Best Best & Krieger News Feed

BB&K Wins Overtime Ruling in Appellate Court for Client

27 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0800

Best Best & Krieger LLP Partner Howard Golds and Associate Elizabeth Han secured a ruling from a California Appellate Court that a business client’s formula for calculating an employee’s overtime rate on flat sum bonuses paid in the same pay period in which they are earned is lawful.

Dart Container Corporation of California was sued in Riverside Superior Court by a former employee, who sought class action status, claiming that Dart did not properly compute bonus overtime under California law. Dart’s written policy is to pay a $15 attendance bonus to employees who attend their regularly-scheduled weekend shift. Dart included the attendance bonus when calculating the regular rate for overtime purposes, but the former employee claimed that Dart used an incorrect formula in doing so.

When the Superior Court dismissed the case in favor of Dart on summary judgment, the former employee appealed. The Fourth District Court of Appeal published an opinion upholding the lower court’s ruling. The Court of Appeal agreed with the BB&K team’s argument that Dart’s overtime flat sum bonus formula complies with federal law, which is lawful because there is no California law on point.

To read the full opinion in Alvarado v. Dart Container Corp. of California, click here.

BB&K Settles Complex Overtime Class Action For Nuisance Value

16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0800

John Crowe v. BB&K Client

BB&K Partner John Higginbotham represented a local trucking company in a overtime class action involving a class of over 200 drivers, none of whom had ever been paid overtime. The class was represented by a successful attorney who had achieved large settlements from numerous other similarly situated trucking companies in the five years leading up to this case. Rather than simply going through the motions and ultimately allowing its client to write a very large check, BB&K asserted a novel defense that California’s overtime was preempted by federal law due to the fact that some of the product hauled by its client had previously been brought into California by rail, and that the ultimate delivery of the product by truck was a “continuation” of interstate commerce. Facing the prospect of complete defeat, the class settled the claim for literally pennies on the dollar.

BB&K Settles Wage And Hour Class Action For Pennies On The Dollar

03 May 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Carlton Morris v. BB&K Client

BB&K Partners John Higginbotham and Michael Summerour represented an international trucking company in a class action involving multiple alleged wage and hour violations, a class of thousands of drivers and potential eight figure liability. Before plaintiffs could move for class certification, BB&K brought a motion for summary judgment based on the novel argument that plaintiffs’ claims were barred by the commerce clause in the United States Constitution. Shortly before that motion was to be heard, class counsel agreed to settle the case for approximately three percent of their claimed damages.