Chapman v. Las Vegas Basketball L.P.

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedAugust 14, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-00278
StatusUnknown

This text of Chapman v. Las Vegas Basketball L.P. (Chapman v. Las Vegas Basketball L.P.) 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
Chapman v. Las Vegas Basketball L.P., (D. Nev. 2024).

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 DELORES CHAPMAN, Case No.: 2:23-cv-00278-APG-MDC

4 Plaintiff Order Granting Mandalay Bay and the Aramark Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss 5 v. [ECF No. 48] 6 LAS VEGAS BASKETBALL L.P., et al.,

7 Defendants

8 Delores Chapman alleges that she worked as an events employee for defendants 9 (1) Aramark Sports and Entertainment Group, LLC; (2) Aramark Sports and Entertainment 10 Services, (3) Aramark Sports, LLC, (4) Aramark Services, Inc. LLC; (5) MVP Event 11 Productions, LLC (collectively the Aramark defendants); (6) Mandalay Bay, LLC; (7) Greg 12 Fielding; and (8) the Las Vegas Aces.1 She sues the defendants for wage and hour violations 13 under state and federal statutory and state constitutional provisions. She also sues the defendants 14 for unjust enrichment and conversion. She requests damages and declaratory and injunctive 15 relief. She brings all claims on behalf of herself and a putative class of similarly situated 16 individuals. 17 Mandalay Bay and the Aramark defendants move to dismiss Chapman’s claims against 18 them, arguing that Chapman has not plausibly alleged that they were her employers, which is a 19 threshold requirement for wage and hour claims. They also move to dismiss Chapman’s 20 common law claims as precluded and for failure to state a claim. And they argue that Chapman 21 does not have standing to seek injunctive and declaratory relief because she does not allege that 22

1 Chapman does not specifically allege that the Las Vegas Aces were her employer as she does 23 for the other defendants. However, because she does not make any specific allegations related to the Aces, I assume it is included in her general allegations against her employers. 1 she still works for the defendants. Finally, they move to dismiss Chapman’s class allegations for 2 not plausibly alleging commonality among the class members’ claims. Chapman responds that 3 she has plausibly alleged that the defendants were her employers, that that she may properly seek 4 waiting time wages from the defendants because she no longer works for them, that her unjust

5 enrichment and conversion claims are not preempted, and that she has plausibly alleged her class 6 allegations. 7 I grant Mandalay Bay and the Aramark defendants’ motion to dismiss because Chapman 8 has not plausibly alleged that Mandalay Bay and the Aramark defendants were her employers, 9 she fails to state a plausible unjust enrichment or conversion claim, and she lacks standing to 10 seek prospective relief. However, I grant Chapman leave to amend. 11 I. Background 12 Chapman was employed as an events worker from August to September 2022. ECF No. 13 22 at 5. She alleges that, as an events worker, she was employed by MVP, Mandalay Bay, the 14 Aramark defendants, and Greg Fielding, and paid $17.00 an hour. ECF No. 3-5. She was

15 regularly scheduled for shifts where she worked at least eight hours. Id. at 5. Chapman alleges 16 that in the pay period beginning August 27, 2022, she worked multiple shifts but was never paid. 17 Id. at 6. When she did not receive her wages for that pay period, she tried to contact MVP, but 18 was unsuccessful as she “was told that Defendant MVP’s payroll servicer was no longer 19 affiliated with Defendant MVP.” Id. at 6-7. Chapman also generally alleges that “[d]efendant 20 maintains an unlawful payment practice of not paying [Chapman] and all other similarly situated 21 employees the applicable minimum wage rate” or overtime wages they have earned. Id. at 5-6. 22 Chapman brings a putative class and collective action against all defendants for 23 (1) failure to pay the minimum wage in violation of the Minimum Wage Amendment (MWA) of 1 the Nevada Constitution and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); (2) failure to pay overtime 2 wages in violation of the FLSA and Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) §§ 608.018 and 608.140 and 3 the FLSA; (3) failure to pay waiting time wages under NRS §§ 608.020-.050 and 608.140; 4 (4) injunctive and declaratory relief; (5) unjust enrichment; and (6) conversion. Mandalay Bay

5 and the Aramark defendants move to dismiss Chapman’s claims against them. 6 II. Analysis 7 In considering a motion to dismiss, I take all well-pleaded allegations of material fact as 8 true and construe them in a light most favorable to the non-moving party. Kwan v. SanMedica 9 Int’l, 854 F.3d 1088, 1096 (9th Cir. 2017). However, I do not “assume the truth of legal 10 conclusions merely because they are cast in the form of factual allegations.” Navajo Nation v. 11 Dep’t of the Interior, 876 F.3d 1144, 1163 (9th Cir. 2017). 12 To defeat a motion to dismiss, a plaintiff must make sufficient factual allegations to 13 establish a plausible entitlement to relief. Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 556 (2007). 14 Such allegations must amount to “more than labels and conclusions, [or] a formulaic recitation of

15 the elements of a cause of action.” Id. at 555. Instead, the complaint must include “a short and 16 plain statement of the claim” that shows the plaintiff “is entitled to relief” and gives the 17 defendants “fair notice of what the claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.” Id. at 555 18 (simplified). 19 A. Employment Relationship 20 Mandalay Bay and the Aramark defendants argue that Chapman has not plausibly alleged 21 that they were her employers, which is a necessary precursor to the alleged wage and hour 22 violations. Mandalay Bay and the Aramark defendants contend that the amended complaint 23 groups all the defendants together but does not make any specific allegations about Mandalay 1 Bay and the Aramark defendants beyond stating that they were Chapman’s employers. They 2 also argue that Chapman has failed to plausibly allege that Mandalay Bay and the Aramark 3 defendants were her joint employers, along with the other defendants, because she has not 4 pleaded any facts explaining how the defendants were related, nor how her allegations are

5 attributable to each defendant. Finally, Mandalay Bay and the Aramark defendants argue that 6 Chapman does not explain what they did to violate these wage and hour provisions, so she has 7 not put them on notice of her claims. 8 The MWA, the FLSA, and the Nevada statutes governing minimum, overtime, and 9 waiting wages protect employees in an employer-employee relationship.2 To determine whether 10 an employer-employee relationship exists for purposes of these statutes, I apply the economic 11 reality test.3 See Boucher v. Shaw, 572 F.3d 1087, 1090-91 (9th Cir. 2009) (applying the 12 economic reality test in the FLSA context); Doe Dancer I v. La Fuente, Inc., 481 P.3d 860, 867 13 (Nev. 2021) (en banc) (applying the economic reality test in the context of the MWA); Terry v. 14 Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club, 336 P.3d 951, 958 (Nev. 2014) (en banc) (adopting the economic

15 reality test for Nevada’s minimum wage laws). The economic reality test examines “the 16 2 See Nev. Const. art. XV § 16 (setting minimum requirements for the hourly wages an employer 17 must pay its employees); 29 U.S.C. §§ 203-207 (setting minimum requirements for the hourly wages an employer must pay its employees and setting parameters for overtime pay); NRS 18

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Chapman v. Las Vegas Basketball L.P., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapman-v-las-vegas-basketball-lp-nvd-2024.