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Voris v. Lampert

Supreme Court of California · 2019 · Published opinion (PDF)

Summary for general education only—not legal advice. This is not a Workplace Rights Advocacy case result. See Case Results for the firm’s own verdicts and settlements.

Voris v. Lampert (2019) 7 Cal.5th 1141 is a California Supreme Court decision about whether unpaid wages can be sued as the tort of conversion. Brett Voris worked for a little more than a year with Greg Lampert to launch three start-ups, partly for a promise of later wages and stock. After Voris raised concerns about the companies’ finances, he was fired and was not paid what he was owed. He sued the companies and won on contract and statutory wage claims, including conversion of stock. He then tried to hold Lampert personally liable for the unpaid wages on the theory that failing to pay them was conversion of his property. Justice Kruger wrote for the Court, joined by Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Chin, Corrigan, and Groban. The Court affirmed the Court of Appeal: that conversion claim is not cognizable. Justice Cuéllar dissented, joined by Justice Liu.

Conversion is the wrongful exercise of dominion over someone else’s property. For money, it requires interference with a specific, identifiable sum the plaintiff already has a right to possess, such as commingled commissions, consignment proceeds, or funds held for someone else. A simple failure to pay money owed is not conversion. Unpaid wages, the Court held, are a debt: the employer failed to reach into its own funds to pay what it owes. That is different from taking a pot of money that already belongs to the employee. The label “wages” does not control. The Court said conversion can still apply in a different situation, for example if the employer pays the wages and then takes the money back out of the employee’s account, or diverts amounts withheld from pay away from their intended purpose, such as a retirement contribution or a health-insurance premium.

In plain English: you can still sue for unpaid wages. The Labor Code requires prompt payment, including Labor Code § 201 when employment ends, and § 203 waiting-time penalties when that payment is late. Contract and statutory wage claims remain. What you generally cannot do is recast the unpaid paycheck itself as conversion in order to add tort damages or to reach an individual without piercing the corporate veil. The dissent would have allowed that conversion claim, treating earned wages as the worker’s property. The majority left any further remedy to the Legislature. Related practice pages: wage theft, wage and hour, and PAGA.

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