Mateo-Evangelio v. Triple J Produce, Inc.
| Decision Date | 14 January 2016 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No.: 7:14-cv-302-FL |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of North Carolina |
| Parties | MANUEL MATEO-EVANGELIO, JAIME TREJO-CARDONA, GILBERTO CERVANTES-VEGA, REYNALDO VILLALOBOS-MARTINEZ, EMILIO REYES, MARIA DE LOS ANGELES GONZALEZ-ROMAN, RAMIRO CERVANTES-VEGA, FRANCISCO CARMELO MATIAS-CASTRO, PABLO GONZALEZ-ROMAN, BENIGNO VILLAGOMEZ-GARCIA, and SERGIO NARCISO LOPEZ-JUAREZ, on behalf of themselves and all other similarly situated persons, Plaintiffs, v. TRIPLE J PRODUCE, INC., HOCUTT BROTHERS, INC., HOCUTT FARMS, INC., JUDY HOCUTT, JOEY M. HOCUTT, JAMES MICHAEL HOCUTT, and M. JAY HOCUTT, Defendants. |
This matter is before the Court on the parties' joint motion for class and collective action certification. The Plaintiffs' Third Amended Complaint, filed on October 7, 2015, alleges claims for relief under five legal theories. Doc. 60. In four of those five claims, the plaintiffs seek class or collective action relief. Doc. 60. The first claim is a class action claim pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3), Fed. R.Civ. P., for failure to pay the promised wage under the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act ("NCWHA"), N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 95-25.1 et seq., for workweeks in 2013 and 2014 when the named plaintiffs and classmembers worked more than 40 hours at least part of which involved the processing or packing of sweet potatoes grown by some grower other than the defendants. Doc. 60 at 73-74 (¶¶104-06). The second is another class action claim pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3), Fed. R. Civ. P., for failure to pay the promised wage under the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act ("NCWHA"), N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 95-25.1 et seq., for "corresponding employment" (as defined in 20 C.F.R. § 655.103(b)) in 2014. Doc. 60 at 74-76 (¶¶107-09). The third is a collective action claim for overtime wage violations from January 1, 2012 to August 28, 2015 under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq. Doc. 60 at 76-77 (¶¶110-12). The fourth claim is a third class action claim under Rule 23(b)(3) for violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act ("AWPA") from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2014. 29 U.S.C. §§ 1801, et seq. Doc. 60 at 77-86 (¶¶113-115). The final claim is an individual claim for retaliation against ten of the eleven named plaintiffs and the wrongful discharge of plaintiff Jaime Trejo-Cardona in 2015. Doc. 60 at 86-90 (¶¶116-132). The defendants denied liability for the class and collective action claims as they were alleged in the Second Amended Complaint in their written Answer to that Complaint, and effectively denied the individual claims in mediation.
The Plaintiffs and Defendants have negotiated a settlement agreement in this action which includes relief on a class wide basis for the plaintiffs' claims under the AWPA and the "corresponding employment" claim under the NCWHA, and relief for a collective action of similarly situated employees for the overtime claims under the FLSA of all plaintiffs except plaintiff Lopez. For settlement purposes only, Defendants consent to and join in the Joint Motion for Class and Collective Action Certification under Rule23(b)(3) and 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) ("Joint Motion") pursuant to the Settlement Agreement reached between the parties. (DE 61-1). Class certification pursuant to this Order is contingent upon final Court approval of the Settlement Agreement (DE 61-1). and therefore all parties retain all rights and contentions concerning class certification in the event the Court does not approve the Settlement Agreement.
Accordingly, pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, the parties now seek to certify a Plaintiff Class under the AWPA for statutory damages under 29 U.S.C. § 1854(c)(1) and Rule 23(b)(3), Fed. R. Civ.P., a Plaintiff Class under the NCWHA for back wages and liquidated damages under N.C.Gen.Stat. §§ 95-25.22(a) and 95-25.22(a1) and Rule 23(b)(3), Fed.R.Civ.P., and a collective action under the FSLA for back wages and liquidated damages. 29 U.S.C. §§ 207 and 216(b).
The parties move under Rule 23(b)(3), Fed.R.Civ.P., for certification of an AWPA class ("AWPA Class") represented by all plaintiffs and defined as follows:
all migrant and seasonal agricultural workers (as the terms "migrant agricultural worker" and "seasonal agricultural worker" are defined in 29 U.S.C. §§ 1802(8) and 1802(10) and 29 C.F.R. §§ 500.20(p) and 500.20(r)) who were employed by Triple J Produce, Inc., Hocutt Brothers, Inc., and/or Hocutt Farms, Inc. or jointly employed by one or more of those same corporate entities and farm labor contractor(s) Maximo Becerra, the Armenta group (Eusebio, Isidoro, Natalie, and Bertha), and/or Francisco Salazar to perform temporary or seasonal work in agriculture for defendants Triple J Produce, Inc., Hocutt Brothers, Inc., and/or Hocutt Farms, Inc. in the three (3) agricultural seasons that occurred in North Carolina in the time period between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014.
Doc. 60 at 38-39 (¶49) and at 77 (¶114).
The parties also move under Rule 23(b)(3), Fed.R.Civ.P., for certification of a NCWHA class ("NCWHA Class") represented by all plaintiffs and defined as follows:
all workers who were not issued an H-2A visa issued pursuant to 8 U.S.C.§§1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(A), 1184(c), and 1188(a)(1) who were employed at any time in 2014 by Hocutt Brothers, Inc. or jointly employed by Hocutt Brothers, Inc. and the Armenta group (Eusebio, Isidoro, Natalie, and Bertha) of farm labor contractors to perform any "corresponding employment" (as the term "corresponding employment" is defined in 20 C.F.R. § 655.103(b)) for Hocutt Brothers, Inc. at any time between May 15, 2014 and November 19, 2014.
Finally, the parties also jointly move the Court for certification of an opt-in class under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) for the claims of all named plaintiffs other than plaintiff Lopez under 29 U.S.C. § 207 ("FLSA Collective Action"), defined as follows:
Any person who was employed or jointly employed by Triple J Produce, Inc., Hocutt Brothers, Inc., and/or Hocutt Farms, Inc. in the packing house operated by Triple J Produce, Inc., Hocutt Brothers, Inc., and/or Hocutt Farms, Inc. in or around Wilson County, North Carolina in any workweek ending in the time period from January 1, 2012 through August 28, 2015 who worked in excess of 40 hours in any workweek when, during that same workweek, that same person also processed or packed any sweet potatoes that were not grown and produced in connection with the farming operations of Triple J Produce, Inc., Hocutt Brothers, Inc., and/or Hocutt Farms, Inc.
Defendants Triple J Produce, Inc., Hocutt Brothers, Inc., and Hocutt Farms, Inc. are three related farming corporations that the plaintiffs have alleged to be an enterprise pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 203(r) and N.C.Gen.Stat. § 95-25.2(18). For the time period from January 1, 2012 through August 28, 2015, it is alleged that the plaintiffs and the putative members of the AWPA Class were employed by Triple J Produce, Inc., Hocutt Brothers, Inc., and/or Hocutt Farms, Inc. or jointly employed by one or more of those same corporate entities and farm labor contractor(s) Maximo Becerra, the Armenta group (Eusebio, Isidoro, Natalie, and Bertha), and/or Francisco Salazar as migrant or seasonal agricultural workers to perform various forms of seasonal agricultural work pursuant tovarious wage rates. Plaintiffs allege that at times they were not paid wages when due, wage rates were not disclosed to them in the manner required by AWPA, accurate wage statements were not provided to them, accurate wage records were not maintained with respect to their employment, and false statements were made to them about the wages to be paid to them.
With the exception of plaintiff Lopez, one or more of the three corporate defendants also employed all other named plaintiffs and the putative members of the collective action in the Triple J Produce, Inc. packinghouse, where they were paid a straight hourly wage for all hours worked, including those hours worked over forty in a single workweek. Plaintiffs allege that they were entitled to overtime pay for all hours over forty in any workweek in which Defendants packed or processed sweet potatoes supplied by certain outside growers. Plaintiffs also allege that the corporate defendants and farm labor contractor(s) Maximo Becerra, the Armenta group (Eusebio, Isidoro, Natalie, and Bertha), and/or Francisco Salazar were joint employers of named plaintiff Sergio Narciso Lopez Juarez and the workers furnished by those same farm labor contractor(s) who are putative members of the AWPA Class and the NCWHA Class. Plaintiffs further alleged that Defendants' recordkeeping and pay practices were in violation of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act ("AWPA").
When a settlement is reached prior to Rule 23 certification, the law permits a class to be certified solely for the purposes of settlement. Aguilar-Gamas v. Scott Farms, Inc., Case No.: 5:13-CV-447-FL, 2014 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 177206, at *4 (E.D.N.C. Order filed Dec. 24, 2014)("Aguila-Gamas"); Covarrubias v. Capt. Charlie's Seafood, Inc., Case No. 2:10-CV-10-F, 2011 WL 2690531 (E.D.N.C., July 06, 2011)("Covarrubias"), at *2. There is a strong judicial policy in favor of settlement. See Bennett v. Behring Corp, 737 F. 2d 982, 986 (11th Cir. 1984). The parties seeking class certification must still meet the four prerequisites of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a)(1) through (4) and then must establish that they constitute a proper class of at least one of the types delineated in Rules 23(b)(1) through (3). However, in those cases, courts do not need to inquire whether the class will be manageable at trial because the settlement makes a trial...
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