Lab. Code 1164.9 is unconstitutional in attempting to deprive superior courts of jurisdiction to review ALRB decisions arising from the mandatory mediation and conciliation process required by the Labor Code in agricultural labor disputes. Cal. Const. VI, section 10 provides that superior courts have original jurisdiction of all cases apart from extraordinary writ and habeas corpus proceedings in which they share original jurisdiction with the appellate courts. The Legislature may not strip the superior courts of that original jurisdiction unless expressly or impliedly authorized to do so by some other constitutional provision. No such constitutional provision authorizes section 1164.9. Although in Tex-Cal Land Management, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. (1979) 24 Cal.3d 335, the Supreme Court upheld Lab. Code 1160.8 (which grants Courts of Appeal original jurisdiction by petition for a writ of mandate to review some ALRB decisions), it did so by finding that the granted jurisdiction was essentially identical to the constitutionally conferred extraordinary writ jurisdiction. Also, section 1160.8 did not purport to strip superior courts of jurisdiction as section 1164.9 does, and so Tex-Cal did not consider the constitutionality of such a provision.
California Court of Appeal, Fifth District (Kane, J.); May 9, 2016 (partial publication); 2016 WL 2732128