Minor v. Bostwick Laboratories, Inc.

• Decision Date: 10 August 2009
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 3:09CV343-HEH.
• Citation: 654 F.Supp.2d 433
• Parties: Kathy P. MINOR, Plaintiff, v. BOSTWICK LABORATORIES, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia

654 F.Supp.2d 433

Kathy P. MINOR, Plaintiff, v. BOSTWICK LABORATORIES, INC., Defendant.

Civil Action No. 3:09CV343-HEH.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Richmond Division.

August 10, 2009.

Carolyn Pullin Carpenter, Law Offices of Carolyn P. Carpenter PLLC, Richmond, VA, for Plaintiff.

King Fitchett Tower, James Nelson Wilkinson, Williams Mullen, PC, Richmond, VA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

(Granting Defendant's Rule 12(b)(6) Motion for Partial Dismissal)

HENRY E. HUDSON, District Judge.

This action alleges two violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. The case is presently before the Court on Defendant's Motion for Partial Dismissal (Dkt. 5) pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). The parties have filed memoranda of law and exhibits in support of their respective positions. The Court will dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials presently before the Court and argument would not aid in the decisional process.

Resolution of Defendant's Motion requires this Court to decide a single legal issue: does an employee's informal, intra-company complaint regarding possible FLSA violations by her employer qualify as a protected activity under the "complaint clause" of 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3), the FLSA's anti-retaliation provision? Because this Court agrees with the weight of authority in the Fourth Circuit that it does not, Defendant's Motion for Partial Dismissal will be granted and Count II of Plaintiff's Complaint will be dismissed.

I.

Plaintiff Kathy Minor joined Defendant Bostwick Laboratories, Inc. ("Bostwick") as a "Medical Technologist" just before Christmas of 2007.¹ While employed at Bostwick, Minor reported directly to the company's Microbiology Supervisor, Dawn Webber. Initially, at least, the employment relationship between Minor and her superiors at Bostwick seems to have been a harmonious one: Minor alleges that she consistently received "satisfactory" or "above average" performance evaluations from Webber through at least late April of 2008.

Unfortunately, the amicable relationship between Minor and Bostwick turned sour in May of 2008, when Minor allegedly discovered that Webber was routinely altering Bostwick employees' time sheets by deleting their overtime hours. Though she was understandably concerned by Webber's alleged misconduct, Minor does not allege that she filed a formal, written complaint with either Bostwick or any government employment agency. Rather, Minor avers that she and other employees met with Bostwick's Chief Operating Officer, Bill Miller, on May 6, 2008 and verbally complained to Miller that Webber may have willfully violated the FLSA. Miller apparently took no immediate action on Minor's complaint, promising instead to investigate the matter and inform Bostwick's employees of his findings at a later date.

If her complaint did, in fact, prompt an internal inquiry by Miller, Minor was not around to learn the investigation's results. On May 12, 2008, just six days after allegedly complaining to Miller about Webber's supposed misconduct, Minor asserts that she was terminated following a meeting with Lori Esposito, a representative of Bostwick's human resources department. Pressed to explain Minor's termination, Esposito allegedly told Minor: "there is too much conflict with your supervisors and the relationship just isn't working." Compl. ¶ 15. Both Miller and Esposito also allegedly told Minor that she was being terminated because her co-workers considered her a "problem". Id. ¶ 19. These explanations, Minor now contends, were merely a pretext for terminating her in retaliation for her complaints to Miller at the May 6 meeting regarding Bostwick's potential FLSA violations.

Minor subsequently brought this action, which alleges two separate violations of the FLSA by Defendant Bostwick. In Count I, which is not at issue in this Motion, Minor charges that Bostwick violated 29 U.S.C. § 207(a) by failing to compensate Minor and other Bostwick employees adequately for their work in excess of forty hours per week. In Count II, Minor further charges that Bostwick violated 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3), the FLSA's anti-retaliation provision, by terminating her because she engaged in protected activity under the FLSA—specifically, complaining to Miller about Webber's alleged manipulation of employee time sheets. Contending that informal, intra-company complaints such as the one allegedly made by Minor at the May 6 meeting are not protected under the FLSA's complaint clause, Defendant Bostwick now seeks dismissal of Count II pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).

II.

A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted "tests the sufficiency of a complaint". Republican Party of N.C. v. Martin, 980 F.2d 943, 952 (4th Cir.1992). It does not, however, "resolve contests surrounding the facts, the merits of a claim, or the applicability of defenses." Id. When considering a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), the Court thus "must assume that the allegations of the complaint are true and construe them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Id.

"Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires only a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief, in order to give the defendant fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests." Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 554, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). To survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), however, a complaint must contain sufficient factual information to "state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. A complaint achieves facial plausibility when it contains sufficient factual allegations supporting the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged. Id. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955; see also Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

Mindful of the applicable legal standard, the Court now considers whether Plaintiffs allegation in Count II that she was dismissed in retaliation for making an informal, verbal, intra-company complaint regarding potential FLSA violations by Bostwick states a claim for relief under 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3).

III

A.

Enacted primarily to protect employees in the workplace, the FLSA imposes basic labor standards on covered employers such as Defendant Bostwick. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 202, 206, 207; see also Mitchell v. Robert DeMario Jewelry, Inc., 361 U.S. 288, 292, 80 S.Ct. 332, 4 L.Ed.2d 323 (1960). Among other things, the FLSA requires covered employers to pay certain employees overtime wages at a rate of "not less than one and one-half times" their regular hourly wage for all hours worked in excess of forty during a particular workweek. 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1). It is this overtime provision that Minor contends Bostwick violated in Count I when Webber allegedly manipulated employees' time sheets. See Compl. ¶ 32.

To enforce the FLSA's myriad workplace protections, Congress chose to rely primarily on "information and complaints received from employees seeking to vindicate rights claimed to have been denied" under the FLSA. Mitchell, 361 U.S. at 292, 80 S.Ct. 332. Absent detailed "federal supervision or inspection of [employers'] payrolls", adequate enforcement of the FLSA's workplace protections "could thus only be expected if employees felt free to approach officials with their grievances." Id. Accordingly, Congress included an anti-retaliation provision in the FLSA to shield employees who engage in certain protected activities under the FLSA. See 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3); Mitchell, 361 U.S. at 292, 80 S.Ct. 332.

The FLSA's anti-retaliation provision provides, in pertinent part:

... it shall be unlawful for any [employer] ... to discharge or in any other manner discriminate 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. ...

29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3). The Fourth Circuit has noted that the FLSA's general anti-relation provision is in turn comprised of several discrete clauses. See Ball v. Memphis Bar-B-Q Company, Inc., 228 F.3d 360, 362-63 (4th Cir.2000). These include the "complaint clause", which proscribes discharge of an employee who "has filed any complaint or instituted ... any proceeding" related to the FLSA, as well as the "testimony clause", which forbids dismissal of an employee who "has testified or is about to testify in any ... proceeding" under or related to the FLSA.² 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3); Ball, 228 F.3d at 363; see also O'Neill v. Allendale Mut. Ins. Co., 956 F.Supp. 661, 663 (E.D.Va.1997) (recognizing and discussing differences among the three clauses of the FLSA's anti-retaliation provision).

B.

Relying principally on the Fourth Circuit's opinion in Ball v. Memphis Bar-B-Q Company and a subsequent, unpublished Fourth Circuit decision, Defendant Bostwick now seeks dismissal of Count II, arguing that "internal complaints"—such as the one Minor alleges that she made to Miller on May 6—"cannot support a cause of action for retaliation under the FLSA." Def. Br. at 2.

1.

In Ball, the Fourth Circuit considered whether a plaintiffs "allegation ... that he was terminated because he stated that he would be unable to testify in a manner suggested by [his employer] in a yet-to-be-filed [FLSA] lawsuit ... states a claim under the anti-retaliation provision of the FLSA." Ball, 228 F.3d at 363. Concluding that it did not, the Fourth Circuit in Ball broadly remarked that the FLSA was not intended to "proscribe retaliatory employment actions ... in the context of a...