Meglitsch v. Southcentral Foundation

CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedNovember 15, 2022
Docket3:20-cv-00190
StatusUnknown

This text of Meglitsch v. Southcentral Foundation (Meglitsch v. Southcentral Foundation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meglitsch v. Southcentral Foundation, (D. Alaska 2022).

Opinion

WO IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF ALASKA

COLIN GRAHAM MEGLITSCH, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) vs. ) ) SOUTHCENTRAL FOUNDATION, ) ) No. 3:20-cv-0190-HRH Defendant. ) _______________________________________) O R D E R Motion for Summary Judgment Defendant Southcentral Foundation moves for summary judgment.1 This motion is opposed by plaintiff Colin Graham Meglitsch.2 Oral argument was not requested and is not deemed necessary. Facts Defendant is a Tribal organization under Title V of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA). A Tribal organization under the ISDEAA includes 1Docket No. 22. 2Docket No. 29. -1- “any legally established organization of Indians which is controlled, sanctioned, or chartered by such governing body....” 25 U.S.C. § 5304(l). Defendant has been designated by the

Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) and eleven federally recognized tribes, including the Takotna Village, to carry out federal health care programs for Alaska Natives and Native Americans. Defendant receives the federal funds that CIRI and the tribes would receive directly if they had chosen to operate their own health care programs. Defendant “is a Co-Signer to the Alaska Tribal Health Compact (‘ATHC’), which is an agreement between 25 Alaska tribal

entities and the Secretary of the DHHS. Under the ATHC, [defendant] and the 24 other Co- Signers of the ATHC operate federal health and health-related programs for the benefit of Alaska Natives” and Native Americans.3 Defendant “provides medical, dental, behavioral health, and substance abuse treatment services to over 73,000 Alaska Native and [Native

American] people living within the Municipality of Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and 55 rural villages across Alaska[.]”4 Plaintiff is employed as a Community Health Aide at defendant’s health clinic in Takotna, Alaska. Plaintiff has worked as a Community Health Aide in Takotna for more

than ten years and lives in housing provided by defendant. The Community Health Aide

3Declaration of Lisa C. Mock in Support of SCF’s Motion for Summary Judgment at 3, ¶ 8, Docket No. 23. 4Declaration of Ronald Lee Olson in Support of SCF’s Motion for Summary Judgment at 2, ¶ 3, Docket No. 24. -2- position “is a non-professional position.”5 Plaintiff’s position “is categorized as full-time, non-exempt” and plaintiff was informed that “non exempt employees are eligible for overtime.”6

According to plaintiff’s complaint, “[i]n addition to his normal, on-site duties, [defendant] required [him] to assume duties that it termed as ‘on-call duties.’ These ‘on-call duties consisted of [him] answering any after-hours calls directed to [the] Takotna Clinic.”7 “These after-hour emergency calls were directed to a phone number accessible at only two

land line phones, one located in the Takotna Clinic, and the other located” in plaintiff’s residence.8 Plaintiff contends that for the “on-call” hours he worked, he was paid “$4.00 per hour during the time that he had responsibility for the after-hours emergency phone” and “was paid one and half his regular rate of pay for hours when he actually needed to make an

emergency response to a call to the after-hours emergency number.”9 This is consistent with defendant’s “Hours of Work, Compensable Wages, and Paydays Procedure” (referred to

5Declaration of Natalie Michelle Tierney in Support of SCF’s Motion for Summary Judgment at 2, ¶ 4, Docket No. 25. 6Plaintiff’s 2013 Employment Letter, Exhibit A at 1, Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Docket No. 29. 7Complaint at 2, ¶ 2.3, Exhibit A, Notice of Removal, Docket No. 1. 8Id. 9Id. at 2, ¶ 2.4. -3- herein as “defendant’s pay policies”).10 Defendant’s pay policies provide that the on-call rate of pay is 15% percent of an employee’s base pay with a cap of $4.00 per hour and that “[o]n-

call hours are not considered actual hours worked for computation of overtime.”11 Defendant’s pay policies also provide that “[w]hen an employee is called into work while on an on-call status, the employee will be considered in a call-back status” and that “[c]all-back pay will be paid at a rate of one and a half (1.5) times the employee’s hourly rate and for a minimum of two (2) hours.”12

Plaintiff alleges that since 2012, he has been the sole employee “authorized to answer the emergency phone line....”13 Plaintiff alleges that “[d]uring the last three years of his employment with” defendant, he “worked over 15,000 hours of on-call responsibilities, for which he only received $4.00 per hour, rather than one and one half his normal rate, as is

required under Federal Wage and Hour law.”14 On June 1, 2020, plaintiff commenced this action with the filing of a complaint in state court. Defendant removed the action to this court on August 5, 2020. In his complaint, plaintiff asserts a single cause of action, alleging that defendant violated the Fair Labor

10Exhibit B, Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Docket No. 29. 11Id. at 5-6. 12Id. at 6. 13Complaint at 3, ¶ 2.6, Exhibit A, Notice of Removal, Docket No. 1. 14Id. at 3, ¶ 2.9. -4- Standards Act (“FLSA”) by failing to properly pay him overtime for the on-call hours he worked.

Defendant now moves for summary judgment on the grounds that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the FLSA does not apply to defendant. Discussion As an initial matter, plaintiff argues that the court should treat the instant motion as a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss, rather than a summary judgment motion, because

defendant is challenging the court’s subject matter jurisdiction. The court, however, cannot treat the instant motion as a Rule 12(b)(1) motion because such motions must be filed prior to any responsive pleading. Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Alla Medical Services, Inc., 855 F.2d 1470, 1474 (9th Cir. 1988). Defendant filed its answer on August 12, 2020.15 It did not file

the instant motion until June 6, 2022. The court also cannot treat the instant motion as a motion for summary judgment even though defendant has labeled the motion as such. Were the court to treat the instant motion as a motion for summary judgment and grant said motion, that would be a decision on the

merits. Singh v. American Honda Finance Corp., 925 F.3d 1053, 1071 (9th Cir. 2019). But, if the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, it may not decide a case on the merits. See Medina v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security, 408 F.Supp.3d 1224, 1236 (W.D. Wash. 2019) (“[w]hen a court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, it lacks the power to proceed, and its only

15Docket No. 4. -5- remaining function is to dismiss”). Rather, the court must treat the instant motion as a Rule 12(h)(3) motion. “Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(h)(3) provides that ‘[i]f the court

determines at any time that it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction, the court must dismiss the action.’” Hamidi v. Service Employees Int’l Union Local 1000, 386 F.Supp.3d 1289, 1294 (E.D. Cal. 2019) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(h)(3)). “The difference between a Rule 12(h)(3) motion and a motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1) ‘is simply that the former may be asserted at any time and need not be responsive to any

pleading of the other party.’” Id. (quoting Berkshire Fashions, Inc. v. M.V. Hakusan II, 954 F.2d 874, 880 n.3 (3d Cir. 1992)).

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