Thomas v. Amazon.Com Servs., Inc.

Decision Date22 September 2021
Docket NumberCase No. 1:19-cv-01696
Parties Savon THOMAS, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. AMAZON.COM SERVICES, INC., et al., Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

Christopher J. Lalak, Nilges Draher, Cleveland, OH, Shannon M. Draher, Hans A. Nilges, Nilges Draher, Massillon, OH, for Plaintiff Savon Thomas.

Anthony J. Lazzaro, Chastity L. Christy, Lori M. Griffin, Lazzaro Law Firm, Moreland Hills, OH, for Plaintiff Madeline Gorie.

Kevin F. Gaffney, Sari M. Alamuddin, Pro Hac Vice, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Chicago, IL, Richard G. Rosenblatt, Joseph A. Nuccio, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Princeton, NJ, Andrew J. Barber, Stephanie R. Reiss, Pro Hac Vice, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Pittsburgh, PA, for Defendants Amazon.com Services, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc.

OPINION AND ORDER

J. Philip Calabrese, United States District Judge

Plaintiffs Savon Thomas and Colleen McLaughlin, employees at an Amazon fulfillment center in Summit County, Ohio, filed a class action lawsuit against Defendants Amazon.com Services, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc., alleging that Amazon violated Ohio's Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act by failing to pay employees for time spent undergoing security screenings before lunch breaks at their respective jobsites. The parties stipulated to the dismissal of Ms. McLaughlin's claim without prejudice. (ECF No. 37; ECF No. 38.) Defendants move for summary judgment, but the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this lawsuit. Therefore, the Court VACATES the proceedings to date and DISMISSES this action WITHOUT PREJUDICE .

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Plaintiff filed a putative class action against Defendants, asserting a single claim under the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act and invoking the Court's diversity jurisdiction. (ECF No. 1, ¶¶ 4, 39–53, PageID #1, 7–8.) As originally pleaded, Plaintiff alleged that Defendants failed to pay workers for time spent going through a mandatory security screening process twice per shift: at the end of the shift and before lunch breaks. (Id. , ¶¶ 18 & 19, PageID #3.) According to the complaint, "Defendants’ mandatory post-shift and pre-lunch screening process routinely takes up to between 10 and 20 minutes." (Id. , ¶ 27, PageID 4.) Plaintiff alleges that workers regularly work more than forty hours per workweek and that Defendants did not pay them for overtime and underpaid overtime compensation. (Id. , ¶¶ 17, 30, PageID #3, 5.)

After answering, Defendants moved for judgment on the pleadings. (ECF No. 16.) Before reassignment of the case, the Court granted the motion in part and denied it in part. (ECF No. 27.) As a result of that ruling, Plaintiff's claim was limited to the underpayment of overtime compensation for the time spent in "the pre-lunch security screenings [that] were mandatory." (Id. , PageID #244.)

After ruling on the motion for judgment on the pleadings, and before reassignment of the case, the Court consolidated this case with Gorie v. Amazon.com Services, LLC , Case No. 1:20-cv-1387. In Gorie , Plaintiff—represented by different counsel—challenges the same compensation practices at Amazon fulfillment centers in Ohio under the Fair Labor Standards Practices Act. (See generally Gorie ECF No. 1.) In both cases, the parties moved to amend the case management order to sequence the resolution of the claims in the two consolidated cases. (ECF No. 35; Gorie ECF No. 27.) Specifically, "the parties agree[d] that discovery in the consolidated actions should be bifurcated so that discovery specific to the claims of Gorie and the putative collective would begin only after discovery on the claims of Thomas and McLaughlin is completed and motions for summary judgment on their claims are resolved." (ECF No. 35, PageID #279; Gorie ECF No. 27, PageID #182.) With respect to conditional certification of a collective in Gorie , the parties left the timing of a motion to Plaintiff but deferred "notice until after a final determination on the merits of the Thomas named plaintiffs’ claims." (ECF No. 35, PageID #280; Gorie ECF No. 27, PageID #183.)

In the Court's view, this procedure is inconsistent with Rule 23, which directs determination of class certification "[a]t an early practicable time," which generally comes before summary judgment. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(c)(1)(A). Nonetheless, at a status conference on October 1, 2020 before reassignment of the case, the Court granted the motion to amend the case management order as the parties proposed in both cases. (ECF No. 36, PageID #284.) Accordingly, the Court ordered the parties’ proposed sequencing of the cases:

Plaintiff Gorie may move for conditional class certification whenever she chooses, provided that in the event the court grants notice, the parties agree to defer the issuance of notice, and the Court orders that the issuance of notice be deferred, until after a final determination on the merits of the Thomas named plaintiffs’ claims.

(Id. , PageID #285.) The Court ordered the parties to submit a proposed scheduling order within fourteen days of a ruling on Defendantsmotion for summary judgment in the Thomas case. (Id. )

Subsequently, Plaintiff filed several opt-in forms in Gorie . (Gorie ECF Nos. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32.) Both cases were reassigned on December 9, 2021.

JURISDICTION

Because of the limited jurisdiction of the federal courts, the Court has an independent obligation to examine its own jurisdiction to ensure that it has the authority to proceed. See, e.g. , Nikolao v. Lyon , 875 F.3d 310, 315 (6th Cir. 2017) (citations and quotations omitted); Mercurio v. American Express Centurion Bank , 363 F. Supp. 2d 936, 938 (N.D. Ohio 2005). "[F]ederal courts have a duty to consider their subject matter jurisdiction in regard to every case and may raise the issue sua sponte. " Answers in Genesis of Ky., Inc. v. Creation Ministries Int'l, Ltd. , 556 F.3d 459, 465 (6th Cir. 2009). Jurisdiction is determined at the time of the filing of the complaint. See, e.g. , Farmer v. Fisher , 386 F.App'x 554, 557 (6th Cir. 2010) (per curiam) (citing Curry v. U.S. Bulk Transp., Inc. , 462 F.3d 536, 540 (6th Cir. 2006) ).

In the complaint, Plaintiff invokes the Court's jurisdiction "pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332." (ECF No. 1, ¶ 4, PageID #1.) Although the complaint does not identify the specific subsection of Section 1332 that confers jurisdiction, Plaintiff goes on to allege that "the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs," making clear that the complaint invokes conventional diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). (Id. )

Because Plaintiff asserts only a single claim under State law and invokes the Court's diversity jurisdiction, the Court ordered the parties to address whether the Court has jurisdiction. (ECF No. 43.) Although the parties are diverse, neither party contends the Court has jurisdiction under Section 1332(a). (See generally ECF No. 45; ECF No. 46, PageID #566 n.1.) The Court agrees. Although the complaint does not allege the times each individual plaintiff worked for Amazon, their dates of employment, or the rough amounts of unpaid or underpaid overtime compensation each alleges, some generous assumptions establish that the allegations do not come close to satisfying the amount in controversy. Assuming both Mr. Thomas and Ms. McLaughlin worked forty hours per week for two years at a rate of $15 per hour and were not paid 20 minutes per shift in connection with mandatory security screenings as alleged (see ECF No. 1, ¶ 27, PageID #4), even rounding those calculations up yields less than $10,000 in controversy. Allowing for additional unpaid amounts and attorneys’ fees leaves the amount in controversy well below the jurisdictional amount.

Under the law of this Circuit, plaintiffs in a class action may not aggregate the value of their respective claims to meet the amount-in-controversy requirement under Section 1332(a) to establish federal jurisdiction. See Everett v. Verizon Wireless, Inc. , 460 F.3d 818, 823–24 (6th Cir. 2006). In other words, for the Court to have diversity jurisdiction, each plaintiff must demonstrate that his or her claims meet the minimum amount-in-controversy requirement. Aggregation is only permitted where the plaintiffs "unite to enforce a single title or right in which they have a common and undivided interest." Snyder v. Harris , 394 U.S. 332, 335, 89 S.Ct. 1053, 22 L.Ed.2d 319 (1969). Such is not the case here because each prospective plaintiff has separate claims to the amounts Defendants allegedly owe to them for overtime hours worked.

The parties advance two alternative bases for the Court's jurisdiction. The Court considers each in turn.

I. Supplemental Jurisdiction

Plaintiff and Defendants maintain that the Court may exercise supplemental or ancillary jurisdiction. (ECF No. 45, PageID #555; ECF No. 46, PageID #567.) This argument depends on the consolidation between the Thomas and Gorie matters. Because the Court has federal question jurisdiction over the claim in Gorie under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the parties suggest that the Court may exercise supplemental or ancillary jurisdiction over Thomas .

Without question, the allegations in the two suits involve the same operative facts. But the argument that the Court may exercise supplemental jurisdiction in Thomas gets the jurisdictional basis precisely backward. "Ancillary jurisdiction may extend to claims having a factual and logical dependence on ‘the primary lawsuit.’ " Peacock v. Thomas , 516 U.S. 349, 355, 116 S.Ct. 862, 133 L.Ed.2d 817 (1996) (quoting Owen Equip. & Erection Co. v. Kroger , 437 U.S. 365, 376, 98 S.Ct. 2396, 57 L.Ed.2d 274 (1978) ). However, the primary lawsuit must have an independent basis for federal jurisdiction. Id. Here, the parties and the Court treated Thomas as the primary lawsuit, perhaps because it was filed first. Whatever the reason, the Court's case management order gave priority to Thomas over ...

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