Bohemian Club dismissed as defendant in wage-theft lawsuit

The Bohemian Club and a payroll subcontractor have been dismissed from a wage-theft lawsuit filed last June, with a federal judge ruling that the private club that runs the annual Bohemian Grove events near Monte Rio doesn’t fit the legal definition of an employer.

“Plaintiffs have failed to allege sufficient facts to establish joint employer liability against either Bohemian Club or (payroll company) Pomella,” U.S. District Judge Areceli Martínez-Olguín wrote Friday in her order to dismiss.

Martínez-Olguín left open an option for the workers — Anthony Gregg, Shawn Granger and Wallid Saad — to file an amended complaint listing only Monastery Camp, one of the most prestigious of the 100-plus “gentlemen’s associations” at Bohemian Grove, as a defendant.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Anthony Nunes, plans to move forward with that amendment while simultaneously appealing Martínez-Olguín’s decision. The judge’s ruling, he said, baffled him.

“The club had unilateral, executive power to hire and fire,” he said. “And all three of my clients filed declarations describing either how they were threatened with being fired, in the case of plaintiff Gregg, or heard about other employees being fired for violations — not by the camps, but by the club itself.”

Gregg, Granger and Saad allege they were paid less than minimum wage while working for Monastery Camp at Bohemian Grove, including during the all-male summer encampments that include heads of state and financial moguls.

Gregg, Granger and Saad worked as valets, providing guests with food, drinks and hospitality services. The three said they sometimes worked seven days a week and 15-plus hours a day, but were directed to falsify time cards to show 40-hour workweeks.

Bohemian Club and its partners agreed to pay the remainder of what was owed, the trio alleged, but never fully followed through. The three also accused the Bohemian Club, Pomella and Monastery Camp of failing to maintain accurate employment records.

Bohemian Club, based in San Francisco, maintained from the start that it should not be attached to the case.

“The club reviewed the allegations and it was clear the claims were brought by individuals who were never employed by the Bohemian Club and therefore the club should not have been a party to this action,” a spokesperson, Sam Singer, said in an email Wednesday. “The club believes these individuals know full well they did not work for the club and that their failed lawsuit was an transparent attempt to drag the club into their individual circumstances.”

Pomella LLC echoed those sentiments in its statement praising the judge’s decision.

“Frankly, we were surprised Plaintiffs included Pomella in the lawsuit at all, given that Pomella did not control the conditions of their employment and that Plaintiffs alleged they intentionally deceived Pomella, as payroll processor, about the hours they worked and concealed labor violations from us,” the company said through a legal representative, Katzoff & Riggs.

Martínez-Olguín acknowledged the valets’ claim that Bohemian Club establishes a dress code and prohibits cellphone usage and accepting tips at the camps. But she ultimately decided Nunes failed to show Bohemian Club or Pomella was a “joint employer” with direct ability to hire and fire the Monastery Camp valets, or to supervise their work.

In the wake of the ruling, Nunes intends to add two new defendants to the case, whom he identified as Monastery Camp captains.

That’s because “Monastery Camp is not incorporated as a business. They have a checking account with a P.O. box in Tiburon, but there is no legal entity that admits it is Monastery Camp. So we’re worried that if we’re not given leave to add individual defendants, Monastery Camp can simply disappear and there will be no entity to hold liable,” Nunes explained.

Attempts to reach a Monastery Camp representative were not immediately successful.

Guests at Bohemian Grove have included every Republican president from Herbert Hoover to George H.W. Bush; U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz; and conservative political donors Charles and James Koch.

Supporters describe it as a casual opportunity for busy men to unwind in the wilderness and soak in music and other arts. Critics object to the Bohemian Club’s exclusion of women, to its esoteric rituals and to what they perceive as campfire collaboration on important financial and political matters.

This is not the first time the club has been the subject of a class-action complaint over wages. It settled one, which eventually included more than 600 plaintiffs, for $7 million in 2016.

Nunes says Bohemian Club’s complicated structure has placed employees in a tricky situation. “My clients are in this limbo, where no one is willing to claim they are the employer,” the lawyer said. “They were never issued a 1099 form from any employer. No one has claimed they’re independent contractors. Everyone agrees they’re employees, but no one has stated they are their employees.”

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.