Harris v. Med. Transp. Mgmt., Inc.

317 F. Supp. 3d 421
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit·Decided July 17, 2018·No. Case No. 17-cv-01371 (APM)·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

Amit P. Mehta, United States District Judge

Before the court are two motions filed by Plaintiffs: (1) a Motion for Conditional Certification and Issuance of Notice; and (2) a Conditional Motion to Toll Limitations Period for Putative Collective Members. See Pls.' Mot. for Conditional Cert. and Issuance of Notice, ECF No. 14 [hereinafter Pls.' Mot. for Conditional Cert.]; Pls.' Conditional Mot. to Toll, ECF No. 15. In the interest of efficiently resolving these motions, the court does not recite the pertinent facts and assumes the parties' awareness of them. Moreover, the court does not engage in a long recitation of the law. Instead, the court is guided by the comprehensive survey of the applicable *424legal principles set forth in Stephens v. Farmers Restaurant Group , 291 F.Supp.3d 95 (D.D.C. 2018), and Ayala v. Tito Contractors , 12 F.Supp.3d 167 (D.D.C. 2014). For the reasons that follow, the court grants both Motions.

1. Motion for Conditional Certification

The court finds that conditional certification is warranted because Plaintiffs have shown that potential opt-in plaintiffs "may be " similarly situated to the named plaintiffs with regard to the alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). Ayala , 12 F.Supp.3d at 170 (quoting Myers v. Hertz Corp. , 624 F.3d 537, 555 (2d Cir. 2010) ). Plaintiffs' burden is "not high," and they have satisfied it by demonstrating that they were subject to a common plan or policy that violated the law. Id. ; accord Stephens , 291 F.Supp.3d at 105. In this case, the commonality is that the named and potential opt-in plaintiffs routinely worked more than 40 hours a week as drivers for companies that contracted with Defendant Medical Transportation Management, Inc., to supply non-emergency medical transportation ("NEMT") to Medicaid patients in the District of Columbia and that Defendant, as an "employer" under the FLSA, did not pay them an effective minimum wage or overtime wages for their work. These claims, supported by sworn affidavits from Plaintiffs and one opt-in plaintiff, are sufficient at this stage to conditionally certify the proposed class. See Vasquez v. Grunley Constr. Co., No. 15-cv-2106 (GMH), 2016 WL 1559131, at *2-3 (D.D.C. April 18, 2016) ; Ayala , 12 F.Supp.3d at 171 ; Castillo v. P & R Enters. , 517 F.Supp.2d 440, 446 (D.D.C. 2007) ; see also Hunter v. Sprint Corp. , 346 F.Supp.2d 113, 119 (D.D.C. 2004) (stating "that class members in a collective action 'must share more than a common allegation that they were denied overtime or paid below the minimum wage. The class members must put forth a common legal theory upon which each member is entitled to relief.' " (citation omitted) (emphasis added) ).

To be sure, there are differences within the proposed class of plaintiffs, but those differences are not sufficient to defeat conditional certification. First, as Defendant points out, even among the named plaintiffs, the transportation companies by whom Plaintiffs were directly employed used varying compensation systems. Def.'s Opp'n to Mot. for Conditional Class Cert., ECF No. 33 [hereinafter Def.'s Opp'n], at 6-7. But such uniformity is not a prerequisite to conditional class certification. See Ayala , 12 F.Supp.3d at 172 (rejecting as a basis to deny conditional class certification that the defendants' "pay policies are dictated by the individual contractor for each project and do not operate as a uniform scheme"); see also Stephens , 291 F.Supp.3d at 106 (stating that "defendants cannot defeat conditional certification by pointing to immaterial variations in how the improper policies alleged by the plaintiff were applied").

Second, Defendant contends that at least one transportation company uses drivers for purposes other than NEMT work, and that all providers are free to perform such other work. See Def.'s Opp'n at 8. But even if true, that speaks to the damages that would be available to a particular plaintiff and does not defeat conditional certification. See Stephens , 291 F.Supp.3d at 111.

Third, Defendant offers an affidavit from the Quienton Shields, Director of Transportation at MBI Logistics, LLC, a transportation company that contracts with Defendant, who attests that "MBI has always paid its drivers at least the federal minimum wage." Def.'s Opp'n, Decl. of Quienton Shields, Ex. B, ECF No. 33-2, ¶

*4257. Shields's declaration, however, is too vague to rebut the statements submitted by Plaintiffs. Shields does not say, for instance, whether MBI pays its drivers time-and-a-half wages for overtime, as required by the FLSA. See 29 U.S.C. § 207(a). In any event, even if the court assumes that MBI is fully compliant with the FLSA, the fact that one of many transportation companies adheres to federal wage standards does not, by itself, warrant the denial of conditional certification. Cf. Stephens , 291 F.Supp.3d at 105 (stating that a defendant cannot "thwart conditional certification merely by contradicting plaintiffs' claims," even with voluminous evidence that no violation occurred).

Finally, Defendant places great weight on Dinkel v. MedStar Health, Inc. , 880 F.Supp.2d 49 (D.D.C. 2012), a case in which the district court granted in part and denied in part the plaintiffs' motion for conditional certification. See Def.'s Opp'n at 13-15.

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Harris v. Med. Transp. Mgmt., Inc., 317 F. Supp. 3d 421 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

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