Andreatta v. Eldorado Resorts Corp.

214 F. Supp. 3d 943, 2016 WL 5867413, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139109
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedOctober 5, 2016
DocketCase No. 2:15-cv-00749-RFB-NJK
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 214 F. Supp. 3d 943 (Andreatta v. Eldorado Resorts Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Andreatta v. Eldorado Resorts Corp., 214 F. Supp. 3d 943, 2016 WL 5867413, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139109 (D. Nev. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

RICHARD F. BOULWARE, II, United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

This case is before the Court on a Motion to Dismiss filed by Defendants Eldorado Resorts Corporation (“Eldorado”) and Michael Marrs, Bruce Polansky, Kristen Beck, Dominic Taleghani, and James Grimes, all of whom are directors, project managers, or vice presidents at Eldorado. ECF No. 12. In their motion, Defendants seek dismissal of Plaintiff Osvaldo Raul Andreatta’s First Amended Complaint.1 The Court has previously orally ruled on this Motion and this written order elaborates the Court’s reasoning.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Alleged Facts

Plaintiff alleges the following facts in his Amended Complaint. During the times relevant to this case, Plaintiff was an employee of Eldorado. Plaintiff is a Latino man, a Catholic, and was 52 years old at the time he brought this action. He began his employment with Eldorado in November 2008 and worked as a front line sales agent, manager, assistant project director, and sales director during his employment. Plaintiff earned a salary of $455 per week and a commission percentage of 4% with an override of 0.75%.

On approximately July 3, 2014, Plaintiff was hospitalized for high blood pressure, treated, and subsequently released with orders from his doctor hot to work more than eight hours per day. That same month, Plaintiff applied and was approved for protected leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) with Eldorado. His ' medical conditions included high blood pressure, reactive hypertension, reflux, and reactive stress. Eldorado repeatedly rejected or disrgarded Plaintiffs requests for leave under the FMLA. When Plaintiff reminded his supervisors, including Defendant Kristen Beck, of his need to work no more than eight hours per day, Plaintiff was yelled at and told to stay the entire day until all tours for Latino customers were completed.

Plaintiff was also instructed by senior management at Eldorado to target FMLA employees for “write ups” for poor performance so that Eldorado would have cause to fire these employees. Plaintiff was told to obtain three write ups as soon as possible on FMLA employees, and alleges that this was part of a practice by Eldorado in which middle managers and human resources officers were ordered to place employees on administrative leave for long enough periods of time that they would not qualify for FMLA leave the following year. When Plaintiff refused to comply with senior management’s orders, his positions, income, and commissions were changed in ways that appeared to be promotions, but [950]*950operated as demotions because they negatively impacted his income. Plaintiff also alleges that he endured verbal abuse in his work environment and was threatened with loss of his job and physical harm if he did not like it. After reporting these comments, Plaintiffs positions, commissions, and sales teams were changed to negatively impact his income.

Plaintiff also alleges that Eldorado frequently engaged in the practice of matching sales representatives to potential customers by race, color, religion, and national origin. Plaintiff was repeatedly sent to tables with Latino customers or told to target Latino customers who walked through the door. As a result, Plaintiff was repeatedly denied sales opportunities for customers who were not Latino or Catholic. Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant Taleghani referred to him as a “Spic” and often commented that “Latino women are always barefoot and pregnant.”

In addition, Plaintiff makes several allegations against Eldorado with respect to his pay. Plaintiff alleges that Eldorado changed his pay rate and commission percentage several times without any notice or opportunity for Plaintiff to review the changes, and that there were no set criteria to determine when his pay rate would change or how it would change. Further, Plaintiff alleges that during his employment with Eldorado, he was not provided with rest or meal breaks, was not paid overtime despite consistently working over 40 hours per week, and was charged commission reversals by Eldorado without any explanation for sales made months or years earlier. Finally, Plaintiff alleges that Eldorado engaged in “backdoor” sales by offering customers a better deal, waiting for the customer to accept, canceling Plaintiffs sales in order to sell the property directly to the customer, and cutting Plaintiffs commissions on the sales.

In his Amended Complaint, Plaintiff asserts thirteen causes of action: 1) disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and N.R.S. 613.330; 2) race, color, religion, and national origin discrimination under Title VII and N.R.S. 613.330; 3) FMLA interference; 4) breach of contract; 5) retaliation under the FMLA, Title VII, and N.R.S. 613.330; 6) breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing; 7) tortious discharge; 8) failure to pay overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and N.R.S. 608.018; 9) failure to pay each hour worked under N.R.S. 608.016; 10) failure to pay wages for periods for meal and rest under N.R.S. 608.019; 11) unlawful taking of wages under N.R.S. 608.100; 12) willful failure/refusal to pay wages under N.R.S. 608.190; and 13) waiting time penalties under N.R.S. 608.040.

B. Procedural History

Plaintiff filed his original Complaint on April 23, 2015. ECF No. 1. Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss on June 23, 2015. ECF No. 6. This Motion was denied on March 30, 2016. ECF No. 32.

On July 10, 2015, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint, which is now the operative complaint in this action. ECF No. 8; see note 1, supra. Defendants filed a second Motion to Dismiss on July 27, 2015. ECF No. 12. Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed Defendants Grimes and Polansky from this action on December 18, 2015. ECF No. 24.

The Court held a hearing on March 30, 2016 in which it granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ second Motion to Dismiss. ECF No. 32. The Court held a status conference on May 31, 2016. ECF No. 39.

[951]*951III. LEGAL STANDARD

A pleading must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). A defendant may move to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). In ruling on a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, “[a]ll well-pleaded allegations of material fact in the complaint are accepted as true and are construed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party.” Faulkner v. APT Sec. Servs., Inc., 706 F.3d 1017, 1019 (9th Cir. 2013). To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain “sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face,” meaning that the court can reasonably infer “that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
214 F. Supp. 3d 943, 2016 WL 5867413, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139109, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/andreatta-v-eldorado-resorts-corp-nvd-2016.