Portillo v. Nat'l Freight, Inc.

• Decision Date: 07 February 2023
• Docket Number: CIVIL 15-CV-07908
• Parties: JOHN F. PORTILLO, RAFAEL SUAREZ, MARTIN DURAN, GERMAN BENCOMSE, EDIN VARGAS, LUIS A. HERNANDEZ, JOSUE PAZ, and ALVARO CASTANEDA, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. NATIONAL FREIGHT, INC. and NFI INTERACTIVE LOGISTICS, INC., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

JOHN F. PORTILLO, RAFAEL SUAREZ, MARTIN DURAN, GERMAN BENCOMSE, EDIN VARGAS, LUIS A. HERNANDEZ, JOSUE PAZ, and ALVARO CASTANEDA, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs,
v.
NATIONAL FREIGHT, INC. and NFI INTERACTIVE LOGISTICS, INC., Defendants.

CIVIL No. 15-CV-07908

United States District Court, D. New Jersey

February 7, 2023

OPINION

JOSEPH H. RODRIGUEZ, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This matter is before the Court on the motion of defendants National Freight, Inc. and NFI Interactive Logistics, LLC [Dkt. 307] seeking an order pursuant to Fed. R, Civ. P. 23(c)(1)(C) decertifying the class previously certified by the Court on June 30, 2020 [Dkt. 170] and vacating the Court's June 9, 2022 Summary Judgment Order [Dkt, 301]. [Dkt. 307]. The Court is in receipt of and has considered plaintiffs' opposition [Dkt. 309] as well as defendants' reply [Dkt. 310] and the parties' respective sur-replies [Dkt. 312, 313]. For the reasons set forth herein, the Court will deny the motion.

I. Background

Plaintiffs are truck drivers who allege that defendants National Freight, Inc. and NFI Interactive Logistics, LLC (collectively, “NFI”) erroneously classified them as independent contractors and resultingly made unlawful deductions from their pay in violation of the New Jersey Wage Payment Law, N.J. Stat. Ann. § 34:11-4,1 et seq, On

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July 1, 2020, the Court granted class certification under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3) and defined the class of Plaintiffs as:

1. All individuals who: (1) entered into, either personally or through a corporate entity, an independent contractor agreement with NFI that had a New Jersey choice-of-law clause; and (2) drove a vehicle on a full-time basis to perform deliveries of goods to Trader Joe's stores anywhere on the East Coast on behalf of NFI at any time since June 22, 2009

2. “Full-time basis” means having delivered at least 80% of the loads assigned to the contractor

Portillo v. Nat'l Freight, Inc., 336 F.R.D. 85, 98 (D.N.J. 2020).

In arriving at this definition in the July 1, 2020 Opinion deciding Plaintiffs' motion for class certification, the Court took into account Judge Simandle's earlier decision making certain choice-of-law determinations in the context of Plaintiffs' motion for declaratory relief. See id. at 88-91 (citing Portillo v. Nat'l Freight, Inc., 323 F.Supp.3d 646 (D.N.J. 2018). Specifically, the Court found that Judge Simandle's conclusion that New Jersey law applies to the named Plaintiffs' claims extended to then-absent class member Plaintiffs who meet the class criteria. Id. at 91.

Following the Court's certification of the class, NFI sought permission to appeal that decision byway of petition to the Third Circuit under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(f), which the Third Circuit denied. See National Freight, Inc. et al. v. Portillo, et al., No. 20-8029, Order, ECF No. 8 (3d Cir. Aug. 25, 2020). Plaintiffs then moved for summary judgment [Dkt. 187-190] and NFI cross-moved for summary judgment [Dkt. 276-280]. NFI's instant motion follows the Court's Order granting summary judgment in favor of Plaintiffs upon finding that Plaintiffs were misclassified as independent contractors applying the ABC test under New Jersey law. See Portillo v. Nat'l Freight, Inc., No. 15-CV-07908, 2022 WL 2078276 (D.N.J. June 9, 2022).

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The determinations set forth in the Court's decisions on each of these earlier motions are implicated by NFI's present motion to decertify. NFI challenges the Court's earlier conclusions that New Jersey law applies to Plaintiffs' claims based on the recent decision in Johnson v. Diakon Logistics, Inc., 44 F.4th 1048 (7th Cir. 2022) and that damages are not calculable on a class-wide basis. See Mot. at *2.

In Diakon, The Seventh Circuit held that choice-of-law provisions contained in defendants' service agreements with plaintiff truck drivers were irrelevant because the plaintiffs' rights under the Illinois wage law arose under and were governed by the wage payment statute, not their service agreements. See Diakon, 44 F.4th at 1052. NFI argues that Diakon shows this Court “incorrectly analyzed which state's wage payment law governs the work of interstate drivers allegedly misclassified as independent contractors.” Reply at *1. According to NFI, this Court erred when it “applied the most-significant-relationship test from the Restatement (Conflicts) of Law and concluded a New Jersey choice-of-law provision in the parties' ICOA was in effect determinative.” Id. NFI further claims that in doing so, the Court inappropriately extended the choice-of-law ruling beyond named plaintiffs to all class members at the class certification stage, which “minimized the relationship between the parties and the claims, on one hand, and Pennsylvania, on the other.” Mot. at *6. As to damages, NFI argues that individual issues overwhelm questions common to the class because Plaintiffs' expenses vary both plaintiff-to-plaintiff and year-to-year. Id. at *18. NFI contends that this makes it impossible to determine Plaintiffs' costs and expenses across the entire class, thus rendering the claims improper for adjudication on a class-wide basis. Reply at. *19.

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II. Discussion

“An order that grants or denies class certification may be altered or amended before final judgment.”...