FELIX PEREZ VS. ACCESS BIO, INC. (L-5761-12, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)

CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJuly 23, 2019
DocketA-3071-16T4
StatusUnpublished

This text of FELIX PEREZ VS. ACCESS BIO, INC. (L-5761-12, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (FELIX PEREZ VS. ACCESS BIO, INC. (L-5761-12, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
FELIX PEREZ VS. ACCESS BIO, INC. (L-5761-12, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE), (N.J. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. A-3071-16T4

FELIX PEREZ, KARINA MARROQUIN, MARIA BARAHONE, ESPERANZA BARAHONE, GABRIELLA HERNANDEZ, and GRACIE Y. RIVERA,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

ACCESS BIO, INC.,

Defendant-Respondent,

and

OLYMPUS MANAGEMENT SERVICES (f/k/a ATLANTIS PERSONNEL, INC. and AM PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, INC.),

Defendants. _________________________________

Argued September 21, 2018 – Decided July 23, 2019

Before Judges Simonelli, O'Connor and DeAlmeida. On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Middlesex County, Docket No. L-5761-12.

Ravi Sattiraju argued the cause for appellants (The Sattiraju Law Firm, PC, attorneys; Ravi Sattiraju, of counsel and on the brief; Anthony S. Almeida and Carole L. Nowicki, on the brief).

Micala Campbell Robinson argued the cause for respondent (Greenberg Traurig, LLP, attorneys; Jason H. Kislin and Micala Campbell Robinson, of counsel and on the brief).

PER CURIAM

Plaintiffs Felix Perez, Karina Marroquin, Maria Barahone, Esperanza

Barahone, Gabriella Hernandez, and Gracie Y. Rivera appeal from the October

24, 2014 order of the Law Division denying in part their request for class

certification of their claims of violations of the New Jersey Wage and Hour Law

(WHL) N.J.S.A. 34:11-56a to -56a38, and the New Jersey Wage Payment Law

(WPL) N.J.S.A. 34:11-4.1 to -4.14, as well as the trial court's February 6, 2015

order granting summary judgment in favor of defendant Access Bio, Inc.

(Access Bio), and its March 20, 2015 and December 12, 2016 orders denying

their motions for reconsideration. We affirm.

I.

The following facts are derived from the exhibits and certifications

submitted with respect to the summary judgment motions. Access Bio

A-3071-16T4 2 manufactures diagnostic medical tests at its Somerset facility. On January 1,

2012, it entered into a staffing agreement with defendant Atlantis Personnel Inc.,

a/k/a AM Professional Services, Inc., a staffing agency, to provide temporary

staffing services to Access Bio. Defendant Olympus Management Services is

the successor in interest to Atlantis Personnel (collectively, the Agency

Defendants).

Pursuant to the agreement, it was the Agency Defendants' responsibility

to recruit, screen, interview, and assign its employees (the Assigned Personnel)

to work at Access Bio's facility. The agreement provided that

Assigned Personnel are employees of [the Agency Defendants] and are not employees of [Access Bio] at any time or for any purpose . . . . [The Agency Defendants] will comply with all applicable laws concerning the employment of Assigned Personnel and shall be solely responsible for all compensation and benefits that may be due to Assigned Personnel, including, without limitation, regular pay, overtime, worker's compensation, vacation, sick time, disability, pension and any other compensation or benefits that such individuals may be owed under any applicable law[.]

The Agency Defendants were also responsible for processing the necessary tax

and employment eligibility forms for the Assigned Personnel.

The Agency Defendants retained the contractual right to assign their

employees to the Access Bio facility or the worksite of any other client. The

A-3071-16T4 3 Agency Defendants were responsible for paying the Assigned Personnel,

including overtime, making withholdings from their paychecks for income

taxes, unemployment, and workers' compensation, and providing them benefits,

holidays, sick time, and vacation days.

Access Bio, on the other hand, was responsible for supplying safe working

conditions to the Assigned Personnel, advising them of safety procedures, and

instructing them on the services they were performing. Absences of Assigned

Personnel were reported by Access Bio to the Agency Defendants. The contract

provided Access Bio with the right to "end the assignment for the Assigned

Personnel immediately upon notice of dissatisfaction and without any penalty

or additional fees or costs." However, individual Assigned Personnel were not

provided feedback regarding their performance directly from Access Bio. All

such communications were made by Access Bio to the Agency Defendants.

Access Bio informed the Agency Defendants of the number of hours

needed to be staffed at its facility. The Agency Defendants maintained the

records for all hours worked by the Assigned Personnel, including lunch and

break times, and would send Access Bio an invoice on a weekly basis for regular

hours and overtime hours worked by Assigned Personnel. Access Bio entered

A-3071-16T4 4 into a substantially similar agreement with defendant Olympus Management

Services on January 6, 2014.

For several years beginning in 2010, plaintiffs were employed by the

Agency Defendants and assigned to work at the Access Bio facility. They

performed various tasks, including but not limited to: cleaning, removing trash,

moving materials, assembling, working on the production line, manual counting,

and packing medical devices in plastic. Idania Caseres, an Agency Defendants

employee, supervised plaintiffs at Access Bio's facility. Access Bio employees

instructed Caseres daily with respect to the tasks to be performed by plaintiffs,

many of whom spoke only Spanish. Caseres, who is bilingual, translated the

instructions for plaintiffs. Caseres performed the same function when plaintiffs

were trained.

The Agency Defendants offered plaintiffs what the Agency Defendants

alleged was optional transportation from the Agency Defendants' office to the

Access Bio facility, and from the facility to the employees' homes, for forty

dollars a week, deducted directly from their paychecks. Plaintiffs, on the other

hand, allege that they were compelled to use the Agency Defendants'

transportation and were penalized with unpaid holidays or fewer assigned hours

if they elected to use their own transportation to the Access Bio facility.

A-3071-16T4 5 In 2012, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce

Development (DOL) audited the Agency Defendants' wage and payment

practices. The DOL concluded that the Agency Defendants were the Assigned

Personnel's employers and had underpaid the Assigned Personnel $164,333.32

in overtime wages in violation of the WHL and WPL. The DOL awarded

plaintiffs the following amounts from the Agency Defendants: Perez, $1,131.39;

Marroquin, $467; Maria Barahone, $1,027.73; Esperanza Barahone, $753.08;

Hernandez, $885.68; and Rivera, $933.19. Some plaintiffs refused to accept

their checks for back wages. 1 In addition, the DOL imposed a $351,000 penalty

on the Agency Defendants.

Plaintiffs filed a putative class action complaint in the Law Division

against Access Bio and the Agency Defendants, alleging violations of the WHL

and WPL. Plaintiffs alleged that they, and all similarly situated persons, were:

(1) incorrectly categorized as employees of only the Agency Defendants and not

of both the Agency Defendants and Access Bio; (2) forced to take the Agency

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FELIX PEREZ VS. ACCESS BIO, INC. (L-5761-12, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/felix-perez-vs-access-bio-inc-l-5761-12-middlesex-county-and-njsuperctappdiv-2019.