California Labor Code.  The plaintiffs, however, are not entirely without a case because the Court later ruled that they had adequately alleged a quasi-contractual claim.  Ward v. CareFusion Sols., LLC, 2018 Del. Super. LEXIS 1557. 

The decision in Tressa is not binding on a California court and we will have to wait to find out whether a California court would take a different view.

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