Sunny Acres tenants sue SLO ranch owner over jobs — alleging lack of pay, meal breaks
San Luis Obispo rancher Dan DeVaul is facing a second lawsuit after tenants recently filed a civil complaint against him alleging he has not paid them for significant amounts of work.
The complaint, filed by four plaintiffs in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on April 20, accuses DeVaul of forcing a “number of participants to work as DeVaul’s personal assistant or mechanics without compensation using skills they had when they arrived at Sunny Acres and not skills they learned at the ranch.”
In response, DeVaul, who’s 78 years old, told The Tribune that people are taking advantage of him as he advances in age — and that nobody is obligated to work for him or remain on his property.
DeVaul founded the nonprofit clean-and-sober living organization Sunny Acres in 2001, according to the organization’s website.
DeVaul currently sits on its seven-member board of directors, along with his son, James. The board also includes Sunny Acres tenants who live and work on site.
Separately, DeVaul is being sued by the county of San Luis Obispo, which contends he has failed to comply with an existing court order to maintain health and safety on the 72-acre site at 10660 Los Osos Valley Road.
That county lawsuit, filed April 5, alleges illegal dwellings, unpermitted grading and dirt fill, and plumbed water that exceeds nitrate standards, forcing residents to use bottled water for drinking.
The work-related lawsuit filed by four plaintiffs — J. Rodriguez, B. King, M. Wilson and M. Kracher — alleges loss of wages and seeks unspecified reimbursement, citing penalties and violations of unfair competition law.
First names of the plaintiffs were not specified in the complaint, which was filed on their behalf by lawyer Allen K. Hutkin.
“If participants in Sunny Acres’ recovery program, many who paid to participate in the program, refused to provide free labor for DeVaul, he threatened them with expulsion from the program and ranch,” the lawsuit states. “As such they were compelled to work for DeVaul without compensation.”
But DeVaul is firing back that the recovery and sober living program takes self-determination and work ethic, and not “sitting around watching television all day.”
“They’re in recovery,” he said. “You have to show an interest in what you’re doing.”
DeVaul added: “There’s no barbed wire on this place. If they didn’t like it, they could have left at any time.”
Lawsuit: Ranch owner violated labor law
Hutkin told The Tribune by phone that the lawsuit accuses DeVaul, as the property owner, of the labor violations and not the Sunny Acres program.
Hutkin said that worker duties included fixing up vehicles, bookkeeping and running errands for DeVaul, which were tasks that benefited DeVaul personally, not the Sunny Acres program.
Traditionally, Sunny Acres work has included selling Christmas trees and tending to chickens, Hutkin said. Program participants also grow pumpkins and sell firewood.
Hutkin said there was no written agreement that clarified the working arrangement and that violates California labor law.
“(DeVaul) did not pay plaintiffs minimum wage, for all hours worked, for correct overtime pay, and/or missed breaks,” the lawsuit alleged.
Work exceeded eight hours per day and more than 40 hours in a week without overtime compensation, a violation of California labor law, according to the claim.
The suit alleges DeVaul failed to provide full 30-minute meal periods for each workday in excess of five hours (or two meal breaks in excess of 10 hours) in violation with state law and didn’t pay them any money for their work or overtime compensation.
The lawsuit states the workers are “no longer employed by (DeVaul),” who throughout their tenure has “failed to maintain or furnish time records reflecting true hours that plaintiffs worked.”
The lawsuit added: “For this reason, for defendants’ conflicts of interest, and for defendants’ malfeasance, several Sunny Acres board members will soon be filing a separate action to remove Dan DeVaul and his son James DeVaul from Sunny Acres.”
Hutkin said the workers accumulated years of unpaid wages that total in the “tens of thousands of dollars.”
Sunny Acres founder responds to allegations
Denying the allegations Wednesday, DeVaul told The Tribune that the program and his operation on his ranch wasn’t a “work atmosphere” in the traditional sense.
When people arrive, they’re guided to work that suits them such as tending to animals or fixing cars so “everybody can feel good about what they’re doing,” DeVaul said.
“Some of them worked, some didn’t work,” DeVaul said. “And some of them like mechanics and stuff like that. They really got in and enjoyed it and messed around with antique cars and hot rods and all that kind of stuff.”
DeVaul added that Sunny Acres is not like other recovery programs and for that reason it has been “very successful.”
“Whether it was working on a hot rod or whether it was taking care of the cattle, it wasn’t like a job and depending on what they were accomplishing with what they were doing, I’d give them some money,” DeVaul said. “It was based on what would help their recovery, what they would like to do, and whether it worked out or not.”
DeVaul said that “You don’t cure everybody in a recovery. I mean, there are some people who get it and some people who don’t. There are all kinds of scenarios, but inwardly it’s how they accept it. And when they get to working and living a life, that’s what gets them on the road to recovery.”
DeVaul, who said one of the plaintiffs in the labor lawsuit, who he identified as Mike Kracher, hasn’t lived on the property in years.
Devaul said that this is the first time tenants have “turned on me like this” after many years.
“You’re working with somebody and they’re friends and compliment you on saving them from booze and forever thankful, then the next thing you know they are serving you papers,” DeVaul said.
Devaul said that Johnny Rodriguez, a plaintiff, ran the Sunny Acres program previously and did a “very good job.”
“I would compliment him weekly,” DeVaul said. “I was amazed at the job that he could do. And one day he said, ‘Dan, I don’t want you to ever talk to me again.’ I stood there blank. And I looked and basically that’s the last time we spoke.’
Rodriguez still lives on the property with two trailers, cars, dogs and chickens, DeVaul said.
DeVaul said it was take me “three years to evict him and he’s on free reign now until I sell the property or something.”
DeVaul said that the world has become more litigious and “it is the basic nature of people to turn on one another and I’m glad I don’t live that way.”
He added: “At my age and condition, I’m not going to be around much longer.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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