State Building and Construction Trades Council v. City of Vista
California Supreme Court
279 P.3d 1022 (2012)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
The City of Vista (defendant), a charter city, signed a contract for the construction of public buildings. The contract did not state that the construction workers must be paid in accordance with California’s prevailing-wage law. This law required that construction workers building public buildings be paid a certain minimum wage to be established by the state. The State Building and Construction Trades Council (the union) (plaintiff) sued the city seeking a peremptory writ of mandate requiring the city to pay the construction workers in accordance with the prevailing-wage law. The city argued that the California Constitution stated that charter-city ordinances dealing with municipal affairs prevailed over state law. The court of appeal ruled in favor of the city. The union appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kennard, J.)
Dissent (Liu, J.)
Dissent (Werdegar, J.)
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