De Jesus Rentas v. Baxter Pharmacy Services Corp.

• Decision Date: 07 October 2003
• Docket Number: No. CIV. 01-2096(SEC).,CIV. 01-2096(SEC).
• Parties: Ellim DE JESUS RENTAS, et al Plaintiffs v. BAXTER PHARMACY SERVICES CORP., et al Defendants
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

286 F.Supp.2d 235

Ellim DE JESUS RENTAS, et al Plaintiffs v. BAXTER PHARMACY SERVICES CORP., et al Defendants

No. CIV. 01-2096(SEC).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

October 7, 2003.

Carlos R. Ramírez, Esq., San Juan, PR, for Plaintiffs.

Juan C. Pérez-Otero and José A. Silva-Cofresí, Fiddler, González & Rodríguez, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

CASELLAS, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is Defendants' motion for Summary Judgment (Docket # 29). Plaintiffs' have duly opposed Defendants' motion and have also filed a cross motion for summary judgment (Docket # 40). After carefully examining the parties' arguments and the applicable law, Defendants' motion will be GRANTED and Plaintiffs' cross motion will be DENIED.

Factual Background

The complaint in the instant case was filed on August 16, 2001 (Docket # 1). Plaintiffs Eillim De Jesus-Rentas, Magdalena Mercado-Casiano, Nidia S. Gomez-Torres, Myrna Piñero-Medina, and Melba Rocafort-Garcia request that, pursuant to the provisions of the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA), as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., and Puerto Rico's overtime provisions contained in 29 P.R. Laws Ann. § 271 et seq., declaratory judgment be entered to the effect that they are entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA. Plaintiffs also request an award for unpaid overtime compensation, liquidated damages, equitable relief, and pre and post-judgment interest, costs, expenses and attorney's fees.

Motion for Summary Judgment Standard

Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(b) provides that: "A party against whom a claim ... is asserted ... may, at any time, move with or without supporting affidavits for a summary judgment in the party's favor as to all or any part [of the claims asserted against him/her]." The Court may grant the movant's motion for summary judgment when "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); See also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); NASCO, Inc. v. Public Storage, Inc., 29 F.3d 28 (1st Cir.1994). "The principal judicial inquiry required by Rule 56 is whether a genuine issue of material fact exists." 10A Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil 3d § 2725, p. 401.

In this regard, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has noted that for a dispute to be "genuine," there must be sufficient evidence to permit a reasonable trier of fact to resolve the issue in favor of the nonmoving party. U.S. v. One Parcel of Real Property, 960 F.2d 200, 204 (1st Cir.1992); See also Boston Athletic Assn. v. Sullivan, 867 F.2d 22, 24 (1st Cir.1989); Medina Muñoz v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, 896 F.2d 5, 8 (1st Cir.1990) ("A `genuine' issue is one that must be decided at trial because the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movant, would permit a rational fact finder to resolve the issue in favor of either party.") (citations omitted).

By like token, "material" means that the fact is one that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law. Morris v. Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico, 27 F.3d 746, 748 (1st Cir. 1994). "A fact is material if it tends to resolve any of the issues that have been properly raised by the parties." Wright, Miller & Kane, supra, § 2725 at p. 419. "Not every genuine factual conflict necessitates a trial. It is only when a disputed fact has the potential to change the outcome of the suit under the governing law if found favorably to the non-movant that the materiality hurdle is cleared." Martínez v. Colón, 54 F.3d 980, 983-984 (1st Cir. 1995).

In addition, when determining whether to grant summary judgment, the Court may not weigh the evidence. Casas Office Machines, Inc. v. Mita Copystar America, Inc., 42 F.3d 668 (1st Cir.1994). Summary judgment "admits of no room for credibility determinations, no room for the measured weighing of conflicting evidence such as the trial process entails." Id. citing Greenburg v. Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Authority, 835 F.2d 932, 936 (1st Cir.1987). Accordingly, if the facts permit more than one reasonable inference, the court on summary judgment may not adopt the inference least favorable to the non-moving party. Casas Office Machines, 42 F.3d at 684.

While the moving party has the burden of initially establishing that there is "an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case," Maldonado-Denis v Castillo-Rodríguez, 23 F.3d 576, 581 (1st Cir.1994); the non-movant has a "corresponding obligation to offer the court more than steamy rhetoric and bare conclusions." Lawton v. State Mutual Life Assurance Company of America, 101 F.3d 218, 223 (1st Cir.1996). Furthermore, "the non-movant must produce specific facts, in suitable evidentiary form sufficient to limn a trial worthy issue ... Failure to do so allows the summary judgment engine to operate at full throttle." Id.; see also Kelly v. United States, 924 F.2d 355, 358 (1st Cir.1991) (warning that "the decision to sit idly by and allow the summary judgment proponent to configure the record is likely to prove fraught with consequence."); Medina Muñoz, 896 F.2d at 8, quoting Mack v. Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., 871 F.2d 179, 181 (1st Cir.1989) ("The evidence illustrating the factual controversy cannot be conjectural or problematic; it must have substance in the sense that it limns differing versions of the truth which a fact finder must resolve.")

Applicable Law and Analysis

In the present case, Defendants argue they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law because Plaintiffs are exempt from the FLSA's provisions inasmuch as their work meets the short test for the professional exemption. On the other hand, Plaintiffs argue that Defendants have developed a statement of uncontested facts that, in part, is not sustained by the evidence attached thereto and/or that is contested by Defendants' own official documents and admissions. Furthermore, they allege that Defendants omit facts which prove and support the conclusion that Plaintiffs are entitled to overtime pay because in performing their work they do not perform work that requires the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment.

Congress enacted the FLSA in 1938 as a remedial statute because the free market failed to adequately protect workers from exploitive conditions. 29 U.S.C. § 202(b). The FLSA's minimum wage and overtime provisions aim to protect low-end wage earners in particular from substandard wages and excessive hours. The expressed intent of the FLSA is to eliminate "labor conditions detrimental to the minimum standard of living necessary for the health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers."29 U.S.C. § . 202(a); S.Rep. No. 75-884, at 3-4 (1937); Brooklyn Sav. Bank v. O'Neil, 324 U.S. 697, 706-707 n. 18, 65 S.Ct. 895, 89 L.Ed. 1296 (1945).

As a general rule, the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes that employees must be compensated at a rate not less than one and one-half times their regular rate for all overtime hours. 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1). The Act further defines overtime as employment in excess of 40 hours in a single workweek. Nevertheless, FLSA's overtime provision does "not apply to any employee employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity.... (as such terms are defined and delimited from time to time by regulations of the Secretary)." 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(1). The employer in an FLSA case bears the burden of establishing that its employees are exempt; because of the remedial nature of the FLSA, exemptions are to be "narrowly construed against the employers seeking to assert them and their application limited to those establishments plainly and unmistakably within their terms and spirit." See Reich v. Newspapers of New England, 44 F.3d 1060, 1070 (1st Cir.1995); Arnold v. Ben Kanowsky, Inc., 361 U.S. 388, 392, 80 S.Ct. 453, 4 L.Ed.2d 393 (1960); Secretary of Labor v. DeSisto, 929 F.2d 789, 797 (1st Cir.1991) (citations omitted).

Congress did not set forth the specific parameters of the FLSA's exemptions in the statute. They are part of the Department of Labor's (DOL) regulations and interpretations. Promulgated pursuant to an express delegation of Congress, the DOL's regulations are to be given controlling weight unless found to be arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to the statute. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837, 843-44, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). The DOL's interpretive regulations set forth the Secretary's official position on how they should be applied in specific contexts¹. See Newspapers of New England, 44 F.3d at 1070. Even so, these interpretations have the "power to persuade, if lacking power to control," as they "constitute a body of experience and informed judgment to which courts and litigants may properly resort for guidance." Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 140, 65 S.Ct. 161, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944).

The DOL's regulations outline both a short and a long test for determining whether an employee qualifies for an exemption. The requirements of the administrative exemption are set forth in the regulations at 29 C.F.R. § 541.2; the ones for the professional exemption are detailed in 29 C.F.R. § 541.315(a). The short test is used for employees "who are compensated on a salary or fee basis at a rate of at least $285 per week exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities." 29 C.F.R. § 541.315(a) and 29 C.F.R. § 541.2(e)(2). In the present case, Defendants allege that Plaintiffs fall within the exception outlined in the short test. Therefore, the Court will proceed to analyze Plaintiffs' circumstances to determine if they fall within this exception.

In order for the employer to establish that plaintiffs...