Freeman v. Kaplan, Inc.

132 F. Supp. 3d 1002, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128948, 2015 WL 5617621
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 25, 2015
DocketCase No. 14 C 10265
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 132 F. Supp. 3d 1002 (Freeman v. Kaplan, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Freeman v. Kaplan, Inc., 132 F. Supp. 3d 1002, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128948, 2015 WL 5617621 (N.D. Ill. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MILTON I. SHADUR, Senior District Judge.

Sharon Freeman (“Freeman”) has brought a putative Class Action Complaint against Kaplan, Inc. (“Kaplan”), alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA,” 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq.1) and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (“Wage Law,” 820 ILCS 105/1 to 105/15) by failing to pay her a minimum wage in an acceptable medium and in a timely fashion. Kaplan has moved for summary judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. (“Rule”) 56 on the ground that Freeman was an outside sales employee and therefore exempt from the requirements of both the FLSA and the Wage Law.2 After Freeman responded to that motion, Kaplan filed a reply memorandum, teeing up the dispute for decision. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, Kaplan’s motion is denied.

Summary Judgment Standard

Every Rule 56 movant bears the burden of establishing the absence of any genuine issue of material fact (Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)). For that purpose courts consider the evidentiary record in the light most favorable to the nonmovant (here Freeman) and draw all reasonable inferences in her favor (Lesch v. Crown Cork & Seal Co., 282 F.3d 467, 471 (7th Cir.2002)). Courts “may not make credibility determinations, weigh the evidence, or decide which inferences to draw from the facts” in resolving motions for summary judgment (Payne v. Pauley, 337 F.3d 767, 770 (7th Cir.2003)). But a nonmovant must produce more than “a mere scintilla of evidence” to support the position that a genuine issue of material fact exists and “must come forward with specific facts demonstrating that there is a genuine issue for trial” (Wheeler v. Lawson, 539 F.3d 629, 634 (7th Cir.2008)). Ultimately summary judgment is warranted only if a reasonable jury could not return a verdict for the nonmovant (Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)).

Factual and Procedural Background3

This lawsuit arises out of work Freeman did for Kaplan while she was a law student [1005]*1005at Loyola University Law School (“Loyola”) in Chicago. Kaplan is in the business of creating and selling study materials and review courses, including prep courses for the bar exams of numerous states (K. St. ¶ 2). Kaplan also sells study materials and courses aimed at improving law students’ performance in their first-year courses {id.).

Kaplan hires law students to help sell its test-prep products on their law school campuses, calling those students “student reps” (Freeman Dep. 11:22-12:7). Student reps sell Kaplan test-prep courses and materials to their peers and do general promotional work on behalf of Kaplan products {id.).

At all-times relevant to this case Kaplan compensated student reps and hereafter-described “head reps” on a per-task basis rather than on a time basis and paid them in “credits” rather than currency (K. St. Ex. , 4 at 0002614). Students received credits only for completing some of the tasks they performed, some of which were enumerated in .Kaplan policies and some of which were decided at the Kaplan regional director’s discretion (K. St. ¶ 11; Freeman Dep. 20:11-21:10). Among the tasks that Kaplan policies set out, student reps and “head reps” were to receive 5 credits for successfully enrolling a student in a Kap-lan bar-exam prep course, 1 credit for enrolling students in other Kaplan courses, 1 credit for recruiting another student to work as a student rep and 25 credits for agreeing to serve as “head rep” (K. St. ¶ 11). Those credits could be redeemed only with Kaplan, only in certain increments and only for certain goods and services — for example, a student rep could redeem 25 credits for a Kaplan bar-exam prep course or 10 credits for a third-party gift card (Freeman Decl. ¶¶ 5-7; T & C 000261).5

Kaplan hired Freeman as a student rep in March 2013 (K. St. ¶ 7). Kaplan’s regional director, who brought Freeman on, assured her that even if she did not sell many bar-review courses the director would still “take care of’ Freeman (Freeman Dep. 20:11-20:19). Because the director accompanied that assurance with a statement that “all of [her] reps get their courses” {id. 21:4-21:10), Freeman took the director to mean that she would have the opportunity to earn at least 25 credits (the cost of a bar course) in a variety of ways apart from sales {id.). Apparently true to her word, the director offered Freeman the position as head rep in September 2013, an offer that Freeman accepted in exchange for 25 credits (K. St. ¶ 12). Freeman stayed in that position until May 2014 {id. ¶ 1).

[1006]*1006So in total Freeman worked for Kaplan from March 2013 to May 2014. During that period of some 14 months she logged (in her estimation) 55.5 hours of work for Kaplan (K. St. ¶ 28) and made just one sale (Freeman Decl. ¶ 9). She did a variety of tasks, recounted in the next paragraph, during those hours.

Freeman first completed her initial training {id. ¶ 22). After that, one of her primary responsibilities was to help set up, man and then take down the “Kaplan table” — Kaplan’s regional director would rent space from Loyola about twice a month to set up a table full of promotional materials and giveaways to attract student attention and promote sales of Kaplan’s law-related courses (K. St. ¶ 24; Freeman Decl. ¶ 10). Freeman also regularly met one-on-one with students that Kaplan put in touch with her, doing so at specific times and Loyola campus locations selected by Kaplan (Freeman Dep. 120:20-121:6). At Kaplan’s direction Freeman posted fliers on Loyola bulletin boards, wrote Kaplan-themed messages on Loyola classroom blackboards and personally made Kaplan-themed announcements in Loyola classes {id. 46:9-53:12). Freeman also spent time answering customer emails (some of which were forwarded to her by Kaplan, and each of which Kaplan required her to answer within 24 hours) (F. Resp. St. ¶ 29, T & C 000261). She ran two Kaplan-themed promotional events at a Starbucks near Loyola (F.Resp.St. ¶ 30). Finally, she did general organizational and clerical tasks for Kaplan and received ongoing training (Freeman Dep. 30:13-30:21; Freeman Decl. ¶ 17).

For those 55.5 hours of work Freeman earned 47 credits.6 Freeman redeemed 25 of her credits for one of Kaplan’s bar-review courses and took that course in the summer of 2015 (Freeman Dep. 9:9-9:11). Kaplan wrongly credited Freeman with only 5 of the remaining 22 credits she had earned, so that Freeman was prevented from receiving any compensation for the remainder of her work — Kaplan allowed its sales employees to redeem credits only in 25-credit or 10-credit increments (Freeman Decl. ¶¶ 3-6).

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 F. Supp. 3d 1002, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128948, 2015 WL 5617621, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/freeman-v-kaplan-inc-ilnd-2015.