Avila v. JBL Cleaning Services LLC

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedFebruary 29, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-00398
StatusUnknown

This text of Avila v. JBL Cleaning Services LLC (Avila v. JBL Cleaning Services LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Avila v. JBL Cleaning Services LLC, (D. Ariz. 2024).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Minerva Avila, No. CV-23-00398-PHX-DJH

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 JBL Cleaning Services LLC, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Plaintiff Minerva Avila (“Plaintiff”) has filed a Motion for Entry of Default 16 Judgment (Doc. 16) against Defendant JBL Cleaning Services, LLC (“Defendant JBL”), 17 Defendant Jose Barajas, and Defendant Jane Doe Barajas II (collectively the “Defaulting 18 Defendants”). Defendant Bryan Barajas and Defendant Jane Doe Barajas are also named 19 parties to this case. The Defaulting Defendants were served with the Complaint, Summons, 20 and this Motion; however, they have not answered or otherwise appeared to defend this 21 action. The Court must decide whether default judgment is proper under 22 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55. For the following reasons, the Court will grant 23 Plaintiff’s Motion. 24 I. Background 25 Defendant JBL is a limited liability company that provides commercial cleaning 26 services to buildings in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. (Doc. 1 at ¶¶ 11–12). Defendants 27 Jose Barajas and Jane Doe Barajas II are husband and wife who own and manage 28 Defendant JBL. (Id. at ¶ 16). Plaintiff alleges she worked for the Defaulting Defendants 1 for approximately 14 weeks as a “cleaning technician or custodian.” (Id. at ¶ 35–36, 51). 2 Plaintiff brings claims against the Defaulting Defendants under the Fair Labor Standard 3 Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. (“FLSA”), the Arizona Minimum Wage Act, A.R.S. § 23-363 4 et seq. (“AMWA”), and the Arizona Wage Act, A.R.S. § 23-350 et seq. (“AWA”). 5 (Id. at ¶¶ 85–107). 6 Below is an overview of the underlying allegations as well as the procedural history 7 of the present action. 8 A. The Underlying Allegations 9 Plaintiff states she began working for the Defaulting Defendants on 10 October 31, 2022, and received an hourly wage rate of $14 per hour. (Id. at ¶¶ 35–37). 11 Plaintiff alleges the Defaulting Defendants are “employers” for the purposes of the FLSA. 12 (Id. at ¶¶ 13, 17). Plaintiff further alleges that, rather than classifying her as an employee 13 for the purposes of the FLSA, the Defaulting Defendants misclassified her as an 14 independent contractor. (Id. at ¶¶ 40–44). 15 Plaintiff represents that she worked in excess of 40 hours per workweek during her 16 employment at the Defaulting Defendants’ request. (Id. at ¶ 58). Specifically, Plaintiff 17 alleges she worked 55 hours in a given workweek. (Id. at ¶ 57). Plaintiff states she 18 discontinued her employment with the Defaulting Defendants on February 10, 2023, due 19 to their alleged nonpayment of wages. Plaintiff also maintains that the Defaulting 20 Defendants did not pay her for her final 2 workweeks, which consisted of 84 hours. 21 (Id. at ¶¶ 46–51, 61). 22 B. The Present Action 23 After her resignation, Plaintiff filed a Complaint (Doc. 1) on March 8, 2023, 24 bringing the following claims against the Defaulting Defendants: 25 - Count One for failure to pay overtime under the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. 26 § 207, seeking unpaid overtime wages and an additional, equal amount in liquidated damages under 29 § U.S.C. 216 (id. at ¶¶ 85– 27 92); 28 - Count Two for failure to pay minimum wage under the FLSA, 29 1 U.S.C. § 206(a), seeking unpaid minimum wages and an additional, equal amount in liquidated damages under 29 § U.S.C. 216 2 (id. at ¶¶ 93–97); 3 - Count Three for failure to pay minimum wage under the AMWA, 4 A.R.S. § 23-363, seeking unpaid minimum wages and an additional, 5 amount equal to twice the underpaid damages under A.R.S. § 23- 364(G) (id. at ¶¶ 98–102); 6 - Count Four for failure to pay wages due under the AWA, A.R.S. § 23- 7 350, seeking treble unpaid wages under A.R.S. § 23-355 (id. 8 at ¶¶ 102–107). 9 Plaintiff also seeks pre and post judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs. (Id. at ¶¶ 92, 10 97, 102, 107). 11 On March, 2023, Plaintiff, via an Arizona process server, personally served the 12 Complaint and Summons on each of the Defaulting Defendants at 2005 North 103rd Ave. 13 #1108, Avondale, AZ 85392. (Docs. 6; 7; 8).1 The Defaulting Defendants did not file an 14 answer or otherwise appear in this action. 15 On April 25, 2023, Plaintiff moved for the Clerk of Court to enter default against 16 Defendant JBL, Defendant Jose Barajas, and Defendant Jane Doe Barajas—who has not 17 been served. (See Doc. 10). Due to this error, the Clerk of Court entered an amended entry 18 of default as to Defendant JBL and Defendant Jose Barajas only under Rule 55(a).2 19 (See Docs. 14; 15). The Clerk of Court later entered default against Defendant Jane Doe 20 Barajas II under Rule 55(a) upon Plaintiff’s request. (Docs. 12; 13). Plaintiff has since 21 filed the pending Motion for Entry of Default Judgment (Doc. 16), which she served 22 electronically and by mail to the Defaulting Defendants’ Arizona addresses. (Id. at 13). 23 The Defaulting Defendants did not respond and the time to do so has passed. LRCiv. 7.2. 24

25 1 However, the docket does not reflect any service efforts by Plaintiff on Defendants Bryan Barajas and Jane Doe Barajas. The Court will therefore order Plaintiff to either (1) show 26 cause why Defendants Bryan Barajas and Jane Doe Barajas should not be dismissed from this matter due to lack of service; or (2) file a notice of voluntary dismissal as to these 27 Defendants.

28 2 Unless where otherwise noted, all Rule references are to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 1 II. Legal Standard 2 Once a party’s default has been entered, the district court has discretion to grant 3 default judgment against that party. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b)(2); Aldabe v. Aldabe, 616 4 F.2d 1089, 1092 (9th Cir. 1980). “When entry of judgment is sought against a party who 5 has failed to plead or otherwise defend, a district court has an affirmative duty to look into 6 its jurisdiction over both the subject matter and the parties.” In re Tuli, 172 F.3d 707, 712 7 (9th Cir. 1999). 8 Once a court finds jurisdiction, it must consider: “(1) the possibility of prejudice to 9 the plaintiff, (2) the merits of plaintiff's substantive claim, (3) the sufficiency of the 10 complaint, (4) the sum of money at stake in the action; (5) the possibility of a dispute 11 concerning material facts; (6) whether the default was due to excusable neglect, and (7) the 12 strong policy underlying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure favoring decisions on the 13 merits.” Eitel v.

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Avila v. JBL Cleaning Services LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/avila-v-jbl-cleaning-services-llc-azd-2024.