Supreme Court to consider class certification when each plaintiff is deemed average
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider whether a class action for unpaid overtime can be certified when it uses statistics that presume each plaintiff is identical to the average.
The case is an appeal of a $5.8 million judgment by Tyson Foods that contends a class action should not have been certified. The case concerns class-action claims under Rule 23 of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure and collective-action claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to SCOTUSblog, the Mayer Brown Class Defense Blog and the Hill.
The plaintiff pork-processing workers in Storm Lake, Iowa, had claimed Tyson failed to pay them for overtime for time spent donning and doffing equipment and walking to and from work stations. Tyson did not record the time workers spent on those activities.
At trial, plaintiffs relied on average times for the donning, doffing and walking that were based on observations of 744 employees, according to the respondents’ brief (PDF). The jury was instructed to return an aggregate verdict, and each employee was awarded back pay based on hours worked beyond 40 hours a week.
According to the cert petition (PDF), the issues are:
–Whether the class or collective action can be certified where liability and damages will be determined based on statistics that presume all class members are identical to the average.
–Whether the class or collective action can be certified when the class includes hundreds of members who weren’t injured.
The case is Tyson Foods Inc. v. Bouaphakeo.
