Lin v. Grand Sichuan 74 st Inc.

Background

On December 31, 2022, the plaintiffs filed a motion for conditional collective certification under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Conditional collective certification is an early-stage procedure that can allow similarly situated employees to join an FLSA case. The proposed collective concerned the defendants’ employees between November 19, 2012, and April 30, 2016.

On January 9, 2023, defendants Li Jiang and Li Yong Li filed a letter asking the court to strike the motion because, in their view, defending it would require unnecessary costs and expenses.

Reasons for the ruling

The court gave three reasons for denying the plaintiffs’ motion:

1. Required pre-motion conference: The court’s Individual Practices required the plaintiffs to request a pre-motion conference before filing a conditional-certification motion. The plaintiffs did not request that conference.

2. Statute of limitations: The court stated that the proposed collective was barred by the statute of limitations. Even applying the FLSA’s three-year period for willful violations, the court concluded that the period had surely expired and did not cover the proposed collective. The motion also did not provide an argument for equitable tolling, which can extend a filing deadline in some circumstances.

3. Late joinder: The motion was filed after the June 30, 2022 deadline for joining parties in the parties’ case-management plan. The court treated conditional collective certification as a process for joining parties. Although the plaintiffs’ case-management plan anticipated a conditional-certification motion, they did not file it by the joinder deadline and did not address the delay in their motion.

Disposition

The court denied the plaintiffs’ motion without prejudice. The opinion does not state that the court reached the merits of the plaintiffs’ underlying FLSA claims. The Clerk of Court was directed to close docket number 307, which the court denied as moot.