Morales v. Tremont Car Wash and Lube LLC
- George Daniels
- 1:20-cv-01760-GBD-JLC
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 7
In Morales v. Tremont Car Wash, Judge Daniels granted the defendants’ motions, dismissed the complaint without prejudice, and declined to hear state-law claims.
The named employee plaintiffs and the defendants were affected. The Tremont defendants obtained summary judgment on the federal wage claims; the K&P defendants obtained dismissal based on insufficient service; and the entire amended complaint was dismissed without prejudice.
What happened
In Morales v. Tremont Car Wash and Lube LLC, employees sued the car wash’s current and former owners and other defendants, claiming they were not paid required minimum wages, regular wages, overtime, and spread-of-hours pay under federal and New York law. The Tremont defendants asked the court to rule in their favor without a trial, while the K&P defendants argued that they had not been properly served with the lawsuit.
The court found that the Tremont defendants’ payroll records, time sheets, and employee handbooks showed compliance with federal wage requirements. It also found that the plaintiffs’ affidavits did not provide enough specific evidence to show that they worked unpaid hours or overtime. The court separately found insufficient service on the K&P defendants: K&P was not served, one individual was served through a female recipient instead of a male recipient, and only another individual was served.
Judge George B. Daniels granted the Tremont defendants’ summary-judgment motion and granted the K&P defendants’ motion to dismiss. The court dismissed the entire amended complaint without prejudice and declined to keep the New York wage claims after dismissing the federal claims.
The detailed version
- Morales v. Tremont Car Wash and Lube LLC · No. 1:20-cv-01760-GBD-JLC
- George Daniels
- Aug. 17, 2022
Background
The plaintiffs brought a class action against Tremont Car Wash and Lube, LLC; John Lage and Michael Lage; K & P CW and Lube Inc.; Byounghoon Park; and Ji Hyun Kim. They alleged nine violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York labor laws and regulations, including failures to pay the required minimum wage, wages for all hours worked, overtime, and spread-of-hours pay.
The K&P defendants operated the car wash before the Tremont defendants bought it in May
- The plaintiffs were current or former employees who alleged violations occurring from February 2014 through
- After discovery ended, the Tremont defendants moved for summary judgment under Rule
- Summary judgment is a ruling without a trial when the evidence shows that no reasonable jury could find for the opposing party. The K&P defendants moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(5), arguing that they had not received proper service of the lawsuit.
FLSA claims against the Tremont defendants
The court granted summary judgment for the Tremont defendants on the federal wage claims. The court found that payroll records showed the plaintiffs were paid $9.35 per hour beginning in June 2017, which exceeded the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. For the earlier period, the court considered the plaintiffs’ evidence that they received tips and concluded that, based on the alleged hours and tip amounts, their total pay could have exceeded the federal minimum wage. The court also noted that the complaint did not allege that the defendants failed to satisfy federal requirements for using a tip credit.
The court rejected the claims for unpaid regular hours and overtime because the defendants submitted payroll records and signed time sheets showing the wages and overtime paid. The plaintiffs did not identify specific unpaid hours or provide evidence showing that the records were inaccurate. The court found that affidavits from three of the eight named plaintiffs, without specific supporting evidence, were not enough to create a genuine factual dispute after discovery had ended.
Service on the K&P defendants
The court granted the K&P defendants’ motion to dismiss for insufficient service. It found that the plaintiffs never attempted service on K&P, never served Mr. Kim because service was made on a female rather than a male, and only attempted to serve the amended complaint on Mr. Park.
New York claims and disposition
After dismissing the federal FLSA claims, the court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the New York labor-law claims. The court stated that no claims remained in the action. In its conclusion, the court granted the Tremont defendants’ summary-judgment motion and the K&P defendants’ motion to dismiss, and dismissed the amended complaint in its entirety without prejudice. The Clerk was directed to close the listed motions.
Read the full 7-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.