On September 9, 2009, the California Supreme Court declined to review an appellate court order reversing an $86 million trial award against Starbucks. As discussed in detail in our earlier blog entry, in Jou Chau v. Starbucks Corporation, the court of appeal reversed the trial court's award to a certified class of Starbucks "baristas" who had challenged Starbucks’ tip policy on the ground that certain service employees, known as “shift supervisors,” had improperly shared in the customer tips left in a collective tip box. Since a denial of review by the California Supreme Court is done without comment, it is hard to predict what this means for other tip pooling cases. However, it is important to remember that the appellate court made a clear distinction between a collective tip box and service companies that pool tips. According to the appellate court, the Starbucks policy passed muster because (1) “shift supervisors” were part of the “team” of employees who provided service to the customers (along with baristas) and (2) a collective tip box was used.

 This blog entry was authored by Matthew Marca.