(DOWNLOAD) "Obrien v. Ed Donnelly Enterprises" by Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Obrien v. Ed Donnelly Enterprises
- Author : Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
- Release Date : January 05, 2009
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 100 KB
Description
These appeals involve two related cases in which former employees of two McDonalds franchises allege that their employer refused to pay the employees the wages that they were due, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. § 216(b); the corresponding Ohio statute; and other Ohio law. For the reasons that follow, in the Dellarussiani appeal, we affirm the district courts entry of judgment pursuant to the defendants Fed. R. Civ. P. 68 offer of judgment, except that the issue of attorney fees is remanded to the district court. Having achieved all the relief that they could hope to get on their most important claims, the Dellarussiani plaintiffs no longer have a stake in these claims in the OBrien case. As for an Ohio Prompt Pay Act claim, which plaintiffs lost in Dellarussiani on summary judgment, and as to common-law claims pleaded in OBrien but not in Dellarussiani, the appeal is not moot, though these claims will be barred by res judicata. Therefore, defendants motion to dismiss the Dellarussiani plaintiffs from the OBrien appeal is granted in part, but denied in part as to the Prompt Pay Act and common-law claims. Though we disagree with the standard that the district court applied in deciding whether the OBrien plaintiffs were "similarly situated" under the FLSA, we affirm the decertification. We do so, because in view of our dismissal of most of the Dellarussiani plaintiffs claims from the OBrien appeal, there is only one possible opt-in plaintiff who could join the lead plaintiffs in OBrien. But the district court correctly observed that this particular opt-in plaintiff failed to allege that she suffered from any unlawful practices. She is clearly not similarly situated to the lead plaintiffs. Nor are the Dellarussiani plaintiffs, who have only a few extant supplemental claims, similarly situated to the lead plaintiffs, given that these claims will inevitably be barred by res judicata. Therefore, we affirm the district courts decertification of the collective action. That leaves the claims of the lead OBrien plaintiffs. As to the lead plaintiffs, we reverse the district courts grant of summary judgment in defendants favor as to the lead plaintiffs "off the clock" claims and vacate the grant of summary judgment as to the lead plaintiffs claim that their time-sheets were improperly altered.