Snapp v. Unlimited Concepts

• Citation: 208 F.3d 928
• Decision Date: 05 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-2936,98-2936
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2000) Brian SNAPP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNLIMITED CONCEPTS, INC. d.b.a. Ramshackle's Caf, Glen Gerkin, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

Page 928

208 F.3d 928 (11th Cir. 2000)

Brian SNAPP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNLIMITED CONCEPTS, INC. d.b.a. Ramshackle's Caf, Glen Gerkin, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-2936.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

April 5, 2000.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before TJOFLAT and CARNES, Circuit Judges, and RONEY, Senior Circuit Judge.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

Brian Snapp filed this action under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. 201-219 (1994), as amended, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Unlimited Concepts, Inc., doing business as Ramshackle's Caf, and Glen Gerken, the owner, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Ramshackle's.¹ Plaintiff alleged that the Ramshackle's Caf was "Ramshackle" in more than name only.² Snapp complained that while working at the caf, he suffered violations of the minimum wage, overtime wage, and anti-retaliation provisions of the FLSA. He sought judgment for unpaid minimum compensation, overtime compensation, liquidated damages, and attorneys fees; plaintiff also sought compensatory and punitive damages for his alleged retaliatory discharge.³ The issue in this appeal is whether plaintiff can recover punitive damages on his retaliatory discharge claim.

I.

A.

The FLSA requires, inter alia, employers to pay covered employees a minimum wage, and to provide additional compensation for overtime work. 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1) specifies minimum rates of compensation, and section 207(a)(1) requires employers to pay employees "at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate" of pay for any time spent working in excess of forty hours per week. The Act also contains an anti-retaliation provision. Section 215(a)(3) prohibits employers from

discharg[ing] or in any other manner discriminat[ing] against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this chapter, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding, or has served or is about to serve on an industry committee.

The penalties section of the Act, 29 U.S.C. 216, provides for both criminal sanctions and private rights of action. Under section 216(a),

[a]ny person who willfully violates any of the provisions of section 215 of this title shall upon conviction thereof be subject to a fine of not more than $10,000, or to imprisonment for not more than six months, or both. No person shall be imprisoned under this subsection except for an offense committed after the conviction of such person for a prior offense under this subsection.⁴

In contrast to the criminal penalties provided in section 216(a), section 216(b) authorizes private causes of action against employers for violations of the Act. Section 216(b) also describes the relief afforded to a successful plaintiff:

[a]ny employer who violates the provisions of section 206 or section 207 [the minimum wage and overtime wage provisions] ... shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages. Any employer who violates the provisions of section 215(a)(3) [the anti-retaliation provision] ... shall be liable for such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to effectuate the purposes of section 215(a)(3) of this title, including without limitation employment, reinstatement, promotion, and the payment of wages lost and an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.... The court in such action shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action....

29 U.S.C. 216(b). Congress added the language allowing suits against employers for violations of section 215(a)(3)'s anti-retaliation provision in 1977. See Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1977, Pub.L. 95-151, 91 Stat. 1245, 1252 (1977). Before then, employees had to rely on the criminal and injunctive relief provided in sections 216(a) and 217 to discourage employers from retaliating against them. See Mitchell v. Robert De Mario Jewelry, Inc., 361 U.S. 288, 289, 80 S.Ct. 332, 333-34, 4 L.Ed.2d 323 (1960).⁵ Plaintiff contends that the 1977 amendment authorizes courts to award punitive damages in retaliation suits against employers.

B.

The events giving rise to plaintiff's grievance occurred while he was working as a waiter at the Ramshackle's Caf. In his complaint, plaintiff alleged that he was paid less than the minimum wage for time spent performing janitorial and cooking duties (for which he was not tipped), and that he was not paid overtime wages for time worked in excess of forty hours per week. Weeks before filing the complaint, plaintiff was alerted that such practices might be unlawful under the FLSA when he spoke to an attorney friend at a social gathering. Plaintiff first wrote to the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor to express his concern that he was "being taken advantage of." This backfired, however, when plaintiff's boss, Glen Gerken, discovered that he had contacted the Department. After telling plaintiff that he should have voiced his concerns to restaurant management rather than involving outsiders, Gerken terminated plaintiff from further employment. Included in plaintiff's complaint was an allegation that he had been fired in retaliation for asserting his rights under the FLSA in violation of section 215(a)(3).

After plaintiff filed his complaint in the district court, defendants filed a motion to dismiss all damages claims against Glen Gerken, individually, and all claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The district court denied the motion, finding that the statutory definition of an "employer" under the FLSA, see 29 U.S.C. 203(d),⁶ could encompass the defendant Gerken, individually,⁷ and that appropriate legal relief under section 216(b) for an employer's retaliation could include compensation for emotional distress and punitive damages.

At trial, the jury found that plaintiff had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he had not been paid a minimum wage under the FLSA, but also found that the defendants were guilty of violating the overtime wage and anti-retaliation provisions of the Act. The jury awarded plaintiff $200 in overtime wages, $1,000 in wages lost because of his retaliatory discharge, and $35,000 in punitive damages on the retaliation claim. The jury also found that Gerken, individually, was plaintiff's "employer" (along with the Ramshackle's Caf) under the FLSA, and recommended that Gerken be liable for thirty percent of the punitive damage award.

Thereafter the district court ordered the parties to file memoranda of law regarding the availability of punitive damages in suits for retaliation under section 216(b) of the FLSA.⁸ The court decided to revisit the issue after noting that an intervening decision by a sister court had interpreted binding circuit precedent to prohibit punitive damages under the FLSA, see Bolick v. Brevard County Sheriff's Dep't., 937 F.Supp. 1560, 1566-67 (M.D.Fla.1996). After examining Bolick, the court concluded that it was persuasive and granted the defendants' renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law on the issue of punitive damages. The court thus struck the $35,000 in punitive damages awarded to plaintiff on his retaliation claim.⁹ Plaintiff now appeals.

II.

We review the district court's grant of defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law on the issue of punitive damages de novo. Dade County v. Alvarez, 124 F.3d 1380, 1383 (11th Cir.1997). Whether a court can award punitive damages to a plaintiff who has proven a violation of the FLSA's anti-retaliation provision consistent with 29 U.S.C. 216(b) is a question of statutory interpretation. Questions of statutory interpretation are pure questions of law. See Caro-Galvan v. Curtis Richardson, Inc., 993 F.2d 1500, 1504 (11th Cir.1993).

III.

A.

This case presents us with a question of first impression in this circuit regarding the proper construction of section 216(b). The question is, when Congress amended the FLSA in 1977 to provide for a private right of action when an employer violates section 215(a)(3), did the amendment include language allowing plaintiffs to recover punitive damages as part of their legal relief? Plaintiff, of course, answers this question in the affirmative; and he finds support from the only other circuit to have addressed the issue. In Travis v. Gary Community Mental Health Ctr., Inc., 921 F.2d 108, 112 (7th Cir.1990), the Seventh Circuit held that "punitive damages[ ] are appropriate for intentional torts such as retaliatory discharge." The court reached its holding after observing that the 1977 retaliation amendment to section 216(b) includes broader language than the original language providing remedies for violations of sections 206 and 207 (the minimum wage and overtime wage provisions).¹⁰ How much broader Congress declined to state explicitly; so without much discussion, the Seventh Circuit concluded that Congress had tossed the issue to the judiciary, and that in the judgment of the court, punitive damages were a reasonable component of the legal relief afforded to successful plaintiffs in retaliation cases.

Because the original text prescribed as a remedy double the shortfall of wages [for violations of sections 206 and 207], and the amendment says that damages include this "without limitation", Congress has authorized other measures of relief. Which other forms? The answer has been left to the courts. We could not find any case interpreting this amendment. The legislative history is unhelpful. The language originated in the Senate; the committee report does not...