Vargas V. Municipal Court For Riverside Judicial District Of Riverside County

The controversy in this case arises out of the overlapping jurisdiction of municipal courts and the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) in instances in which an employer seeks to evict an employee from company-owned housing in the midst of an agricultural labor dispute. Both the employer-landlord and the employee-tenants agree that under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA), the ALRB has been assigned the principal task of regulating labor disputes in the agricultural realm, and both parties acknowledge that in light of the ALRB's role there is a need for some modification of the municipal court's traditional adjudication of unlawful detainer actions when such actions emanate from agricultural labor disputes. Not surprisingly, however, the parties do not agree upon the nature of the accommodation that is appropriate in these circumstances.