Mike v. Safeco Insurance Co. of America

223 F.R.D. 50, 9 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 1562, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15351, 2004 WL 1774833
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedAugust 5, 2004
DocketNo. 3:02CV2239 (DJS)
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 223 F.R.D. 50 (Mike v. Safeco Insurance Co. of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mike v. Safeco Insurance Co. of America, 223 F.R.D. 50, 9 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 1562, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15351, 2004 WL 1774833 (D. Conn. 2004).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SQUATRITO, District Judge.

Plaintiff William Mike, brings this action against defendant Safeco Insurance Company of America (“Safeco”) alleging a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-262, and the Connecticut Minimum Wage Act, Conn. Gen.Stat. §§ 31-58-31-69b. In Count Three of the Second Amended Complaint, Mike purports to bring a claim on behalf of a class of Safeco employees under the Connecticut Minimum Wage Act and other state minimum wage laws. Now pending is Mike’s motion to certify a class (dkt. # 82) of plaintiffs asserting a violation of the minimum wage laws of several states. For the reasons set forth herein, Mike’s motion is DENIED.

I. FACTS

The merits of this lawsuit concern the application of the administrative exemption from the FLSA’s requirement that workers be paid overtime. See 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(1). The court has previously set forth the pertinent facts in the Memorandum of Decision and Order dated July 15, 2003 (dkt. #69), see Mike v. Safeco Ins. Co. of America, 274 F.Supp.2d 216, 221 (D.Conn.2003), which facts are adopted for the purpose of deciding the pending motion. The following is a brief summary of these facts.

From the time of his hire in April of 2000 until December of 2002, Mike worked for Safeco as a Claims Representative. Mike was a type of Claims Representative called a [52]*52Field Claims Representative,1 (see dkt. # 46, Ex. A, H 6), and was “responsible for handling those portions of the claim adjustment process that require the physical presence of a company representative,” (dkt. # 46, Ex. D at M0002741), as opposed to those functions that could be handled exclusively from a remote location. On July 16, 2001, Safeco reclassified all Claims Representatives, including the sub-class of Field Claims Representatives, as non-exempt. (See Dkt. #46, Ex. C, Response to Int. #3 at 6). Mike claims that, given his day-to-day job responsibilities, which he alleges consisted primarily of appraising auto damage and estimating the cost of repair,2 Safeco erroneously classified him as exempt prior to July 16, 2001. Mike claims that other Safeco employees were also erroneously classified, and he now requests that the court certify a class of Safeco employees to assert a violation of several state wage and hour laws against Safeco.

On July 15, 2003, this court denied Mike permission to prosecute his FLSA claim as a collective action. Mike is a Field Claims Representative. Safeco has published a job description for this position, which lists a variety of tasks to be performed by a Field Claims Representative, including appraising automobile damage. Mike claims that he does not perform all the appointed tasks but rather that he exclusively appraises automobile damage. Mike also claims that, contrary to Safeco’s published job description, other Field Claims Representatives also exclusively appraise automobile damage. He seeks to proceed on behalf of those Field Claims Representatives who also exclusively appraise automobile damage. The court previously found that he may not do so because, prior to reaching the merits of the claims set forth in the complaint, the court would have to conduct an individual inquiry with respect to each proposed class member in order to determine if he or she also exclusively appraised auto damage in contradiction to Safe-eo’s published job description. The court found, and now finds again with respect to the pending motion, that conducting these individual inquiries would eliminate any potential benefit to prosecuting Mike’s claims on behalf of a class.

II. DISCUSSION

The FLSA states that no employer within the meaning of the Act “shall employ any of his employees ... for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.” 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1). This general mandate, however, does not apply to persons employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity. See 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(1). The state statutes Mike relies upon in the class counts of his complaint involve substantially the same analysis. (See Dkt. # 85, Ex. A).

In order to obtain class certification, Mike must identify a class of individuals and satisfy each of the four prerequisites set forth in Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Caridad v. Metro-North Commuter Railroad, 191 F.3d 283, 291 (2d Cir.1999). Once those prerequisites are satisfied, Mike must also demonstrate that class certification is warranted under one of the three subsections of Rule 23(b).

A. CLASS COMPOSITION

[53]*53determine whether a particular individual is a member.” 7A Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1760, at 120-21 (2d ed.1986); see In re A.H. Robins Co., Inc., 880 F.2d 709, 728 (4th Cir.1989) (“Though not specified in the Rule, establishment of a class action implicitly requires both that there be an identifiable class and that the plaintiff or plaintiffs be a member of such class.”), abrogated on other grounds, Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591,117 S.Ct. 2231, 138 L.Ed.2d 689 (1997); Clay v. American Tobacco Co., 188 F.R.D. 483, 490 (S.D.Ill. 1999) (“It is absolutely necessary that for a class action to be certified, the class must be susceptible to a precise definition. Therefore, the class description must be sufficiently definite so that it is administratively feasible for the Court to determine whether a particular individual is a member of the proposed class. Furthermore, for a class to be sufficiently defined, the identity of the class members must be ascertainable by reference to objective criteria.”). One reason courts have cited for finding that a class definition is untenable is that defining membership in the proposed class would involve “a mini-hearing on the merits of each class member’s case____” Sanneman v. Chrysler Corp., 191 F.R.D. 441, 446 (E.D.Pa.2000). This undertaking would cause “serious administrative burdens that are incongruous with the efficiencies expected in a class action.”

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223 F.R.D. 50, 9 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 1562, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15351, 2004 WL 1774833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mike-v-safeco-insurance-co-of-america-ctd-2004.