Appeals Court Rules California Overtime Lawsuit Can Go Ahead As Class Action

Los Angeles, CAA California overtime lawsuit alleging managers at Joe’s Crab Shack were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay has been given the okay to move forward as a class-action lawsuit. The unpaid overtime lawsuit was initially denied class-action status by the Superior Court of Los Angeles, but the decision was appealed by the defendants and the Superior Court’s ruling against class-action status was overturned.

The lawsuit was filed by Roberto Martinez in September 2007, and alleged managers at Joe’s Crab Shack were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay. In 2010, the trial court denied the plaintiff’s motion for class certification, finding that Martinez was “not an adequate class representative.” Following that, three more plaintiffs were permitted to join the lawsuit, and in June 2011, the plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification.

To support their motion for class certification, the plaintiffs provided evidence that Joe’s Crab Shack hiring and training practices are uniform throughout the chain, that the operations manual is also applied uniformly and that managerial employees are evaluated based on the same guidelines. Furthermore, managerial employees are expected to work a minimum of 50 hours a week, according to court documents.

Based on declarations from current and former managerial employees, all managerial employees routinely worked more than 55 hours a week and some worked more than 70 hours per week, although Joe’s Crab Shack did not keep track of hours worked by managerial employees. These managerial employees were expected to fill in where needed as “cooks, servers, bussers, hosts, stockers, bartenders or kitchen staff,” and conduct inventory once a week after close of the restaurant. Managerial employees estimated they spent between 50 and 95 percent of their time in hourly tasks.

The trial court again denied a motion for class certification, finding that the claims of the plaintiffs were not typical of the claims of the class, that the plaintiffs had not proven they could adequately represent the class and that plaintiffs had not proven class action was the best way of resolving the lawsuit. The plaintiffs then filed an appeal.

The appeals court found that although there was variance in the amount of time spent by managers in non-managerial duties, the main question of typicality came down to the issue of tasks not changing once they became managers, which was typical of the class. The appeals court also found that the trial court relied too heavily on testimony by general managers at Joe’s Crab Shack, who argued against litigation.

“A general manager is hardly likely to share the duties of assistant managers, many of whom worked exclusively as kitchen- or front-managers,” the court found. “It is not hard to conceive that the lower the rung occupied by a particular manager the more likely he or she is to engage in tasks common to the hourly employee.”

As a result, the court found that the lawsuit could move forward as a class action, reversing the decision of the trial court.