In Castaneda v. The Ensign Group, Inc., the Court held that where a corporation with no employees, owned a corporation with employees, and defendant with no employees exercised some control over the corporation with employees, triable issues of fact existed as to whether defendant was the employer of plaintiff, who worked for the subsidiary and who alleged he wasn’t paid minimum and overtime wages. There, the plaintiff sued Ensign alleging wage/hour violations. He alleged that Ensign was the alter ego of Cabrillo Rehabilitation and Care Center, the nursing facility where he worked. The trial court granted summary judgment for Ensign, holding that it was not Castaneda’s employer, as a matter of law. The Court of Appeal reversed, holding there was a triable issue of fact as to whether Ensign was his joint employer due to various facts, including but not limited to the fact that Ensign was the sole shareholder, they shared the same corporate address and corporate officers, they shared numerous services (e.g. accounting, legal, risk management, payroll etc.), Ensign supervised/controlled Cabrillo employees, trained them, and handled discipline of them.

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