Date: 04-05-2006

Case Style: Janice Morgan, et al. v. Family Dollar Stores

Case Number: 7:01-cv-00303-UWC

Judge: U.W. Clemon

Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Western Division (Tuscaloosa County)

Plaintiff's Attorney:

Gregory Wiggins, Robert Childs, Jr. of Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, LLC, Birmingham, Alabama, and Barry V. Frederick, Kevin W. Jent, P. Mark Petro, C. Michael Quinn, Robert F. Childs, Jr., Herman N. Johnson, Jr.,

Defendant's Attorney:

Augusta Dowd, Abdul Kallon, Ronald Kent, Jr., James May, T. Matthew Miller, Scott Smith, Jay St. Clair, and J. Mark White,

Description:

Current and former store managers of Family Dollar Stores claimed Defendant misclassified them as exempt employees under the "executive exemption to the FLSA. Plaintiffs maintained that because their primary duty was not management and that they spent 80-95% of their time unloading trucks, cleaning the store and stocking shelves that they were nothing more than salaried labor workers, i.e., working foreman. In addition, the defendant's own payroll records established that Defendant was not in compliance with one of the prongs of the executive exemption test that required the manager to supervise 2 or more employees.

Defendant Family Dollar asserted that the Plaintiffs were properly classified as exempt under the FLSA because as Store Managers they met all applicable requirements of the exemption, including having management as their primary duty. Defendant also asserted that the case should not have been allowed to proceed as a collective action to begin with and should not have been tried "representatively" in the manner allowed by the trial court.

Outcome: Plaintiffs' verdict for $19 million increased by the court to $33.2 million.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: None testified.

Comments: The jury deliberated for less than two hours and returned its verdict. The jury found that Defendant was guilty of wilfully violating the FLSA.