Delgado v. Castellino Corp.

66 F. Supp. 3d 1340, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121948, 2014 WL 4339232
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedSeptember 2, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 13-cv-03379-MSK-MJW
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 66 F. Supp. 3d 1340 (Delgado v. Castellino Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delgado v. Castellino Corp., 66 F. Supp. 3d 1340, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121948, 2014 WL 4339232 (D. Colo. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER OVERRULING OBJECTIONS, ADOPTING RECOMMENDATION, AND DENYING MOTION TO DISMISS

MARCIA S. KRIEGER, Chief United States District Judge

THIS MATTER comes before the Court pursuant to Mr. Delgado’s Objections (# 36) to the Magistrate Judge’s May 20, 2014 Recommendation (# 35) that the Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (# 16) be denied, the Defendants’ response (# 38), and Mr. Delgado’s reply (# 40).

The issue before the Court is primarily a legal one, and thus, only a minimal factual recitation is necessary. Mr. Delgado, a former employee of a business owned by the Defendants, commenced this action alleging that the Defendants failed to pay him the minimum wage required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., and related claims arising under Colorado’s Wage Claim Act, C.R.S. § 8^1-101, and common-law breach of contract. Pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), Mr. Delgado seeks to bring his FLSA claim as a “collective action”1 on behalf of all similarly-situated employees who ultimately opt-in to such an action.

Shortly after Mr. Delgado commenced this action, the Defendants tendered an Offer of Judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 68, offering Mr. Delgado what the Defendants contend was the full amount of potential unpaid wages he could recover, an equal amount as liquidated damages permitted under the FLSA, costs of the action, and a reasonable attorney fee to be determined by the Court. Mr. Delgado did not accept the offer, and it eventüally • lapsed by its own terms.

The Defendants now move to dismiss (# 16) Mr. Delgado’s FLSA claims (including the putative collective action claims) for lack of standing, arguing that their Offer of Judgment for the maximum amount recoverable by Mr. Delgado on his individual claim, whether accepted or not, operates to moot both his own individual claim and any as-yet-unadjudicated putative collective action claim.

The Court referred the Defendants’ motion to the Magistrate Judge for a recommendation, and the Magistrate Judge recommended (#35) that the motion be denied, citing to prior decisions by this Court and others on the same or similar legal questions, as discussed in greater detail below. The Defendants filed timely Objections (# 36) to the Recommendation, arguing that the Magistrate Judge misconstrued recent. Supreme Court prec[1342]*1342edent allegedly on-point. This Court reviews the objeeted-to portions of the Recommendation de novo. Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b).

As will be explained in more detail below, this matter presents two separate legal questions, one embedded within the other: (i) does a defendant’s tender of an Offer of Judgment for the full amount of a plaintiffs possible recovery, if unaccepted by the plaintiff, operate to render the plaintiffs claim moot and thus deprive the plaintiff of standing to pursue that claim?; and (ii) if it does, does that mootness further preclude the plaintiff from pursuing putative class-or collective action allegations in the complaint?

In recent decisions, this Court has answered the first question in the affirmative, and the second question in the conditional negative. In Miranda v. Receivables Performance Management, LLC, 2013 WL 3958367 (D.Colo. Aug. 1, 2013) (slip op.), this Court addressed the question of whether an unaccepted Rule 68 Offer of Judgment for the full amount of a plaintiffs claim operated to render that claim moot. This Court turned to Lucero v. Bureau of Collection Recovery, Inc., 639 F.3d 1239, 1243 (10th Cir.2011), for guidance. In Lucero, the plaintiff brought a putative class action claims against the defendant under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The defendant made an Offer of Judgment in the full amount of the plaintiffs potential recovery, and then moved to dismiss the plaintiffs claim as moot. On appeal from the trial court’s dismissal of the action as a whole, the 10th Circuit first acknowledged the general rule that “if an offer is made for a plaintiffs maximum recovery, his action may be rendered moot.” 639 F.3d at 1243. It then noted that “[w]hile we have yet to address the question squarely, other circuits have concluded that if a defendant makes an offer of judgment in complete satisfaction of a plaintiffs claims in a non-class action, the plaintiffs claims are rendered moot because he lacks a remaining interest in the outcome of the case.” Id., citing Sandoz v. Cingular Wireless, LLC, 553 F.3d 913, 915 (5th Cir.2008) and Rand v. Monsanto Co., 926 F.2d 596, 598 (7th Cir.1991). Based on this authority, the Court reformed the somewhat ambiguous offer tendered by the defendant, deemed Ms. Miranda to have accepted it, and entered judgment in favor of Ms. Miranda consistent with the terms of the reformed offer. Implicitly, then, this Court recognized that an Offer of Judgment for the full amount of a plaintiffs claim would operate to moot that claim, even if unaccepted by the plaintiff.

This Court faced the second portion of the question above — whether the mooting of a plaintiffs individual claim by an Offer of Judgment affects putative collective action allegations — in Perez v. Pinon Management, Inc., 2013 WL 1149567 (D.Colo. Mar. 19, 2013) (slip op.). There, the plaintiff brought an FLSA overtime claim on behalf of herself and a putative “class,” and the defendant made an Offer of Judgment in the full amount of the plaintiffs individual claim and sought dismissal of the entire action, including the putative collective action allegations, as moot. Again, this Court took its cue from Lucero. There, after a careful and thorough analysis, the 10th Circuit held that “a named plaintiff in a proposed [Rule 23] class action .. -. may proceed to seek timely class certification where an unaccepted offer of judgment is tendered in full satisfaction of the plaintiffs individual claim before the court can reasonably be expected to rule on the class certification motion.” 639 F.3d at 1250. In Perez, this Court con-[1343]*1343eluded that Lucero’s reasoning would apply equally strongly to FLSA collective actions, and thus, held that Ms. Perez’s diligent pursuit of a class certification motion prevented the defendant’s Offer of Judgment from completely mooting the action.2

Both of these holdings were called into question by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 1523, 185 L.Ed.2d 636 (2013). Genesis presents the same basic factual scenario as Perez and this case: the plaintiff asserts FLSA claims on behalf of him/herself, along with putative collective action allegations, and the employer tenders an Offer of Judgment in full satisfaction of the plaintiffs individual claim, then seeks to dismiss the entire action as moot.

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Bluebook (online)
66 F. Supp. 3d 1340, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121948, 2014 WL 4339232, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delgado-v-castellino-corp-cod-2014.