Amanda Beyer v. Michels Corporation

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedNovember 18, 2025
Docket2:21-cv-00514
StatusUnknown

This text of Amanda Beyer v. Michels Corporation (Amanda Beyer v. Michels Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Amanda Beyer v. Michels Corporation, (E.D. Wis. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

AMANDA BEYER,

Plaintiff, Case No. 21-cv-514-pp v.

MICHELS CORPORATION,

Defendant.

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION (DKT. NO. 117) AND ADMINISTRATIVELY CLOSING CASE

On May 31, 2024, the plaintiff filed a third amended complaint in this wage and hour class action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Wisconsin law. Dkt. No. 104. On August 12, 2025, the court granted in part and denied in part the defendant’s motion to dismiss the third amended complaint. Dkt. No. 116. The court dismissed all class and collective action claims, leaving only the plaintiff’s individual claim for interrupted meal breaks. Id. at 21. On August 22, 2025, the plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration of that order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b). Dkt. No. 117. Because the plaintiff has presented no grounds for reconsideration, the court will deny the motion. And because the parties have reached a settlement in principle on the remaining claim, see dkt. no. 121, the court will administratively close this case pending the filing of settlement documents. I. Order on Motion to Dismiss (Dkt. No. 116) The court granted in part the defendant’s motion to dismiss the third amended complaint because that complaint was too confusing and unclear to give the defendant fair notice of the plaintiff’s claims. Dkt. No. 116. As to Count

I—titled “Failure to Properly Compensate Employees Whose Jobs Required Them to Use Their Michels Assigned Computers on a Daily Basis”—the court found that the third amended complaint did not clearly describe the time for which the defendant allegedly failed to compensate its employees. Id. at 16. The court stated that Count I was pled in such a confusing way that it wasn’t clear if the plaintiff was “challenging the rounding practice, the practice of supervisors editing punch-in times or the failure to compensate employees for the time spent logging into their computers before their workday began.” Id. at

17. The court also found this claim deficient because it did not cite the Wisconsin statute the defendant allegedly had violated. Id. at 17–18 (quoting Milakovich v. L. J. Ross Assocs., Inc., Case No. 19-cv-1353, 2020 WL 620186, at *2 (E.D. Wis. Feb. 10, 2020)). The court next found that Count II—titled “Unlawful Rounding of Supervisor Approved/Adjusted Punch-in and Punch-out Times”—was not clear as to which employees’ punch-in and punch-out times the defendant allegedly

improperly rounded. Id. at 18–19. The court stated that it was not clear whether the allegations in this count challenged the rounding of all punches or the rounding of supervisor edited punches. Id. at 19. The court found that there would be an overlap between the claims in Count I and Count II for “computer users,” as the plaintiff put it, which the plaintiff attempted to salvage by stating that the remedies either would be “complementary” or “in the alternative” depending on the recovery. Id. The court stated that the complaint did not sufficiently allege a uniform policy of rounding punch-out times. Id. The

court also determined that Count II did not identify the Wisconsin law claim it was bringing, if any. Id. at 19–20. The court reviewed Count III and found that it was not clear whether the plaintiff was challenging the defendant’s alleged practice of rounding meal break punches or challenging the alleged practice of automatically deducting 0.5 hours from employees’ shifts for meal periods. Id. at 20–21. The court dismissed Counts I, II and III with prejudice because they were unclear and because the plaintiff had had several previous opportunities to draft a proper

complaint. Id. at 22. II. Motion for Reconsideration (Dkt. No. 117) A. Plaintiff’s Brief (Dkt. No. 118) The plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration of the court’s order, arguing that the court “misunderstood” the third amended complaint and “erred” by stating that the plaintiff must identify the Wisconsin statutes under which she brought her claims. Dkt. No. 118 at 2–3. The plaintiff argues that

the defendant “concocted a complicates [sic] scheme to shave hours worked” and so she “could not have simplified her Complaint” to make the alleged scheme clearer. Id. at 1–2. She argues that the court’s summary of the third amended complaint shows that the court “patently misunderstood” her complaint. Id. at 3. She argues that there were no internal inconsistencies in her third amended complaint and elaborates on the allegations to try to explain the intent of each paragraph’s allegations. Id. at 3–5. The plaintiff argues that the court “ignored controlling precedents” which state that a complaint does

not have to “plead any legal theories such as the statute that the claim is based upon.” Id. at 5. The plaintiff argues that the court cannot dismiss a complaint “just because it includes repetitious or irrelevant matters” or “a disposable husk around a core of proper pleading.” Id. (citing Davis v. Ruby Foods, Inc., 269 F. 3d 818, 820 (7th Cir. 2001)). She argues that the complaint need only be “intelligible” and give the defendant fair notice of her claims. Id. The plaintiff stresses that her complaint is not so lengthy or so filled with gibberish as to

qualify as unintelligible under Seventh Circuit law. Id. at 6 (collecting cases). She argues that she can clarify her allegations through briefing and that any confusion or ambiguity can be dealt with by means other than dismissal. Id. at 7. Turning to Count I of the third amended complaint, the plaintiff argues that she is alleging the defendant improperly rounded supervisor-adjusted punch-in times for employees using computers. Id. at 8–10. She argues that

she is challenging how the defendant set up its payroll software rather than how supervisors adjusted computer users’ punch-in times. Id. at 10. The plaintiff argues that though the court posed three possible interpretations of this claim in its order, none of them are correct and the court misapprehended the claim. Id. The plaintiff contends that the defendant should have rounded computer users’ actual punch-in times rather than their supervisor-adjusted punch-in times. Id. She argues that the court erred by dismissing this claim as unintelligible when “Paragraph 54 clearly explains what the claim is.” Id.

The plaintiff maintains that the court committed an error of law by requiring the plaintiff to cite to Wisconsin statutes in her complaint. Id. at 10– 11. The plaintiff argues that complaints are not required to plead “either facts or legal theories.” Id. at 11 (citing Kirksey v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 168 F. 3d 1039, 1041 (7th Cir. 1999)). According to the plaintiff, citing a statutory subsection is the equivalent of pleading a “legal theory,” which is not required. Id. at 11–12 (collecting cases). She argues that the third amended complaint pleads that she can use Wis. Stat. §109.03 to recover wages owed due to the

defendant’s alleged rounding practice. Id. at 12–13. The plaintiff presents similar arguments in support of Count II of the third amended complaint. Id. at 13. She argues that Paragraph 66 clearly explains that she is alleging the defendant violated the FLSA “by rounding supervisor approved or adjusted punch-in and punch-out times to the quarter hour that would minimize their number of hours worked for the day rather than always to the nearest quarter hour.” Id. at 14. She states that this claim

challenges “supervisor approved/adjusted punch times,” which she clarifies actually means all punch times that were either supervisor approved or supervisor adjusted. Id.

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Amanda Beyer v. Michels Corporation, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amanda-beyer-v-michels-corporation-wied-2025.