Sanchez v. L' Oreal USA, Inc.

Background

Rafael Sanchez sued L’Oreal USA, Inc. He alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL), the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), and New York Labor Law (NYLL). His claims included discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, aiding and abetting, unpaid overtime, and failure to provide a wage statement. The opinion states that Sanchez worked as a makeup artist and skincare consultant for L’Oreal from December 2017 through December 2018.

L’Oreal filed a partial motion to dismiss the overtime claims under the FLSA and NYLL and the aiding-and-abetting and attempted-aiding-and-abetting claims under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL. L’Oreal also argued that the FLSA overtime claim was barred by the statute of limitations, the deadline for bringing a claim.

Overtime Claims

The court held that the FLSA and NYLL overtime standards are analytically identical. To state a plausible claim, Sanchez needed to allege that he worked more than 40 hours in a particular workweek and that he was not paid for the overtime. The court found his allegations too general. Although he alleged that he was sometimes required to work late, work through lunch, and perform unpaid overtime during at least one week in several months, he did not identify specific workweeks, days, shift lengths, weekly hours, or hourly pay information. His allegation that he was owed at least 50 hours of overtime was not enough.

The court also found that Sanchez had not adequately alleged a willful FLSA violation. A willful violation requires facts plausibly showing that the employer knew, or recklessly disregarded whether, its conduct violated the FLSA. The court concluded that Sanchez's allegations about L’Oreal's knowledge, an alleged policy or practice, and a coworker's statement were conclusory and did not provide a factual basis for willfulness.

Because the FLSA overtime claims arose from work in 2018 and the amended complaint was filed in 2021, the court applied the FLSA's ordinary two-year limitations period. It dismissed with prejudice Sanchez's FLSA claims for unpaid overtime accruing before August 2018 as time-barred. The court noted that NYLL has a six-year limitations period, so the NYLL claims were not time-barred on that ground.

The court dismissed the remaining FLSA and NYLL overtime claims without prejudice. It gave Sanchez one more opportunity to seek leave to file a second amended complaint that would cure the pleading deficiencies and adequately allege willfulness for the FLSA overtime accruing from the relevant later period. The court stated that Sanchez could seek leave to amend by June 16, 2022. If he did not seek leave, the remaining overtime claims would be dismissed with prejudice for failure to state a claim.

Aiding-and-Abetting Claims

The court dismissed with prejudice Sanchez's aiding-and-abetting and attempted-aiding-and-abetting claims under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL. Those claims alleged that L’Oreal aided or attempted to aid discriminatory conduct by Sanchez's supervisor, Viviana Nunez, by ignoring complaints, failing to investigate, failing to take remedial action, and acquiescing in the alleged conduct.

The court explained that a valid aiding-and-abetting claim requires an underlying discrimination or retaliation claim and that the alleged aider must have participated in the conduct producing the violation. It held that L’Oreal could not be liable as an aider and abettor for its own alleged discriminatory conduct because the same conduct would form the basis of L’Oreal's primary liability. The court distinguished cases involving individual employees who allegedly aided an employer's violations, stating that those cases did not establish that a corporate employer could be liable for aiding and abetting its own conduct.

Disposition

Judge Valerie Caproni's order granted in part and denied in part L’Oreal's partial motion to dismiss. The NYSHRL and NYCHRL aiding-and-abetting and attempted-aiding-and-abetting claims were dismissed with prejudice for failure to state a claim. The FLSA overtime claims accruing before August 2018 were dismissed with prejudice as time-barred. The remaining FLSA and NYLL unpaid-overtime claims were dismissed without prejudice, subject to Sanchez seeking leave to amend. The clerk was directed to close the motion at docket entry 14.