Third Circuit Court of Appeals

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By: Kevin M. Young, Kerry M. Friedrichs, and Ryan McCoy

Seyfarth Synopsis: On Tuesday, the Third Circuit issued a decision rejecting the U.S. DOL’s general position that incentive bonuses paid to employees by a third-party must be factored into overtime pay. While the decision merely endorses a more tempered “it depends” view, it provides welcome news and guidance …
Continue Reading Does a Third-Party’s Bonus Payment to Your Employees Require You to Pay More Overtime? Citing Clark Griswold, Appeals Court Says Not Necessarily.

Authored by Michael Kopp

With all the drama of a get-away chase, the Third Circuit recently brought to a screeching halt plaintiffs’ counsel’s elaborate maneuvers to end run repeated decertification of their FLSA actions, and held as a matter of first impression in Halle v. West Penn Allegheny Health System, Inc. that opt-in plaintiffs have no right to appeal decertification.
Continue Reading Opt Ins are Out (of Luck) Appealing Decertification

Co-authored by Howard M. Wexler and Louisa J. Johnson

Although the turkey (and leftover turkey sandwiches) are all gone, employers within the Third Circuit have reason to extend the Thanksgiving celebration given a recent decision affirming the dismissal of a collective action complaint alleging unpaid meal breaks. Just two days before Thanksgiving, in Babcock et al. v. Butler County…

Continue Reading Meal Break Win in Third Circuit Gives Employers Reason to Be Thankful for More Than Thanksgiving Meals

Co-authored by Robert S. Whitman and Robert T. Szyba

New Jersey employers now have an answer to a question that had previously been mired in uncertainty:  What test is used to determine whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor under state wage and hour laws?

In Hargrove v. Sleepy’s, LLC, the New Jersey Supreme Court, answering…
Continue Reading Employee or Independent Contractor? In New Jersey, It’s as Easy as “ABC”

Authored by Jacob Oslick

Adventuring heroes in fantasy fiction soon learn to fight different types of evil beast differently.  Some must be fought by fire, some by water, some by the sword, and some by magic.  The hero who foolishly treats diverse opponents the same does so at his peril.

The Third Circuit recently taught this same basic lesson to…
Continue Reading How to Slay the Monster of a Proposed Multistate Class Action

Authored by Jacob Oslick

The days of cursory pleading in FLSA cases have ended. That’s the message the Third Circuit sent a few days before Labor Day, when it issued Davis v. Abington Memorial Hospital.  In Davis, the Third Circuit held that it wasn’t sufficient for the plaintiffs, a group of nurses, to generically allege that they “typically”…
Continue Reading The Third Circuit: The FLSA Requires Fair Pleading Standards

green light.bmpAuthored by Kyle Petersen

Last week, in Fisher v. Rite Aid Corp., Case Nos. 11-1684 & 11-11685, the Third Circuit ruled that FLSA opt-in plaintiffs may simultaneously pursue their own parallel state-law Rule 23 opt-out class actions.  In doing so, the court held that Rule 23 opt-out class actions based on state laws that are co-extensive with the FLSA…

Continue Reading Here, There, and Everywhere A Lawsuit: The Third Circuit Green Lights Parallel FLSA and State Law Wage Suits