O'Brien v. Lifestyle Transportation, Inc.

956 F. Supp. 2d 300, 2013 WL 3853403, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103270
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJuly 23, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 12-11522-NMG
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 956 F. Supp. 2d 300 (O'Brien v. Lifestyle Transportation, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Brien v. Lifestyle Transportation, Inc., 956 F. Supp. 2d 300, 2013 WL 3853403, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103270 (D. Mass. 2013).

Opinion

NATHANIEL M. GORTON, District Judge.

ORDER ON REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS adopting Report and Recommendations re [29] Report and Recommendations. Action on motion: denying [9] Motion to Dismiss. “Report and Recommendation accepted and adopted.”

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT (#9)

COLLINGS, United States Magistrate Judge.

I. Introduction

Plaintiff Oliver O’Brien (“O’Brien”) brings three claims in his complaint against his employer, Lifestyle Transportation, Inc. (“LTI”), and Michael South-wick, the president of LTI (collectively “the defendants”). LTI is a Massachusetts corporation that provides chauffeured transportation to individuals and businesses. O’Brien worked as a chauffeur for LTI and also in the company’s dispatch office.

In Counts I and II of the complaint, O’Brien alleges the defendants violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“the FLSA”) and the Massachusetts Minimum Fair Wage Law (“the MFWL”), respectively, by failing to pay legally required overtime. Count III alleges the defendants violated the Massachusetts Wage Act (“the MWA”) by failing to pay O’Brien’s wages in a timely manner.

In lieu of answering the complaint, on November 6, 2012, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ.P.. (# 9), together with a memorandum of law in support thereof (# 10). The plaintiff filed an opposition (# 14) on November 30, 2013. The defendants’ first motion for leave to [302]*302file a reply brief (# 17) was denied for failure to comply with L.R. 7.1(A)(2). On December 14, 2012, the defendants filed a second motion for leave to file a reply (# 19) which the plaintiff opposed (# 20) two weeks later. On January 30, 2013, a hearing was held on the second motion for leave to file a reply .and, after taking the matter under advisement, on March 21, 2013, the Court, granted the motion with the caveat that no statute of limitations issue would be decided in the context of the motion to dismiss. (#27) The defendants filed their reply (# 28) on even date.

With the record now complete, the defendants’ dispositive motion stands ready to be resolved.

II. The Facts

O’Brien started his employment at LTI in October 2007. (# 1 ¶ 14) From the time he began working for LTI until May 2008, the plaintiff alleges that he was “improperly miselassified” as an independent contractor. (# 1 ¶ 16) Starting in May 2008, he was classified as an employee with the same job responsibilities he had had from the beginning of his employment, to wit, working as a driver and in the dispatch office. (# 1 ¶ 17)

In the dispatch office, O’Brien worked as a “wing person” and a “dispatcher.” (# 1 ¶ 28) His duties as a dispatcher included communicating with LTI drivers and customers to facilitate customer delivery and pick-ups. (# 1 ¶ 30) As a wing person, O’Brien would assist the dispatcher on duty. (# 1 ¶ 31) Whether working as a dispatcher or a wing person, O’Brien would punch the LTI time clock when" he arrived, and once again when he left the office. (# 1 ¶ 29) The pay for the plaintiffs work in the dispatch office varied throughout his employment, ranging from $14 to $18 per hour based on his experience and whether he was working as a wing person or a dispatcher. (# 1 ¶ 32)

LTI owns or leases'about 70 passenger vehicles, including “sedans that weigh 10,-000 pounds or less and are designed or used to transport fewer than eight passengers, including the driver” (“small vehicles”). (# 1 ¶ 18) As a driver for LTI, the vehicles driven by O’Brien included small vehicles during most or all workweeks. (# 1 ¶21) Just as was his practice when working in the dispatch office, the plaintiff punched the LTI time clock when he arrived at the garage, and again when he left. (# 1 ¶ 22) In between driving assignments, O’Brien would wait at a LTI-prescribed location- to receive his next assignment and would take breaks less than ten minutes long after receiving approval from the LTI dispatch office. (# 1 ¶¶ 26, 27)

LTI compensated the plaintiff for his work as a chauffeur “based on (a) an hourly rate of pay, plus (b) the compulsory customer service charge imposed by LTI on the customer” (“chauffeur compensation”). (# 1 ¶ 33) When calculating the chauffeur compensation, the defendants used two different hourly rates of pay. (# 1 ¶ 34) The first—which was the lower of the two rates—was the “Chauffeur Billable Hourly Rate” which ranged from $6.00 to $6.85 per billable hour. (# 1 ¶ 35) The second hourly rate, the so-called “Chauffeur Shift Hourly Rate,” was $11.00 per hour. (# 1 ¶ 36) To determine chauffeur compensation, LTI would multiply the billable hours worked by the chauffeur each shift by the Chauffeur Billable Hourly Rate, and then add the compulsory customer service charge. (# 1 ¶ 37) If the total was less than what O’Brien would have received using the Chauffeur Shift Hourly Rate, LTI would compensate the plaintiff at the Chauffeur Shift Hourly rate instead. (# 1 ¶ 37)

When determining whether the plaintiff was entitled to overtime, LTI would use [303]*303shift hours from O’Brien’s work in the dispatch office and any billable hours from his time as a chauffeur; any shift hours the plaintiff worked as a driver were not included in the calculation. (# 1 ¶ 39) LTI paid the plaintiff overtime at the rate of one and one half times the Chauffeur Billable Hourly Rate if his hours as a dispatcher combined with his billable hours as a chauffeur were more than 40 hours during the workweek. (# 1 ¶ 41)1 The chauffeur shift hours were greater than the number of chauffeur billable hours during most or all workweeks, and O’Brien never received any overtime for the additional shift hours in those weeks. (# 1 ¶¶ 38, 40) The plaintiff alleges that he was not paid at the legally required overtime rate because he was never paid overtime for the weeks his chauffeur shift hours together with his hours in the dispatch office exceeded 40 hours. (# 1 ¶¶ 41, 42)

III. Standard Of Review

A Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss challenges a party’s complaint for failing to state a claim. In deciding such a motion, a court must “ ‘accept as true all well-pleaded facts set forth in the complaint and draw all reasonable inferences therefrom in the pleader’s favor.’ ” Haley v. City of Boston, 657 F.3d 39, 46 (1st Cir.2011) (quoting Artuso v. Vertex Pharm., Inc., 637 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2011)). When considering a motion to dismiss, a court “may augment these facts and inferences with data points gleaned from documents incorporated by reference into the complaint, matters of public record, and facts susceptible to judicial notice.” Haley, 657 F.3d at 46 (citing In re Colonial Mortg. Bankers Corp., 324 F.3d 12, 15 (1st Cir.2003)).

In order to survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), the plaintiff must provide “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” See Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

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956 F. Supp. 2d 300, 2013 WL 3853403, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/obrien-v-lifestyle-transportation-inc-mad-2013.