When a proposed class action has been denied class certification because of variation in the amount of work between two managers in the same job, can the difference between the two managers be extrapolated to others?

Even in cases where a proposed class shares a single job title, courts have affirmed class certification denials when variation within the duties cause individual issues to predominate. Dunbar v. Albertson's, Inc. (2006) 141 Cal.App.4th 1422 (Dunbar) is instructive. A grocery store manager brought a putative class action on the theory that the defendant grocery store erroneously classified him and other store managers as exempt employees and unlawfully withheld overtime pay. (Id. at p. 1424.) On appeal from the denial of class certification, plaintiff argued that determining whether the class members were exempt from overtime could be accomplished by a common inquiry of tasks completed by exemplar managers that could then be extrapolated to other class members. The appellate court affirmed the denial of class certification, because substantial evidence supported the conclusion that "findings as to one grocery manager could not reasonably be extrapolated to others given the variation in their work." (Id. at pp. 1431-1432.)