Gay v. Extended Family Concepts
| Decision Date | 27 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 5:99-CV-2498.,5:99-CV-2498. |
| Citation | 102 F.Supp.2d 449 |
| Parties | Frances GAY, Plaintiff, v. EXTENDED FAMILY CONCEPTS, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio |
David B. Wirsching, Canton, OH, for Frances D. Gay, Plaintiff.
Robert J. Tscholl, Schulman & Associates, Canton, OH, for Extended Family Concepts, Inc., dba Heather Ridge Commons, Defendants.
On April 3, 2000, Defendant Extended Family Concepts filed for summary judgment in this action involving compensation for care providers at a shared living facility. [Doc. 22]. One week later, Defendant amended this motion. [Doc. 24].
With this motion, defendant argues that there is no genuine issue for trial because the "companion exemption" stops Plaintiff Frances Gay's claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA" or "the Act"), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. Defendant also says the parties had an agreement to exempt sleep time from compensable wages. Finally, Defendant Extended Family Concepts contends that any violations occurring outside the law's two-year statute of limitations must be barred.
Upon review of the motion and relevant record evidence, the Court finds that Plaintiff Gay does not fall into the "companionship exemption." The Court also finds a genuine issue regarding the parties' agreement about sleep time. The Court therefore denies defendant's motion on these issues.
The Court finds no genuine issue regarding the statute of limitations. The Court finds that a two-year statute of limitations applies. The Court therefore grants defendant's motion on this issue.
From August 1996 to October 1998, Plaintiff Frances Gay was employed as a "homemaker" at defendant's shared living facility in North Canton, Ohio. As a homemaker, Plaintiff Gay helped senior citizens who needed assistance in living otherwise independent lives.
Plaintiff Gay worked seven twenty-four hour shifts at defendant's facility every two weeks. In one of the two weeks, Gay worked three twenty-four hour shifts. In the second of the two weeks, Plaintiff Gay worked four twenty-four hour shifts. Under this schedule, Gay worked a total of 168 hours over the two-week period.
Homemakers such as Gay spend most of their work time taking care of the facility's residents—cooking, feeding the senior citizen, and doing laundry. Homemakers also perform general household chores to maintain the premises. For eight hours of each twenty-four hour shift, homemakers sleep in a separate room on the premises.
Defendant Extended Family Concepts paid homemakers at a daily rate. Before June 1998, defendant broke down the daily rate into an hourly wage for the 16 working hours and a rate of $1.00 an hour for the eight sleeping hours. If a homemaker's sleep was interrupted, employees were entitled to a much higher hourly wage for documented interruption time. Defendant believed it did not have to pay overtime because the homemakers provided "companionship services" to the residents. See 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(15).
On October 18, 1999, Plaintiff Gay filed suit against Defendant Extended Family Concepts. Gay also makes claim against Gloria Prose, the owner of Defendant Extended Family Concepts and operator of the North Canton facility.
In the Complaint, Plaintiff Gay alleges that defendant failed to pay her overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Gay says all hours she worked above 40 hours each week, including sleep time, are compensable as overtime. See 29 U.S.C. § 207.
On April 3, 2000, Defendant Extended Family filed the instant motion for summary judgment. Defendant says it is exempt from the Act's requirements because Plaintiff Gay provides companionship services to the facility's residents. Alternatively, defendant contends it had an agreement with Plaintiff Gay that it would not pay her for sleeping hours. If so, those hours would not be compensable. See 29 C.F.R. 785.22. Finally, defendant says any violations of the Act occurring before October 19, 1997, are barred by the applicable statute of limitations.
In considering a motion for summary judgment, the court must view the facts and all inferences to be drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 158-59, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); 60 Ivy Street Corp. v. Alexander, 822 F.2d 1432, 1435 (6th Cir.1987); SEC v. Blavin, 760 F.2d 706, 710 (6th Cir.1985). The moving party has the burden of showing conclusively that no genuine issue of material fact exists. See 60 Ivy Street Corp., 822 F.2d at 1435.
Essentially factual disputes about matters essential to adjudication preclude the Court from granting summary judgment. See id. But not every factual dispute between the parties will prevent summary judgment. Rather, the disputed facts must be material. They must be facts which, under the substantive law governing the issue, might affect the outcome of the suit. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
The factual dispute must also be genuine. The facts must be such that if they were proven at trial a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the non-moving party. See id. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505. The disputed issue does not have to be resolved conclusively in favor of the non-moving party, but that party is required to present some significant probative evidence which makes it necessary to resolve the parties' differing versions of the dispute at trial. See 60 Ivy Street, 822 F.2d at 1435 (citing First Nat'l Bank of Arizona v. Cities Serv. Co., 391 U.S. 253, 88 S.Ct. 1575, 20 L.Ed.2d 569 (1968)); see also Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).
Thus, the judge's function at the point of summary judgment is limited to determining whether sufficient evidence has been presented to make the issue a proper jury question, and not to judge the evidence and make findings of fact. "[A]t the summary judgment stage the judge's function is not himself to weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter but to determine whether there is a genuine issue for trial." 60 Ivy Street, 822 F.2d at 1436 (quoting Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505).
The Court now reviews defendant's motion with these standards in mind.
The Fair Labor Standards Act mandates the payment of minimum wage and overtime. See 29 U.S.C. § 206 and § 207(a). Defendant Extended Family Concepts says that Plaintiff Gay is exempted from the Act's protections because she provided "companionship services" to facility's residents. The Court disagrees.
The Act expressly excludes from coverage "any employee employed in domestic service employment to provide companionship services for individuals who (because of age or infirmity) are unable to care for themselves (as such terms are defined and delimited by regulations of the Secretary)." 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(15). The employer bears the burden of establishing an exemption under the FLSA. See Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U.S. 188, 196-97, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 41 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974).
The Fair Labor Standards Act should be construed broadly in light of its remedial and humanitarian purpose. See Salyer v. Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, 83 F.3d 784, 786 (6th Cir.1996). Accordingly, exemptions under it "are to be narrowly construed against the employers seeking to assert them and their application is limited to those establishments plainly and unmistakably within their terms and spirit." Arnold v. Ben Kanowsky, Inc., 361 U.S. 388, 392, 80 S.Ct. 453, 4 L.Ed.2d 393 (1960).1
Under the plain terms of the statute, the Court must find that Plaintiff Gay is engaged in "domestic service employment" before it can find her exempt for performing "companionship services." See, e.g., McCune v. Oregon Senior Services Div., 894 F.2d 1107, 1109 (9th Cir.1990) (); Linn v. Developmental Services of Tulsa, Inc., 891 F.Supp. 574, 580 (D.Okla.1995) (); Lott v. Rigby, 746 F.Supp. 1084, 1086 (N.D.Ga.1990) ().
Plaintiff Gay contends the exemption does not apply to her because she was not engaged in "domestic service." The regulations define the term in the following manner:
As used in section 13(a)(15) [i.e., 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(15)] of the Act, the term "domestic service employment" refers to services of a household nature performed by an employee in or about a private home (permanent or temporary) of the person by whom he or she is employed. The term includes employees such as cooks, waiters, butlers, valets, maids, housekeepers, governesses, nurses, janitors, laundresses, caretakers, handymen, gardeners, footmen, grooms, and chauffeurs of automobiles for family use. It also includes babysitters employed on other than a casual basis. This listing is illustrative and not exhaustive.
29 C.F.R. § 552.3 (emphasis added).
More specifically, Plaintiff Gay contends she did not engaged in domestic service because she did not work in a private home. The regulation is "unambiguous and clearly indicates that being employed in a private home is an integral part of the definition" of a domestic service employee. Lott, 746 F.Supp. at 1086. The Sixth Circuit has agreed with the Lott court's conclusion. See Salyer, 83 F.3d at 789 ().
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...(denying summary judgment due to disputes of fact about whether the agreement was reasonable in practice); Gay v. Extended Family Concepts, 102 F. Supp. 2d 449, 457 (N.D. Ohio 2000) (dispute of fact remained as to whether parties agreed to exempt sleep time). Yet none of the cases cited by ......