Karna v. BP Corp. N. Am.
| Decision Date | 19 March 2013 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO. H-12-0101 |
| Parties | VINAY K. KARNA, Plaintiff, v. BP CORPORATION NORTH AMERICA, INC., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas |
The Court has before it three dispositive motions. They are Defendant BP Corporation North America Inc.'s ("BP" or "Defendant") Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 17) and Amended Motion for Summary Judgment ("Def.'s Mot.") (Doc. No. 45)1 , and Plaintiff Vinay K. Karna's ("Karna" or "Plaintiff") Motion for Partial Summary Judgment ("Pl.'s Mot.") (Doc. No. 11). After considering the Motions, all responses thereto, and the applicable law, the Court concludes that Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment should be GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART, and Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment and Amended Motion for Summary Judgment should be GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.
This suit is brought by a former employee against his former employer. Karna alleges violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), breach of contract, quantum meruit,negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, promissory estoppel and wrongful discharge by BP. (See generally Doc. No. 1, Ex. A-2G, Pl.'s First Am. Pet.)
Karna has worked extensively in the SAP Business Warehouse ("BW") arena. (Def.'s Mot., Ex. C-1, Karna's 2007 Resume; Def.'s Mot., Ex. C-2, Karna's 2009 Resume.) SAP is a provider of data management systems used by many large companies. (Def.'s Mot., Ex. C, Daphne Adams Aff. ¶ 4.) BW is SAP's data warehouse program. (Id.) Prior to being hired by BP, Karna had spent four years working as a SAP BW independent contractor for a number of different companies. (Karna's 2007 Resume; Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-1, Karna Dep. 23:2-33:1.) Before that, he was employed as a manager at Ernst & Young for four years, during which time he worked primarily as a SAP BW consultant for a number of Ernst & Young's clients. (Karna's 2007 Resume; Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-1, Karna Dep. 16:12-22:8.)
Karna first began working at BP in August 2005. (Doc. No. 17, Def.'s Mot., Ex. D-1, August 2005 Supplier Agreement between Deep Consulting ("Deep") and Ideal Staffing Services ("Ideal"); Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-1, Karna Dep. 33:4-5.) Parties disagree about how this relationship came about. Karna contends BP contacted him directly, through an employee named Satish Chalasani, seeking to hire him, and that he was hired as an hourly employee. (Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-1, Karna Dep. 33:6-34:12.) Karna contends that Ideal was just the third-party payroll service that BP decided to use to pay Karna. .) BP contends that Karna was hired as an independent contractor, as evidenced by Karna's2 agreement with Ideal and BP's agreement with Ideal. (Def.'s Mot., at 2-3; August 2005 Supplier Agreement between Deep and Ideal; Def.'s Mot, Ex. D-4, Professional Services Agreement.) BP points out that Karna's agreement with Ideal specifically provides that Karna is not an employee of Ideal's client, BP. (August 2005 Supplier Agreement between Deep and Ideal ¶ 2.) There are a number of Supplier Agreements covering Karna's work at BP through October 2009. (Def.'s Mot., Exs. D-1, D-2, D-3, Supplier Agreements between Ideal and Karna.) BP paid Ideal $157.50 per hour; in turn, between August 2005 and October 2009, Ideal paid Karna between $147.50 and $132.75 per hour. (Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-1, Karna Dep. 80:16-24; 81:22-82:13, 133:16-134:7; Def.'s Mot, Ex. D-8, March 10, 2009 RD Data Invoice.)
Karna was originally hired to perform "Data Warehousing with SAP's Business Warehouse." Both BP and Karna describe his original role as a BW Coordinator. (Def.'s Mot., at 4; Karna's 2007 Resume.) Karna's duties before May 2, 2008 are not relevant to this lawsuit. (Pl.'s Mot., at 4.) From May 2, 2008 through October 18, 2009, Karna remained a BW Coordinator for BP. (See Def.'s Mot., at 4; Karna's 2009 Resume; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶¶ 17-18.) However, parties disagree about Karna's duties and his level of responsibility from May 2, 2008 through October 19, 2009.
BP states that, in 2007 and 2008, Karna "coordinated enhancements, continuous improvement in the system and processes, and correcting issues in the system arising from incorrect logic and functionality rule changes ('break/fix activities') of the WR5 system with [the] third party vendor." (Def.'s Mot., Ex. C, Daphne Adams Aff. ¶ 7.)3 From late 2008 to October 2009, BP provides that Karna "worked on migrating from BP's legacy BW system toWR5 along with continued coordination activities of WR5 enhancements and break/fix activities." (Id. ¶ 8.) Daphne Adams, Karna's supervisor throughout this time, described Karna's job as follows:
Karna's job was to plan, schedule, and coordinate activities required to design, develop, build, enhance and support the WR5 System, a very sophisticated computer program. In doing this, he reviewed technical and functional design specifications and computer coding for the WR5 system, provided feedback to the third party vendors (the developer), consulted with the users (the business) to understand its functional requirements, and then communicated that information to the WR5 developers. Karna was then responsible for ensuring that the technical specifications prepared by the developers expressed the business's functional specifications and complied with BP internal standards. He coordinated the testing of the WR5 system and performed testing. He collaborated with users to determine necessary modifications. Once the system was implemented, Karna responded to user inquiries, provided guidance, and participated in training users on WR5. He then participated in the enhancement of the system.
(Def.'s Mot., Ex. C, Adams Aff. ¶ 9.) BP contends that, throughout his time as SAP BW Coordinator, Karna was not given task-level directions, but was given a project to manage; managers at BP would become involved only to resolve any issues or provide redirection. (Def.'s Mot., at 5; Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-2, Adams Dep. 82:12-83:25.)
Karna describes his duties throughout this time period differently. He represents that, at the pertinent time, from May 2, 2008 through March 4, 2011, his primary duty was to assist his supervisor, Adams, with WR5. (Pl.'s Mot., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶¶ 7-8.) He states that his own responsibilities included maintaining various lists for Adams, acting on any immediate instructions from Adams, obtaining approval from Adams or Adam's supervisor on various decisions, performing scheduling tasks for Adams, creating problem tickets with third parties on behalf of Adams, and making sure problem tickets were resolved. (Id. ¶ 8.) Karna also represents that Adams gave him substantial and constant direction as to his responsibilities. .) Karnacontends that he did not "coordinate enhancements, continuous improvement in the system and processes, [or] correct[] issues with the [WR5] system" because, in fact, IBM, a third party, performed those tasks. (Id. ¶ 32; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶¶ 25-28.) According to Karna, IBM was responsible for managing WR5; IBM made all decisions about what to build, and how to solve particular problems. (Pl.'s Mot., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶¶ 25, 27; Pl.'s Resp., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶ 46.) Indeed, Karna states that under IBM's contract with BP, only IBM was allowed to decide how to fix any problems with WR5; Karna could advise IBM only that a particular problem existed, but IBM was the sole party allowed to write code that would resolve that problem. (Pl.'s Mot., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶¶ 32-35.)
Karna alleges that, throughout his time as BW Coordinator at BP, he was repeatedly prevented from billing all of the hours he worked. (Pl.'s Resp., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶¶ 76-79.) Karna states that Adams repeatedly told him not to report more than forty-five to fifty hours per week. (Id. ¶ 76.) Karna also, at one point, informed Adams that BP's billing system, Elance, actually did not allow individuals to enter more than fifty hours per week. (Id. ¶ 79; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. F, Adams Dep. 172:12-173:25.) Adams did not look into the problem, instead advising Karna simply to bill any excess hours the following week. (Pl.'s Mot., Ex. F, Adams Dep. 173:5-25.) Karna also alleges that BP knew that he was not being paid for all of the hours worked, not only because he told Adams, but because he input significantly different hours into Project Server, a project tracking system that individuals in the Enterprise Systems department were required to use beginning in March 2009. Karna further alleges that there existed a trend at BP of"burying time" and a sense among employees that those who bill overtime hours are perceived as inefficient. (Pl.'s Resp., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶¶ 77-78; June 26, 2009 Slides from Meeting, at 4.)
During his time as a BW coordinator for BP, Karna was also engaged in a few other enterprises, though parties dispute whether these activities are relevant. (Compare Doc. No. 39, Def.'s Resp. to Pl.'s Mot. for Partial Summ. J., at 7-8 with Doc. No. 36, Pl.'s Reply to Def.'s Resp. to Pl.'s Mot. for Partial Summ. J., at 3-6.) For instance, in March 2008, he performed somewhere between fifteen and twenty hours of BW consulting work for Champion Technologies during "off hours." (Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-1, Karna Dep. 270:25-272:1.) Although Karna's contract with Champion Technologies contract indicated a rate of $150 per hour, Karna states that he was never paid for this work. (Def.'s Mot., Ex. B-1, Karna Dep. 271:6-272:1; Pl.'s Resp., Ex. A, Karna Aff. ¶ 21.) Karna...
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