USA ex rel INTL. BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS V. THE FAIRFIELD CO.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 15, 2019
Docket5:09-cv-04230
StatusUnknown

This text of USA ex rel INTL. BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS V. THE FAIRFIELD CO. (USA ex rel INTL. BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS V. THE FAIRFIELD CO.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
USA ex rel INTL. BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS V. THE FAIRFIELD CO., (E.D. Pa. 2019).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ex : CIVIL ACTION rel. INTERNATIONAL : BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL : WORKERS LOCAL UNION NO. 98 : v. NO. 09-4230 THE FARFIELD COMPANY MEMORANDUM KEARNEY, J. October 15, 2019 A union is presenting evidence to our Special Master seeking to prove damages owed to the United States under the False Claims Act arising from a contractor’s misclassification of workers on a construction project completed over ten years ago partially funded by the United States. The union claims the contractor paid forty-two men at the lower groundmen or laborer rate for electrical work they performed which should have been paid at the higher journeyman electrician rate. The union relies upon the contractor’s “phase code” time sheets produced in discovery and the recollection of fourteen working men. The union seeks to recover damages based on the misclassification of services provided by the forty-two men. The employer’s records consist of the phase code time sheets. The question is how does the union prove these damages for the forty-two allegedly misclassified workers absent all forty-two men testifying as to their workdays over ten years ago? The union asks we impose a higher burden on the employer where it fails to keep employment records as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act and Davis-Bacon Act when employees have no way to establish the time spent doing uncompensated work. The contractor argues this burden shifting applied in the Fair Labor Standards Act context does not apply in this False Claims Act case.

On September 6, 2019, we deferred deciding the burden of proof issues on damages to allow further briefing. The parties briefed the issue but elected not to wait for our ruling and instead began presenting facts to the Special Master who will continue hearing evidence next week and file findings of fact and conclusions of law by November 15, 2019. We agree whether this burden shifting applies is a narrow issue depending on the Special Master’s fact findings. But like most in limine holdings, we need to provide the evidentiary roadmap for counsel and for the Special Master’s conclusions of law in this case. We need not address damages if the Special Master finds the contractor did not violate the False Claims Act through misclassification of the forty-two groundmen and laborers at issue. We also do not need to address this burden shifting issue if he finds the contractor’s phase code time sheets accurately describes electrical work performed by groundmen and laborers. We also do not reach the issue if the Special Master finds the phase code time sheets and other evidence such as photographs and foremen’s daily reports accurately describe the work—electrical or not—performed by the groundmen or laborers. The burden shifting only comes into play if the Special Master finds the contractor liable under the False Claims Act and, reaching the question of damages, determines the phase code timesheets and other evidence do not accurately describe the work performed by the groundmen and laborers for all hours of work on any given day. The Special Master must assess the evidence and determine whether each party met its burden. If he finds the union meets its burden based on the phase code timesheets or other evidence, and the contractor fails to sufficiently impeach this evidence or show the phase codes do not tell the whole story, then the Special Master may evaluate an award of damages owed to the United States for the forty-two misclassified workers “even though the result be only approximate.”!

I. Background” In 2001, construction contractor Farfield Company contracted with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (“SEPTA”) to improve a seven-and-a-half mile stretch of railroad track between Wayne Junction and the Glenside train station. Farfield’s contract with SEPTA required it to abide by Federal Transit Administration regulations including maintaining “payrolls and basic records” and worker classification under the Davis-Bacon Act.? The contract required Farfield to submit certified weekly payrolls to SEPTA for transmission to the Federal Transit Administration. The parties agreed falsification of a certification may subject the contractor Farfield to civil or criminal prosecution under the False Claims Act.° At some point after Farfield began working on the Wayne Junction Project in 2002, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 98 believed it uncovered a scheme by Farfield of under-bidding prevailing wage projects by classifying workers at lower hourly wages on the Wayne Junction Project in violation of the Davis-Bacon Act.® Local 98 claimed Farfield had its groundmen and laborers perform skilled electrician work but paid them at a lower, unskilled work rate rather than the rate for skilled electrical work. In 2009, Local 98 filed a sealed qui tam complaint alleging Farfield violated the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq. by intentionally paying its workers wages lower than required by the Davis-Bacon Act and then submitting claims to the federal government for payment based on certifications it complied with the Davis-Bacon Act. Two years later, the United States declined to intervene in the action. The court unsealed the complaint. Local 98 filed an amended complaint on February 3, 2012.’ In its amended complaint, Local 98 again alleged Farfield intentionally and knowingly misclassified workers performing electrician’s work to gain a competitive bidding advantage on

the same federally funded construction project between 2001 and 2009.° Local 98 alleged Farfield submitted fraudulent certified payroll records intending those documents to be material in the federal government’s decision to pay the false claims violating Section 3729(a)(1)(B) of the False Claims Act.? The Clerk of Court assigned this matter to us in late September 2018. We set the parties’ pre-trial obligations and a trial date.!° Farfield moved for summary judgment arguing Local 98’s theories of misclassification, liability, and damages are disproved by their own witnesses and evidence; Farfield did not submit a record or statement “to get” a claim paid by the federal government required under the pre-amended False Claims Act; Farfield did not knowingly submit a false claim; and, some of Local 98’s claims are barred by the statute of limitations. Local 98 responded fact issues precluded summary judgment. Local 98 alleged Farfield misclassified forty-two groundmen or laborers who performed electrical work which only could have been performed by journeyman and who should have been paid at the journeyman rate. Of the forty-two groundmen, Local 98 identified fourteen who worked on the Wayne Junction Project and who testified they performed electrical work.'! Local 98 based its argument on “phase codes” used by Farfield on its time sheets to connote electrical work.'? Using Farfield’s time sheets with phase codes, Local 98 prepared a spreadsheet of all forty-two workers showing the total hours worked by all forty-two groundmen or laborers on “electrical” tasks. Local 98 developed three damages theories based on its spreadsheet. Farfield argues its phase codes are records for internal cost accounting purposes and are not detailed entries of specific work performed.!3 This is a credibility question. At oral argument on Farfield’s Motion for summary judgment, Local 98 explained it planned to prove damages through the fourteen identified groundmen or laborers as a

representative sample of the forty-two groundmen and laborers under the Supreme Court’s decision in Anderson v. Mt.

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Bluebook (online)
USA ex rel INTL. BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS V. THE FAIRFIELD CO., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/usa-ex-rel-intl-brotherhood-of-electrical-workers-v-the-fairfield-co-paed-2019.