Ortega v. 2&5 Line Deli Grocery

Background

Alejandro Ortega sued his former employer, 2&5 Line Deli Grocery, Inc., and its owner, Aziz Saleh Alzubaidi, under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. At the trial, Ortega agreed that the Fair Labor Standards Act claims should not go to the jury, so the jury considered the New York Labor Law claims.

The jury found the defendants liable for unpaid overtime wages and for failing to provide wage statements. It awarded Ortega $77,490 in compensatory damages for unpaid overtime, $5,000 in liquidated damages, and $5,000 in statutory damages for the wage-statement violation. The court later entered a judgment of $109,106.02, including prejudgment interest.

Attorney’s Fees and Costs

The court found that Ortega was the prevailing party because he succeeded on significant claims and received damages. Applying the lodestar method—the reasonable hourly rate multiplied by the reasonable number of hours—the court found that attorney Lina Stillman’s requested rate of $400 per hour and 122.10 hours of work were reasonable. The court awarded $48,840 in attorney’s fees.

The court also approved $8,128.51 in litigation costs, including subpoena-service fees, filing fees, translation costs, and transcript fees. It therefore granted Ortega’s application for attorney’s fees and costs in the total amount of $56,968.51.

Motion to Amend the Judgment

Ortega moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) to amend the judgment because of the jury instruction on liquidated damages. The instruction told the jury that it could award liquidated damages of “up to” 100% of unpaid wages. The court held that this was incorrect under New York Labor Law, which requires liquidated damages equal to 100% of unpaid wages unless the employer proves a good-faith basis for believing that its payment practices complied with the law.

Although Ortega had not objected to the instruction during trial, the court held that it could correct the error as plain error because the instruction violated established law and affected Ortega’s substantial rights. The jury’s $5,000 liquidated-damages award showed that it found the defendants had not acted in good faith. The jury had also found that Ortega was owed $77,490 in unpaid wages. Because those factual findings were already made, the court concluded that increasing liquidated damages to $77,490 required no additional fact-finding and did not improperly override the jury.

Ruling

Judge Margaret M. Garnett granted Ortega’s motion to amend the judgment and granted his application for attorney’s fees and costs. The Clerk was directed to enter a new judgment reflecting $77,490 in liquidated damages and a corresponding adjustment to prejudgment interest. The opinion does not state the resulting total amount of the new judgment.