NEW YORK , Aug. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In a significant legal development, the Southern District of New York has granted the decertification of a class and collective action against Goals Plastic Surgery. The lawsuit, which centered on wage and hour claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law (NYLL), was brought forward by employees seeking collective redress.
The court found that the employees' claims lacked the required commonality and typicality, leading to the decertification. This ruling underscores the complexities of class action litigation and the critical need for uniformity in plaintiffs' claims. In 2018, four employees of New York based, Goals Plastic Surgery, filed suit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law, by denying overtime wages.
Later, in 2021, the court, with respect to the employees' FLSA and NYLL claims and a F.R.C.
P. Rule 23(b) class, certified the case a collective action, which led the defense to move to decertify the ruling, claiming that discovery had revealed significant differences between members making up the class, revealing some are actually salaried employees, which are arguably exempt from overtime requirements, leading to a federal district court granting the employer its motion. Throughout litigation of over six years, the record showed that even though they were afforded a lengthy discovery period, extensions and a reopening, plaintiff's counsel failed to produce class-wide.