Ballard v. Ill. Bell Tel. Co.
| Decision Date | 21 October 2015 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 15 C 2687 |
| Parties | VICTOR BALLARD, Plaintiff, v. ILLINOIS BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY, d/b/a AT&T Illinois, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
AMY J. ST. EVE, District Court Judge:
On July 29, 2015, Plaintiff Victor Ballard ("Ballard") filed the present Amended Complaint alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. ("FLSA"), and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law, 820 ILCS 105/1, et seq. ("IMWL") based on Defendant Illinois Bell Telephone Company's ("Illinois Bell") alleged failure to pay overtime compensation for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a week. Before the Court is Illinois Bell's motion to dismiss brought pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For the following reasons, the Court denies Illinois Bell's motion.
"A motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) challenges the viability of a complaint by arguing that it fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted." Camasta v. Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Inc., 761 F.3d 732, 736 (7th Cir. 2014). Under Rule 8(a)(2), a complaint must include "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). The short and plain statement under Rule8(a)(2) must "give the defendant fair notice of what the claim is and the grounds upon which it rests." Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S. Ct. 1955, 167 L. Ed. 2d 929 (2007) (citation omitted). Under the federal notice pleading standards, a plaintiff's "factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level." Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555. Put differently, a "complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to 'state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'" Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S. Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L. Ed. 2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570). "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678. Also, "although a plaintiff need not anticipate or overcome affirmative defenses such as those based on the statute of limitations, if a plaintiff alleges facts sufficient to establish a statute of limitations defense, the district court may dismiss the complaint on that ground." O'Gorman v. City of Chicago, 777 F.3d 885, 889 (7th Cir. 2015). Last, the Court "may take judicial notice of publicly available records of court proceedings." Spaine v. Cmty. Contacts, Inc., 756 F.3d 542, 545 (7th Cir. 2014).
"Under Illinois law as under federal law, an amendment relates back when it arises out of the same transaction or occurrence set up in the original pleading." Cleary v. Philip Morris Inc., 656 F.3d 511, 515 (7th Cir. 2011) (citation omitted). More specifically, an amendment relates back to the date of the original pleading when "the amendment asserts a claim or defense that arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set out - or attempted to be set out - in the original pleading." Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(c)(1)(B); see also Luevano v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 722F.3d 1014, 1022 (7th Cir. 2013). "[T]he purpose of relation back" is "to balance the interests of the defendant protected by the statute of limitations with the preference expressed in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in general, and Rule 15 in particular, for resolving disputes on their merits." Krupski v. Costa Crociere S. p. A., 560 U.S. 538, 549-50, 130 S.Ct. 2485, 177 L.Ed.2d 48 (2010).
In the present lawsuit, Ballard alleges that he was a cable splicer working as an hourly non-exempt employee for Illinois Bell and that Illinois Bell did not pay him overtime compensation for all hours worked in excess of 40 a week in violation of the FLSA and IMWL. (R. 6, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 1, 33.) Ballard's allegations include (1) a claim based on his reviewing assignments, getting supplies, preparing his truck, and meeting with supervisors before his shift started, (2) a claim based on eating lunch while on the job site, and (3) a claim based on working after his shift had ended in order to enter his time and clean out his truck. (Id. ¶¶ 17-21, 25-27, 29-32.)
To give context to Ballard's FLSA and IMWL allegations, the Court turns to the procedural history of this lawsuit because Ballard was originally an opt-in Plaintiff in the FLSA collective action in Blakes v. Ill. Bell Tel. Co., Case No. 11 C 0336 ("Blakes Action") pending before Magistrate Judge Kim. After the parties consented to Judge Kim's jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), on June 15, 2011, Judge Kim conditionally certified a proposed class of similarly situated cable splicers. Specifically, Judge Kim determined that the named plaintiffs had made the "modest showing" for pre-conditional certification of the following overtimeclaims: (1) Illinois Bell's policy that required cable splicers to maintain the security of their job sites routinely interfered with their lunch breaks; (2) cable splicers missed their lunch breaks because of traveling from job site to job site; and (3) Illinois Bell's policies forced cable splicers to work past the end of their shifts in order to complete their time sheets. (11 C 0336, R. 56, 6/15/11, Mem. Op, & Order, at 5-8.) After Judge Kim's conditional certification, the named plaintiffs issued notice of the Blakes Action to approximately 2,000 potential opt-in plaintiffs, and on July 27, 2011, Ballard filed a written consent and became part of the collective conditional class. (R. 63.)
After discovery, Illinois Bell filed a motion to decertify the collective action. On December 17, 2013, Judge Kim granted the motion in part. (R. 233, 12/17/13, Mem. Op. & Order.) More specifically, he decertified the class except for the claims based on Illinois Bell's policies forcing cable splicers to work past the end of their shifts in order to complete their time sheets. (Id. at 54-57.)
Once Judge Kim decertified the majority of the collective action, Illinois Bell moved for summary judgment. In ruling on that motion, Judge Kim addressed the named plaintiffs' attempt to amend their pleadings to include broader pre-shift and post-shift claims. Specifically, on December 10, 2014, Judge Kim concluded that the named plaintiffs waived those broader claims by failing to discuss them in their response briefs and motion for leave to file a second amended complaint, and that allowing constructive amendment at summary judgment would prejudice Illinois Bell given that the parties had not completed discovery on these issues. (R. 355, 12/10/14, Mem. Op. & Order, at 19-20.) The Court presumes familiarity with Judge Kim's December 2013 and December 2014 rulings.
After the decertification decision took effect in the Blakes Action, counsel for the opt-in Blakes plaintiffs, including Ballard, filed a lawsuit on February 28, 2014 (the "2014 Action"). The amended complaint in the 2014 Action alleged that the plaintiffs were "seeking to assert those claims that were not certified to go forward on a collective basis in" the Blakes Action. In that lawsuit, Adkins v. Ill. Bell. Tel., Co., Case No. 14 C 1456, Chief Judge Castillo granted Illinois Bell's motion to dismiss for misjoinder and severed the individual opt-in plaintiffs' claims on March 24, 2015. (14 C 1456, R. 146, 147.) Chief Judge Castillo gave the opt-in plaintiffs until July 30, 2015 to file separate complaints containing only their individual claims. Ballard filed the present lawsuit after Chief Judge Castillo's March 2015 ruling. The Court presumes familiarity with that order.
In its motion to dismiss, Illinois Bell argues that the FLSA's and IMWL's limitations periods bar Ballard from bringing his pre-shift, lunch break, and post-shift claims that are broader than the claims initially certified in the Blakes Action. The FLSA has a two-year limitations period (three years where the violation is willful), see 29 U.S.C. § 255(a), and the IMWL has a three-year limitations period. See 820 ILCS 105/12. Also, in the case of a collective action, 29 U.S.C. § 256(b) provides that an action for opt-ins, such as Ballard, commences when the individual files his written consent in the court in which the action is brought.
Illinois Bell argues that absent tolling, Ballard's broader pre-February 28, 2011 claims are barred by the limitations periods based on the assumption that the filing date of the lawsuit before Chief Judge Castillo, namely, February 28, 2014, is the relevant date for limitations purposes. Illinois Bell's initial argument does not reconcile its tolling arguments with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c)(1)(B)'s relation back doctrine or with the undisputed fact that Ballard was a member of the collective Blakes Action prior to filing his lawsuit in front of Chief Judge Castillo. When addressing Rule 15(c)(1)(B), Illinois Bell argues that the present lawsuit was not severed from Blakes, and thus the relation back doctrine does not apply because the Blakes Action and the present action are separate lawsuits. In support of this argument, Illinois Bell cites to this Court's decision in Spann v. Cmty. Bank of N. Virginia, No. 03 C 7022, 2004 WL 691785, at *7 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 30, 2004), in which the Court considered the relation back doctrine in the context of the Truth in Lending Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1601, et seq. ("TILA") and the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1639 ("HOEPA"). In Spann, the plaintiffs argued that their lawsuit related back to a consolidated class action lawsuit in the Western District...
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