A Los Angeles judge has kept most of a former Dodgers 401(k) plan auditor's lawsuit in play, refusing on Tuesday to toss key claims in a fee dispute worth nearly $200,000. The court did cut one claim from the lineup and gave the auditor a short window to fix it.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu overruled the Dodgers' challenge to claims for breach of an oral contract, quantum meruit and promissory estoppel, but found that a common-count claim was too thin on facts and ordered the plaintiff to file an amended complaint within 20 days, according to MyNewsLA. The suit grows out of work the auditor says she did to help with a U.S. Department of Labor review of the Dodgers' 401(k) plan, and the complaint claims she was promised separate hourly pay for that project. For now, the ruling keeps the core payment and unjust-enrichment theories alive while the parties sort out timing and pleading details.
What a DOL Review Can Mean
Federal reviews of retirement plans by the U.S. Department of Labor are meant to safeguard participants and can involve subpoenas, document digs and follow-up enforcement if regulators see problems. These inquiries are handled by the agency's Plan Benefits Security Division and often shape later private lawsuits because they can generate records and findings that plaintiffs rely on, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Younger’s Account And The Money At Issue
The complaint says CPA Vivian Younger served as the Dodgers' external 401(k) plan auditor from 2004 through 2021, performing 17 annual audits before she was separately retained by the club's human-resources chief to assist with the DOL review at an agreed hourly rate. Filed last July, the suit seeks $192,065 plus interest and alleges Younger submitted invoices in mid 2023, was abruptly terminated in June 2023, turned down a $100,000 offer in September 2024 and has suffered "significant financial harm" because the team has not fully paid her, as reported by MyNewsLA.
Legal Road Map
A practical problem for Younger is timing. In California, lawsuits based on oral contracts are generally subject to a two year statute of limitations unless a specific exception applies. The judge's invitation to amend gives her a chance to spell out why she believes the breach claim is timely and to add the factual detail the court said was missing before discovery kicks off, in line with guidance on limitation rules from California Courts.
Next up, Younger has 20 days to file an amended complaint, after which the Dodgers can either attack the revised pleading again or let the case move into discovery. The order does not decide who is right, it simply clears an early procedural hurdle and sets up a more focused fight over whether the promised hourly work was actually owed and properly billed.
