Westberry v. INTERSTATE DISTRIBUTOR CO.

263 P.3d 1251
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedOctober 4, 2011
Docket40687-0-II
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 263 P.3d 1251 (Westberry v. INTERSTATE DISTRIBUTOR CO.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Westberry v. INTERSTATE DISTRIBUTOR CO., 263 P.3d 1251 (Wash. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

263 P.3d 1251 (2011)

Larry WESTBERRY and a class of similarly situated individuals, Appellant,
v.
INTERSTATE DISTRIBUTOR CO., Respondent.

No. 40687-0-II.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

October 4, 2011.

*1252 David Frank Stobaugh, Stephen Kolden Strong, Stephen Kirk Festor, Bendich Stobaugh & Strong PC, Seattle, WA, Catherine Wright Smith, Smith Goodfriend PS, Seattle, WA, for Appellant.

Dave Luxenberg, McGavick Graves PS, Tacoma, WA, for Respondent.

Philip Albert Talmadge, Talmadge/Fitzpatrick, Tukwila, WA, amicus counsel for Washington Trucking Associations.

QUINN-BRINTNALL, J.

¶ 1 Larry Westberry, the representative of a proposed, as yet uncertified, class of similarly situated individuals, appeals the trial court's summary judgment in favor of his former employer, Interstate Distributor Co. (Interstate). Interstate employed Westberry as a line-haul truck driver from 2003 to 2007, and paid him according to a compensation system approved by the Department of Labor and Industries (L & I) as reasonably equivalent to the Washington Minimum Wage Act's (MWA) overtime pay requirements. See ch. 49.46 RCW. Westberry sued Interstate, alleging Interstate violated the MWA and Bostain v. Food Express, Inc., 159 Wash.2d 700, 153 P.3d 846, cert. denied, 552 U.S. 1040, 128 S.Ct. 661, 169 L.Ed.2d 512 (2007), when it did not pay him one and one-half times his regular pay rate for hours over 40 worked per week. On appeal, Westberry argues that L & I's MWA compliance approval of an employer's compensation system is merely a nonbinding ex parte opinion and that the trial court erred by relying on L & I's approval process when it granted summary judgment. Because Westberry's summary judgment challenge lacks merit, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2 Interstate, a Washington corporation, employed Westberry, a Georgia resident with a Georgia commercial driver's license, as a *1253 line-haul truck driver from August 7, 2003, to June 27, 2007. Interstate compensated Westberry on a per-mile basis for miles driven, a flat rate for each load/unload performed, and a per diem subsistence rate. Westberry drove on average 60 to 70 hours per week, both in and out of Washington State.

¶ 3 On March 1, 2007, our Supreme Court held that the MWA required overtime compensation for hours over 40 worked per week for interstate driving, including hours Bostain, a Washington resident, spent working outside of Washington. Bostain, 159 Wash.2d at 713, 153 P.3d 846. Prior to Bostain, interstate truck drivers like Bostain earned overtime compensation only for hours worked in Washington. Former WAC 296-128-011 (1989). Under former WAC 296-128-012(c) (1989), L & I reviewed alternative rate of pay systems used by employers to determine whether the systems resulted in a driver receiving compensation reasonably equivalent to one and one-half times the base rate of pay for actual hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

¶ 4 On December 13, 2007, Interstate sought a determination from L & I "that its mileage-based pay structure for interstate truck drivers [was] reasonably equivalent to the hourly rate, including overtime, paid to [Interstate's] local drivers."[1] Clerk's Papers (CP) at 158. L & I approved Interstate's compensation system under RCW 49.46.130(2)(f) and former WAC 296-128-012 on July 18, 2008. L & I noted that "[d]rivers will typically receive greater compensation under [Interstate's] plan than if they were paid straight time for hours worked up to 40 per week and one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week under RCW 49.46.130(1)." 2 CP at 201.

¶ 5 L & I revised its overtime compensation regulations effective November 21, 2008, to comply with the Bostain decision. 08-21 Wash. Reg. 90-92 (Oct. 21, 2008). Under the 2008 amended regulations, truck drivers subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Act (FMCA), 49 U.S.C. § 3101, such as Westberry,[2] are exempt from overtime as long as the compensation system under which the truck or bus driver is paid includes overtime pay, reasonably equivalent to time and one-half the driver's usual base rate of pay.[3] WAC 296-128-012. Employers using an alternative compensation system, such as Interstate, must

substantiate any deviation from payment on an hourly basis to the satisfaction of [L & I] by using [a recommended formula] that, at a minimum, compensates hours worked in excess of forty hours per week at an overtime rate of pay and distributes the projected overtime pay over the average number of hours projected to be worked.

WAC 296-128-012(1)(a). For compensation plans developed prior to the Bostain decision, L & I amended the regulation to include a "safe harbor" provision as follows:

An employer who employed drivers who worked over forty hours a week consisting of both in-state and out-of-state hours anytime before March 1, 2007, may, within ninety days of the adoption of this subsection, submit a proposal consistent with subsection (1) of this section to the department for approval of a reasonably equivalent compensation system. The employer shall submit information to substantiate its proposal consisting of at least twenty-six consecutive weeks over a representative *1254 time period between July 1, 2005, and March 1, 2007. The department shall then determine if the compensation system includes overtime that was at least reasonably equivalent to that required by RCW 49.46.130.

WAC 296-128-012(3).

¶ 6 On May 29, 2008, Westberry, a Georgia resident, filed a "class action"[4] lawsuit against Interstate in Pierce County Superior Court. His complaint alleged that Interstate violated the MWA when it failed to adequately compensate Westberry for overtime work. Westberry requested as relief (1) an order directing Interstate to pay for losses arising from Interstate's allegedly unlawful acts, (2) a declaratory judgment finding that Interstate failed to comply with RCW 49.46.130, (3) double overtime pay under RCW 49.52.070, (4) attorney fees under the common fund doctrine and RCW 49.48.030, and (5) prejudgment interest.

¶ 7 On June 24, Interstate removed the case to federal district court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction. Westberry moved to remand back to state court, arguing that the amount in controversy was less than $75,000[5] and that Interstate had artificially inflated the amount by calculating Westberry's overtime hours at 30 hours for every week of his employment regardless of whether he had actually worked 70 hours during a given week.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

2nd Half Llc v. Heather Rankos
Court of Appeals of Washington, 2018
Mynatt v. Gordon Trucking, Inc.
333 P.3d 442 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
263 P.3d 1251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/westberry-v-interstate-distributor-co-washctapp-2011.