HOUSTON – A pair of corporate defendants were recently denied summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by nearly a dozen individuals who sued the companies for unpaid overtime and paying below the minimum wage.
As previously reported, Marc Thompson, Brandon White, Jeffery Grubbs, Desmond Pollard, Devon Barnes, Byron Collins, Robert Ross, Immanuel Edens, Alex Davis, Corey Wells and Darrian Everette filed suit Aug. 25, 2015, in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas against Capstone Logistics LLC and LMS Intellibound LLC, both based in Georgia but with offices in Austin.
According to the complaint, the defendants are third-party warehouse servicers that provide logistical services to companies in the warehouse, distribution and manufacturing industries. The plaintiffs worked for them as unloaders, or "lumpers," and were employed to unload trucks.
Each plaintiff claims that he worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek but was not paid at one-and-one-half times the regular rate of pay per the Fair Labor Standards Act.
When not unloading a truck, the plaintiffs were required to remain on the premises, but were not compensated for their time, the complaint states. Also, the plaintiffs say they worked through lunch but were not paid for that time, and they were required by the defendants to work off the clock.
Court records show that on Jan. 25 an order was entered denying the defendants summary judgment.
The trial court found that the plaintiffs provided several sources of evidence that time records did not accurately reflect the actual hours they worked.
For example, the plaintiffs contend they were routinely clocked out for meal breaks they did not take.
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs is Nicholas J. Wagoner of the Wagoner Law Firm in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon issued the opinion and order.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas case number 4:15-cv-02464