U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd recently granted the City of San Jose’s motion to decertify a class of approximately 500 employees who have alleged that, under the Federal Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), they were not properly compensated for their hours spent working overtime. In December 2017, the class was decertified as the judge concluded that an individualized calculation of each employee’s hours would be needed to determine damages, and courts “have found class treatment inappropriate where, as here, liability cannot be proven on a classwide basis.”
OnPoint expert and forensic CPA Christine Davis was retained as the damages expert on behalf of defendant the City of San Jose. Ms. Davis’s role in the case concerned the calculation of overtime compensation under the FLSA using the appropriate “regular rate of pay,” and the determination of whether minimum wages were paid under the FLSA. Earlier this year, Ms. Davis submitted an expert report and provided deposition testimony in the matter. She addressed the damage claims brought by the plaintiffs following a comprehensive analysis of voluminous time records and compensation data for the last three years, and a detailed reconstruction of the City’s compensation methods.