Hong v. JP White Plains, Inc.

Background

Yincai Hong brought a proposed collective and class action against JP White Plains, Inc., Haiku @ WP Inc., Haiku Bistro 149, Inc., and Soonwah Lee. The plaintiffs alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law involving meal-credit deductions, tip retention, minimum wages, and unpaid wages.

The plaintiffs moved to expand pre-certification discovery—the information gathering allowed before a court decides whether a class may proceed under Rule 23. The requested discovery would cover all Haiku employees rather than only delivery drivers. The plaintiffs said the information was needed to support a future class-certification motion involving their New York Labor Law claims.

Judge Nelson S. Román had previously limited the FLSA collective to Haiku employees who worked as delivery drivers in White Plains, New York. Later, during a discovery conference, Judge Krause likewise limited pre-certification discovery to delivery drivers. The plaintiffs then sought to expand discovery concerning meal deductions, transportation deductions, cash-tip deductions, and automatic break-time deductions.

Meal-credit deductions

The plaintiffs alleged that Haiku deducted a meal credit from employees’ wages even when employees did not eat the offered meal. They relied on testimony from Soonwah Lee that the meal program applied to all employees and testimony from opt-in plaintiff Lin Ding about conversations with non-delivery employees concerning meal deductions.

Judge Krause found that additional discovery about the meal program could be relevant to whether a class should be certified, including whether the proposed class members shared common issues, whether the named plaintiffs’ claims were typical, how many potential class members existed, and whether the class could be identified. The court therefore allowed limited additional discovery consisting of:

- reopening Lee’s deposition for narrow questioning about Haiku’s meal program; and - supplemental documents showing how many employees were eligible for the meal program and how many participated during the relevant period.

Transportation-credit deductions

The court denied expanded discovery about transportation deductions. The transportation claim was brought only under the FLSA, while the anticipated Rule 23 certification motion concerned the plaintiffs’ New York Labor Law claims. The plaintiffs had not asked to expand the conditionally certified FLSA collective or to revisit Judge Román’s earlier ruling. The court also rejected the plaintiffs’ speculation that transportation policies might have reduced some employees’ wages below the minimum wage because they identified no supporting evidence.

Tip retention

The court denied expanded discovery about alleged cash-tip deductions. Although the plaintiffs said they wanted to question Lee about tip practices, they did not show that the existing discovery limits were inadequate for this claim.

Automatic break-time deductions

The court denied expanded discovery about automatic break-time deductions. Hong alleged that he was required to work through breaks while the defendants deducted time from his pay. The plaintiffs argued that automatic deductions applied to all employees using Haiku’s time clock.

Judge Krause concluded that an automatic deduction for other employees would not, by itself, show a New York Labor Law violation. The plaintiffs also provided no evidence that non-delivery employees faced the same circumstances that allegedly prevented Hong from taking full breaks—namely, having to make deliveries when customer orders arrived. The court therefore declined to expand discovery on this claim.

Disposition

The court granted in part and denied in part the plaintiffs’ motion to expand pre-certification discovery. It allowed limited additional discovery concerning the meal program and denied the requested expansion concerning transportation deductions, tip retention, and automatic break-time deductions. The order did not decide whether a class would ultimately be certified or whether the defendants violated either wage law.