Edgerton v. State Personnel Bd

In Edgerton v. State Personnel Bd. (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 1350, Division Four of this Court affirmed an award of attorneys fees to a union that obtained, among other things, an injunction prohibiting Caltrans from conducting off-duty drug testing. Although the union brought the action only on behalf of its own members, the court upheld the trial court's assessment that by establishing limits imposed on off-duty drug testing by the state constitutional right to privacy, the litigation benefited all employees subject to drug-testing. The court also found that the financial burden was disproportionate to the private interest of the union and its members, because they did not recover any pecuniary benefit, and the litigation "enforced the privacy rights of employees to be free from off-duty drug testing." (Id. at pp. 1362-1363.)