Mbaye v. RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc.
- Ho
- 1:23-cv-02967
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Mbaye v. RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc., Judge Ho denied plaintiffs’ request to obtain nationwide employee names and pay histories in a federal wage-law discovery dispute.
The ruling affected the plaintiffs’ effort to obtain broader employee information from the defendants. It denied the requested discovery but did not resolve the underlying wage claims or the anticipated nationwide collective-action request.
What happened
In Mbaye v. RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc., the plaintiffs asked the court to require the defendants to provide the names and historical pay rates of current and former bathroom attendants. They said the information would help them seek a nationwide collective action under federal wage law.
The parties had agreed to conditional certification for restroom attendants at three New York City nightclubs. The plaintiffs sought information about attendants at 66 additional nightclubs in 12 other states, covering the previous four years. They had not yet moved for nationwide certification.
The court found that the plaintiffs had not shown that this broader discovery was proportional to their claims as the case currently stood. Judge Dale E. Ho therefore denied the motion and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion from the docket.
The detailed version
- Mbaye v. RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-02967
- Ho
- June 20, 2024
Background
The plaintiffs sought an order compelling the defendants to supplement responses to two interrogatories. They requested the names and historical compensation rates of all current and former non-exempt restroom attendants employed at 66 additional nightclubs in 12 additional states during the previous four years. The plaintiffs said the discovery was needed to develop a factual basis for an anticipated motion seeking a nationwide collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law governing minimum wages and other employment protections.
The parties had stipulated to conditional certification of a collective action consisting of restroom attendants at three New York City nightclubs. The plaintiffs had not yet moved for nationwide certification. The defendants opposed the requested discovery, and the parties met with the court on June 20, 2024 to discuss the dispute.
Legal Standard and Analysis
The court explained that discovery must be relevant and proportional to the needs of the case. It also noted that whether to permit discovery before collective-action certification is left to the court’s discretion. The court recognized that decisions in the district have differed over pre-certification discovery in FLSA cases.
The court concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that the requested information was proportional to their asserted claims “as the case stands today.” The court therefore denied the motion. The order addressed only the discovery request; it did not decide whether a nationwide collective action should be certified or resolve the parties’ underlying wage claims.
Disposition
The court denied the plaintiffs’ motion to compel. It also directed the Clerk of Court to terminate ECF No. 97.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.