HALL v. ADELPHIA THREE CORP.

CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedJanuary 27, 2023
Docket1:21-cv-01106
StatusUnknown

This text of HALL v. ADELPHIA THREE CORP. (HALL v. ADELPHIA THREE CORP.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
HALL v. ADELPHIA THREE CORP., (D.N.J. 2023).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

MICHELLE HALL on behalf of herself, individually, and on behalf of all others Civil Action similarly situated, No. 21-01106

Plaintiffs, OPINION v.

ADELPHIA THREE CORP. et. al,

Defendants.

Appearances: Tyler J. Burrell Charles Joseph Kocher MCOMBER MCOMBER & LUBER, P.C. 39 E. Main Street Marlton, NJ 08053

On behalf of Plaintiff Michelle Hall.

Joseph P. Grimes JOSEPH P. GRIMES, ESQUIRE, LLC 810 Asbury Avenue Suite 212 Ocean City, NJ 08226

On behalf of Defendants Adelphia Three Corp. d/b/a Phily Diner, Petro Kontos, and William Balis. O’HEARN, District Judge. INTRODUCTION This case comes before the Court on Plaintiff Michelle Hall’s Motion to Certify Class. (ECF No. 38). The Court heard oral argument pursuant to Local Rule 78.1 on January 23, 2023.

(ECF No. 60). For the reasons below, the Court will GRANT Plaintiff’s Motion. I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND1 AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY This is a hybrid class/collective action brought by Plaintiff Michelle Hall, on behalf of herself and other tipped employees, alleging that Defendants Adelphia Three Corp., doing business as Phily Diner, Petro Kontos, and William Balis (“Defendants”) deprived them of their applicable minimum wage and overtime pay by taking a “tip credit” without giving adequate notice in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et. seq., New Jersey Wage and Hour Law (“NJWHL”), N.J.S.A. 34:11-56a et seq., and common law principles of unjust enrichment. (Compl., ECF No. 1). Plaintiff was employed as a waitress by Defendants, for approximately ten years until May

29, 2019. (PSMF, ECF No. 38-12 ¶ 6). Between January 2015 and December 2018, Defendants’ payroll records reveal there were approximately 191 “tipped employees.” (PSMF, ECF No. 38-12

1 Because the Court must make factual determinations to support Rule 23 findings by a preponderance of the evidence standard, Reyes v. NetDeposit L.L.C., 802 F.3d 469, 484 (3rd Cir. 2015), the Court does not accept the factual allegations of the Complaint as true for the purpose of this Motion and will make all necessary factual determinations, Marcus v. BMW of N. Am., L.L.C., 687 F.3d 583, 591 (3d Cir. 2012) (“Rule 23 gives no license to shy away from making factual findings that are necessary to determine whether the Rule’s requirements have been met.”). Because Plaintiff relies on her Statement of Material Facts not in Dispute submitted in support of her Motion for Summary Judgment, this Court will do the same. ¶ 8).2 The parties agree that Defendants’ “policies, practices, and procedures were uniform among all tipped employees including Plaintiff” and further that “[t]here were no policies, practices, or procedures unique to Plaintiff.” (PSMF, ECF No. 38-12 ¶¶ 9–11, 31–33). Since 2015, Defendants used “Olympic Payroll—a third party vendor—to facilitate payroll operations and processing,”

(PSMF, ECF No. 38-12 ¶ 22), and the parties do not dispute the accuracy of the payroll information, (PSMF, ECF No. 38-12 ¶¶ 15–28). From 2015 to 2018, Defendants paid tipped employees $1.94 per hour in cash wages for the day shift and $3.88 for the night shift. (PSMF, ECF No. 38-12 ¶¶ 34–35). It is undisputed that all tipped employees’ paystubs contained four boxes of information: earnings, taxes, deductions, and year-to-date. (PSMF, ECF No. 38-12 ¶ 33). Plaintiff’s pay stubs—produced as part of the pending motions for summary judgment—reveal one line labeled “tips” with amounts varying by week and another line labeled “meals” consistently showing a $10 credit (“meal credit”) in the earnings box. (Exemplar Pay Stub, ECF No. 39-1 at 21).3 Plaintiff’s tips and the $10 meal credit

2 Plaintiff’s SOMF indicates a time frame of January 2015 to December 2020 but the payroll records produced only cover January 2015 through December 2018 as Plaintiff conceded during argument. Defendants admit that there are 191 tipped employees during that period but deny this fact on the basis that not all of those tipped employees would have claims under the applicable statute of limitations. 3 This exemplar pay stub was produced with Plaintiff’s brief in support of her Motion for Summary Judgment, (ECF No. 39-1), filed at the same time as this Motion, (ECF No. 38). However, since this Court is required to conduct a rigorous review and not shy away from factual and legal determinations even if they go to the merits of the case, Marcus, 687 F.3d at 591, the Court will use the summary judgment exhibits from both parties to address underlying factual and legal issues relevant to class certification. appear again in the deductions box. (Exemplar Pay Stub, ECF No. 39-1 at 21). This is evident from Plaintiff's exemplar pay stub: at 1 soe NAME MICHELE, be gE EMOTE, ea uly Diner ae Ree: □□□ Poo ET et a ee ee ee ee OvT 6.25 7.26 453) FED 30.26 |MEALS 10.00 NI eee oe else my, acy "| aa Wenoe JB1 34.25 3.688 132.8 GROSS: 554.73 TAXES: 82.74 DEDUCTIONS: 345.31 YGRuss 27é76.16 Net Pay: ****$706.68 Pay Period: 12/17/18 To: 12/23/18 Check No: Y287 ADELPHIA THREE CORP. 31 °5 BLACKHORSE PIK RUNNEMEDE NJ O8078

Starting with the December 31, 2018 January 6, 2019 pay period until Plaintiff left employment in May 2019, Plaintiff's pay stubs no longer reflected a meal credit as earnings or deductions and showed a regular wage of $2.13 and an overtime wage of $7.48. (Pla. Pay Subs, ECF No. 40-2, Exh. 10, Paycheck 122). Plaintiff filed her Complaint on January 25, 2021, bringing a class action for state law claims encompassing a class of All current and former Tipped Employees who work or have worked for Defendants in the State of New Jersey at any time six years prior to the filing of this action through the entry of judgment in this action (the “New Jersey Class”). (ECF No. 1 § 46). On June 6, 2022, Plaintiff filed the Motion to Certify Class presently before this Court, (ECF No. 38), which Defendants oppose, (ECF No. 46). The Court heard argument on January 23, 2023. (ECF No. 60). Il. LEGAL STANDARD The requirements for class certification are set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Under Rule 23, the moving party bears the burden of showing that the putative class satisfies the four prerequisites of Rule 23(a), and that the action can be maintained under at least one subsection of Rule 23(b). See Johnston v. HBO Film Mgmt., Inc., 265 F.3d 178, 184-84 (3d Cir. 2001); Amchem Prods., Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 613-14 (1997).

The four prerequisites of Rule 23(a) are satisfied when: (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable; (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class; (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class; and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class. FED. R. CIV. P. 23(a). “Commonly referred to as numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy of representation, these four requirements are ‘meant to assure both that the class action treatment is necessary and efficient and that it is fair to the absentees under the particular circumstances.’” Banda v. Corzine, No. 07–4508, 2007 WL 3243917, at *15 (D.N.J. Nov.1, 2007) (quoting Baby Neal v.

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HALL v. ADELPHIA THREE CORP., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-adelphia-three-corp-njd-2023.