Reinaldo Ramon Lamonica v. Safe Hurricane Shutters, Inc.

711 F.3d 1299, 90 Fed. R. Serv. 1128, 20 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 564, 2013 WL 811906, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 4599
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 6, 2013
Docket11-15743
StatusPublished
Cited by158 cases

This text of 711 F.3d 1299 (Reinaldo Ramon Lamonica v. Safe Hurricane Shutters, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reinaldo Ramon Lamonica v. Safe Hurricane Shutters, Inc., 711 F.3d 1299, 90 Fed. R. Serv. 1128, 20 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 564, 2013 WL 811906, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 4599 (11th Cir. 2013).

Opinions

BATTEN, District Judge:

This is an appeal from a judgment awarding unpaid wages and liquidated damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Appellees challenge the judgment itself, as well as the district court’s denial of their post-trial motions under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 50(b) and 59(e). For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Mario Feliciano and Augustin Milan formerly installed hurricane shutters for Safe Hurricane Shutters, Inc. In relation to that employment, they brought this action along with seven of their former co-workers to recover unpaid overtime wages under the FLSA. In addition to the corporate defendant, they sued its president and CEO, Edward Leiva, and two of its directors, Steve Heidelberger and Francis McCarroll. After trial, the jury found in favor of Feliciano and Milan and against all of the defendants, awarding damages of $20,849.38 to Feliciano and $1,312.50 to Milan. The district court subsequently determined that Feliciano and Milan were entitled to liquidated damages in an amount equal to their actual damages and entered final judgment in favor of Felici-ano in the amount of $41,698.76 and in favor of Milan in the amount of $2,625.00.

After the judgment was entered, Safe Hurricane Shutters, Heidelberger, and McCarroll filed a renewed motion for judg[1306]*1306ment as a matter of law and alternative motion for new trial under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b). They also filed a motion to alter or amend the judgment under Rule 59(e). The district court denied both motions. Safe Hurricane Shutters, Heidelberger, and McCarroll now appeal the judgment, as well as the district court’s order denying their post-trial motions.

II. DISCUSSION

The issues raised in this appeal require the application of several different standards of review, each of which will be discussed in context below.

A. In Pari Delicto

First, Appellants argue that the district court should have granted their motion for judgment as a matter of law based on the doctrine of in pari delicto, which states that “a plaintiff who has participated in wrongdoing may not recover damages resulting from the wrongdoing.” Official Comm. of Unsecured Creditors of PSA, Inc. v. Edwards, 437 F.3d 1145, 1152 (11th Cir.2006) (quoting Black’s Law Dictionary 794 (7th ed.1999)). “We review a district court’s ruling on a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo.” Hubbard v. BankAtlantic Bancorp, Inc., 688 F.3d 713, 723 (11th Cir.2012).

Appellants argue that both Feliciano and Milan participated in the wrongdoing by failing to accurately report the income they earned from Safe Hurricane Shutters to the IRS. They further argue that Milan participated in the wrongdoing because he was an undocumented alien not authorized to work in the United States, and he applied to work for Safe Hurricane Shutters using a false Social Security number.1 As a result, Appellants contend that Felici-ano and Milan should be barred from recovering under the FLSA.

We have previously held that undocumented aliens are “employees” who may recover unpaid wages under the FLSA. Patel v. Quality Inn S., 846 F.2d 700, 706 (11th Cir.1988). Appellants argue that the Supreme Court effectively overruled Quality Inn in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, 535 U.S. 137, 148-52, 122 S.Ct. 1275, 152 L.Ed.2d 271 (2002). However,

[w]e are bound by the holdings of earlier panels unless and until they are clearly overruled by this court en banc or by the Supreme Court. While an intervening decision of the Supreme Court can overrule the decision of a prior panel of our court, the Supreme Court decision must be clearly on point.

Randall v. Scott, 610 F.3d 701, 707 (11th Cir.2010) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). For the reasons that follow, Hoffman is not clearly on point and therefore did not overrule Quality Inn.

In Hoffman, the Supreme Court held that the NLRB cannot award backpay to undocumented aliens who are terminated for union activity in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). However, the Court did not disturb its prior holding that undocumented aliens “plainly come within the broad statutory definition of ‘employee’ ” contained in the NLRA. Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883, 892, 104 S.Ct. 2803, 81 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984). Instead, the Court emphasized that it was merely limiting the remedies available to undocumented aliens under the NLRA. See Hoffman, 535 U.S. at 152, 122 S.Ct. 1275 (“Lack of authority to award backpay does not mean that the employer gets off scot-free.”). In Quality [1307]*1307Inn, we found the statutory definitions of “employee” in the NLRA and FLSA to be analogous, and we drew upon Sure-Tan’s analysis of the NLRA in concluding that undocumented aliens are also “employees” under the FLSA. 846 F.2d at 702-03. Hoffman does nothing to cast doubt on that portion of our holding.

Nor does Hoffman cast doubt on our holding that undocumented aliens may recover their unpaid wages under the FLSA. The NLRA, which was at issue in Hoffman, grants the NLRB “broad discretion to devise remedies that effectuate the policies of the Act, subject only to limited judicial review.” Sure-Tan, 467 U.S. at 898-99, 104 S.Ct. 2803. This limited judicial review includes the authority to reject the NLRB’s chosen remedy where it “trenches upon a federal statute or policy outside the Board’s competence to administer.” Hoffman, 535 U.S. at 147, 122 S.Ct. 1275. Hoffman was an exercise of that judicial authority; the Court rejected the NLRB’s remedy on the ground that it trenched upon the policies underlying the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (“IRCA”).

In contrast, no administrative body or court is vested with discretion to fashion an appropriate remedy under the FLSA. Instead, the Act unequivocally provides that any employer who violates its minimum wage or overtime provisions “shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.”2 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). Unlike the NLRA, there is nothing in the FLSA that would allow us to conclude that undocumented aliens, although protected by the Act, are nevertheless barred from recovering unpaid wages thereunder.

Moreover, Hoffman does not give us cause to reconsider whether the IRCA was intended to amend the FLSA by implication, removing undocumented aliens from its protection.

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711 F.3d 1299, 90 Fed. R. Serv. 1128, 20 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 564, 2013 WL 811906, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 4599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reinaldo-ramon-lamonica-v-safe-hurricane-shutters-inc-ca11-2013.