Chapman v. LHC Group, Inc.

126 F. Supp. 3d 711, 2015 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 277, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113830
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedAugust 27, 2015
DocketCivil Action Case No. 13-6384
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 126 F. Supp. 3d 711 (Chapman v. LHC Group, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chapman v. LHC Group, Inc., 126 F. Supp. 3d 711, 2015 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 277, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113830 (E.D. La. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER

NANNETTE JOLIYETTE BROWN, District Judge.

Before the Court is Defendant LHC Group, Inc.’s (“LHC”) “Motion for Reconsideration of Order Conditionally Certifying Collective Action, or in the Alternative to Certify Interlocutory Appeal.”1 Having considered the motion, the memoranda in support and in opposition, the statements made at oral argument, the record, and the applicable law, the Court will grant the motion in part and deny it in part.

I. Background

A. Factual Background

Plaintiff Corrine Chapman (“Chapman”) worked for 15 years as an office manager for Ochsner Home Health Corp. (“Ochs-ner”) in Covington, Louisiana, which was acquired by LHC in 2009.2 According to Chapman, she was a nonexempt employee paid hourly, with responsibilities including scheduling, recording, and reporting the work hours of LHC’s hourly employees.3 Chapman alleges that LHC never instructed or trained its payroll employees how to properly record hours worked by hourly employees, or with respect to the record-keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”).4

For several years, according to Chapman, LHC has been reducing its employment costs, including reducing its work force and implementing record keeping and compensation policies prohibiting the payment of overtime wages.5 Despite the [715]*715reductions in force, LHC allegedly instructed its hourly employees not to record any overtime hours on their time sheets, even if the employees worked hours in excess of the 40 hour work week.6 Chapman alleges that LHC supervisors, under “direct orders” from LHC’s senior management, instructed her to allow and accept inaccurate time records from employees who actually worked in excess of 40 hours per week, but recorded only 40 hours per week on his or her time sheet.7 Chapman additionally alleges that she was instructed to modify time sheets of any employees who reported working in excess of 40 hours per week so that the time sheets would show only 40 hours worked.8

Chapman alleges that she was regularly scheduled to work exactly eight hours daily and 40 hours weekly, and that she was scheduled to take a 30 minute unpaid lunch break every day.9 Still, she alleges, she regularly worked in excess of eight hours per day, but was prohibited from reporting this overtime on her time sheet and consequently was not compensated for that time.10 According to Chapman, prior to June 2013, she reported to supervisors with the title “Director of Nursing.”11 After June 2013, Chapman was supervised by Cheryl Chellette, Director of Ochsner Home Health of Covington and Ochsner Home Health of Kenner.12 Chapman attests that “[u]pon information and belief, Defendant’s record-keeping and compensation policies were dictated and issued by Defendant’s senior management and issued to all of defendants’s [sic] locations throughout Louisiana and the United States.”13

B. Procedural Background

The complaint in this matter was filed on November 8, 2013.14 On April 4, 2014, Chapman filed a “Motion to Conditionally Certify a Collective Action and Issue Notice,” 15 which the Court granted on November 13, 2014.16 The Court’s November 13, 2014 Order granted Plaintiffs request to conditionally certify a nationwide class of office managers, administrative personnel, and clinical technicians based on the allegations of Chapman and three other employees that they were prohibited from recording more than 40 hours on their time sheets.

LHC filed the pending motion for reconsideration on November 24, 2014.17 Chapman filed a memorandum in opposition of December 2, 2014,18 and LHC filed a memorandum in further support of its. motion on December 10, 2014.19 The Court heard oral argument on the pending motion on August 5, 2015.

II. Parties’ Arguments

A. LHC’s Arguments in Support

LHC argues that reconsideration of the Court’s November 13, 2014 Order granting conditional certification “is warranted to prevent the manifest injustice that would [716]*716result to LHC if a nationwide notice is authorized by this Court based on the wholly conclusory and otherwise inadequate allegations submitted by Chapman in support of her motion.”20 LHC does not dispute the Court’s articulation of the factors that it considered in evaluating Chapman’s motion for conditional certification; rather, LHC asks the Court to reconsider the manner in which it applied those factors to Chapman’s allegations, which LHC characterizes as • “concluso-ry.” 21 LHC avers that Chapman has not come close to presenting “substantial allegations” that the putative class members were together the victims of a single decision, policy, or plan infected by unlawful conduct, such that the Court could find that the requirements for conditional certification have been met.22

First, LHC argues that Chapman has not demonstrated a reasonable basis for believing that other aggrieved individuals exist because she failed to identify any written policy that could arguably violate the FLSA.23 According to LHC, its written policies require that all hours worked be recorded on employee timesheets, and “Chapman’s effort to identify the requisite single policy — to the extent she makes any substantive effort at all — has to be based on her vague and conclusory allegations that unidentified individual supervisors purportedly deviated from these written policies through unspecified verbal instructions to unidentified employees at unidentified locations at unidentified times.”24 LHC contends that Chapman failed to explain how employees were supposedly prevented from recording overtime hours, and that she has failed to identify the specific alleged pay practice at issue.25

Next, LHC argues that Chapman has not demonstrated the existence of any aggrieved individuals who are similarly situated to her.26 According to LHC, the critical issue at the heart of the “similarly situated” analysis is whether the ultimate issues can be tried on the basis of collective or representative proof, or whether such resolution will require individualized proof as to the claims of each plaintiff.27 LHC cites Johnson v. Big Lots Stores, Inc.28 and Carey v. 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc.29 to support its argument that courts are particularly reluctant to conditionally certify “off-the-elock” cases such as this one because such cases are inherently not susceptible to resolution using collective proof, and thus are not appropriate for collective action certification.30

LHC additionally contends that Chapman has not demonstrated that others desire to opt in to this case.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
126 F. Supp. 3d 711, 2015 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 277, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113830, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapman-v-lhc-group-inc-laed-2015.