The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals changed its mind and decided to ask the California Supreme Court to decide whether the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision should be applied retroactively.

In April 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, where the court set a new standard for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The court declined to answer whether this new rule applied retroactively.

The Ninth Circuit initially concluded the new Dynamex standard did apply retroactively in its decision in Vasquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc., issued May 2. On July 22, the Ninth Circuit withdrew its opinion in Vasquez, deciding instead to certify the question to the California Supreme Court.

Once the question is certified to the California Supreme Court, the court has up to 90 days to decide whether to take the case.