Davis v. Four Seasons Hotel Ltd.

277 F.R.D. 429, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118812, 2011 WL 4590403
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedJuly 19, 2011
DocketCv. No. 08-00525 HG-BMK
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 277 F.R.D. 429 (Davis v. Four Seasons Hotel Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Four Seasons Hotel Ltd., 277 F.R.D. 429, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118812, 2011 WL 4590403 (D. Haw. 2011).

Opinion

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION THAT PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION BE GRANTED

BARRY M. KURREN, United States Magistrate Judge.

On April 4, 2011, Plaintiffs Daryl Dean Davis, Mark Apaña, Elizabeth Valdez Kyne, Earl Tanaka, Thomas Perryman, and Deborah Scarfone (collectively “Plaintiffs”), on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, filed the instant Motion for Class Certification. (Doc. # 130.) The Court heard the motion on July 11, 2011. After careful consideration of the motion, the supporting and opposing memoranda, and the arguments of counsel, the Court FINDS AND RECOMMENDS that Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification be GRANTED.

[432]*432 BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs are food and beverage servers employed or formerly employed by two Four Seasons resorts, including Four Seasons Resort, Maui, and Four Seasons Resort, Hualalai (collectively “Resorts”). (Mem. in Supp. of Mot. at 6-7.) The Resorts are operated by Defendant Four Seasons Hotel, Limited (“Defendant”). (SAC ¶ 3.) On November 21, 2008, Plaintiffs filed a Class Action Complaint. (Doc. # 1.) Plaintiffs amended their Class Action Complaint on January 12, 2009. (Doc. # 13.) On the same day Defendant answered the Amended Class Action Complaint, Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss, arguing in part that Plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue their claims. (Docs. ##32, 34.) On June 2, 2009, then Chief District Judge Helen Gillmor certified the following question to the Hawaii Supreme Court:

Where plaintiff banquet server employees allege that their employer violated the notice provisions of [Hawaii Revised Statutes (“H.R.S.”) ] § 481B-14 by not clearly disclosing to purchasers that a portion of a service charge was used to pay expenses other than wages and tips of employees, and where the plaintiff banquet server employees do not plead the existence of competition or an effect thereon, do the plaintiff banquet server employees have standing under H.R.S. § 480-2(e) to bring a claim for damages against their employer?

(Doc. #75.) Judge Gillmor directed the Clerk of Court to stay the proceedings and close the case administratively. (Does. ## 86, 88.)

On March 29, 2010, the Hawaii Supreme Court answered the certified question as follows: “Employees are ‘any persons’ within the meaning of H.R.S. §§ 480-1 and 480-2(e) and are within the category of plaintiffs who have standing to bring a claim under H.R.S. § 480-2(e) for a violation of H.R.S. § 481B-14.” Davis v. Four Seasons Hotel Ltd., 122 Hawaii 423, 446, 228 P.3d 303, 326 (2010). The Hawaii Supreme Court, however, held that “based on the allegations contained in [Plaintiffs’] Amended [Class Action] Complaint, [Plaintiffs] have not sufficiently alleged the ‘nature of the competition’ to bring a claim for damages against [Defendant] under H.R.S. §§ 480-2(e) and 480-13(a) for a violation of H.R.S. § 481B-14.” Id.

Following the Hawaii Supreme Court’s ruling, Defendant moved to reopen the case from administrative closure and filed a Renewed Motion to Dismiss. (Does. ## 93, 94.) On April 19, 2010, Plaintiffs moved for leave to file a Second Amended Class Action Complaint. (Doc. # 98.) Judge Gillmor granted Defendant’s motion to reopen the case from administrative closure on May 6, 2010. (See Doc. # 125 at 4.) Judge Gillmor then granted Plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a Second Amended Class Action Complaint. (Doc. # 121.) Plaintiffs filed their Second Amended Class Action Complaint (“SAC”) on September 3, 2010. (Doc. # 122.) The SAC alleges that during Plaintiffs’ employment, Defendant imposed a mandatory service charge to food and beverage bills for banquets, events, meetings, room service, and the like. (SAC ¶ 5.) The SAC further alleges that Defendant did not “remit the total proceeds of the service charge as tip income to the employees who serve[d] the food and beverages.” (Id. ¶ 6.) The SAC alleges that instead, Defendant retained a portion of this service charge, or used it to pay managers or other non-tipped employees who did not serve food and beverages, and did not disclose this retention to the Resorts’ customers. (Id. ¶¶ 7, 8.) Count I of the SAC alleges that retention of the service charge proceeds, without disclosing this fact to customers, is an unfair method of competition in violation of H.R.S. §§ 480-2(e) and 481B-14. Counts II through V allege claims for intentional interference with a contractual or advantageous relationship (Count II), breach of implied contract (Count III), unjust enrichment (Count IV), and unpaid wages under H.R.S. § 388-6 (CountV).

On September 30, 2010, Judge Gillmor issued an Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Defendant’s Renewed Motion to Dismiss. (Doc. # 125.) Judge Gillmor noted that her order addressed the sufficiency of the SAC. (Id. at 5.) Specifically, the order held that: (1) Plaintiffs are permitted to proceed on Count I of the SAC, but only based upon the allegations set forth in para[433]*433graphs 10 and 12 (Id. at 38-39); (2) the SAC fails to state a claim as to Count II (intentional interference with a contractual or advantageous relationship), and therefore the Renewed Motion to Dismiss as to this count was granted (Id. at 35-36, 39); and (3) as to the remaining counts, the claims asserted therein are sufficiently pled such that the Renewed Motion to Dismiss as to these counts was denied (Id. at 36-39).

On April 4, 2011, Plaintiffs filed the instant Motion for Class Certification pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which Defendant opposes. (Docs. ## 130, 139.) That same day, Plaintiffs also moved for partial summary judgment against Defendant on Count V of the SAC. (Doc. # 132.) Judge Gillmor heard Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on June 21, 2011. (Doe. # 151.) At the hearing, Judge Gillmor granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment as to Count V of the SAC. (Id.) Defendant also filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, which Judge Gill-mor has elected to decide without a hearing. (Docs. ## 147,149.)

DISCUSSION

This action is one of at least seven similar actions, involving food and beverage service employees suing their employers or former employers for loss of tip income, which were filed in this Court between November 21, 2008 and January 9, 2009.1 In five of these cases, the plaintiffs filed motions for class certification, which are nearly identical to the instant motion. District Judge Leslie E. Ko-bayashi addressed one such motion in Villon v. Marriott Hotel Services, Inc., Civ. No. 08-00529 LEK-RLP, 2011 WL 2160483 (D.Haw. May 31, 2011). In her Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification, Judge Kobayashi certified a class of “all non-managerial food and beverage service employees who, from July 30, 2004 to the present, have worked at banquets, functions, events, and small parties, or provided room service, where a service charge was imposed and where a part of that service charge was kept by the Defendant or management without adequate disclosure to customers____” Id. at *18.

Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi also addressed motions for class certification in Kyne v.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
277 F.R.D. 429, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118812, 2011 WL 4590403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-four-seasons-hotel-ltd-hid-2011.