Tyson Foods V. Bouaphakeo

Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, 136 S.Ct. 1036 (2016) 194 L.Ed.2d 124, 84 USLW 4142, 166 Lab.Cas. P 36,425, 94 Fed.R.Serv.3d 386... Chief Justice Roberts filed a concurring opinion, which Justice Alito joined in part. KeyCite Yellow Flag - Negative Treatment Declined to Extend by National Association of Telecommunications Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, which Justice Officers and Advisors v. Federal Communications Commission, Alito joined. D.C.Cir., July 7, 2017 136 S.Ct. 1036 Supreme Court of the United States West Headnotes (12) TYSON FOODS, INC., Petitioner v. Peg BOUAPHAKEO, et al., individually and [1] Labor and Employment on behalf of all others similarly situated. Notice and opting-in While a class, for a class action under the No. 14–1146. federal rules of civil procedure, includes all | unnamed members who fall within the class Argued Nov. 10, 2015. definition, the sole consequence of conditional | certification of a collective action under Decided March 22, 2016. the FLSA is the sending of court-approved written notice to employees, who in turn Synopsis become parties to a collective action only Background: Employees of Iowa meat processing facility by filing written consent with the court. sued employer for not paying overtime wages due under Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, § 16, 29 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Iowa Wage U.S.C.A. § 216; Fed.Rules Civ.Proc.Rule 23, Payment Collection Law (IWPCL), relating to time spent 28 U.S.C.A. donning and doffing protective gear. FLSA claim was certified as collective action and IWPCL claim as class 29 Cases that cite this headnote action. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, John A. Jarvey, J., 2011 WL 3793962, denied employer's motion for decertification of Rule 23 [2] Federal Civil Procedure class and, after jury returned verdict for class, denied Common interest in subject matter, employer's motion for judgment as matter of law (JMOL) questions and relief; damages issues and motion to decertify or, in the alternative, for new trial The predominance inquiry regarding whether on damages, 2012 WL 4471119. Employer appealed. The questions of law or fact common to class United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, members predominate over any questions Benton, Circuit Judge, 765 F.3d 791, affirmed, and denied affecting only individual members, as basis rehearing and rehearing en banc, 593 Fed.Appx. 578. for class certification, tests whether proposed Certiorari was granted. classes are sufficiently cohesive to warrant adjudication by representation. Fed.Rules Civ.Proc.Rule 23(b)(3), 28 U.S.C.A. [Holding:] The Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy, held that 146 Cases that cite this headnote representative proof from a sample, based on an expert witness's estimation of average time that employees spent donning and doffing protective gear, could be used to [3] Federal Civil Procedure show predominance of common questions of law or fact. Common interest in subject matter, questions and relief; damages issues An individual question, for purposes of Affirmed. predominance inquiry regarding whether questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions © 2018 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 1 Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, 136 S.Ct. 1036 (2016) 194 L.Ed.2d 124, 84 USLW 4142, 166 Lab.Cas. P 36,425, 94 Fed.R.Serv.3d 386... affecting only individual members, as basis Evidence; pleadings and supplementary for class certification, is one where members material of a proposed class will need to present A representative or statistical sample, like evidence that varies from member to member, all evidence, is a means to establish or while a common question is one where the defend against liability, and its permissibility same evidence will suffice for each member turns not on the form a proceeding takes, to make a prima facie showing or the be it a class action or individual action, issue is susceptible to generalized, class-wide but on the degree to which the evidence is proof. Fed.Rules Civ.Proc.Rule 23(b)(3), 28 reliable in proving or disproving the elements U.S.C.A. of the relevant cause of action. Fed.Rules Civ.Proc.Rule 23, 28 U.S.C.A.; Fed.Rules 190 Cases that cite this headnote Evid.Rules 401, 403, 702, 28 U.S.C.A. [4] Federal Civil Procedure 15 Cases that cite this headnote Common interest in subject matter, questions and relief; damages issues [7] Federal Civil Procedure The predominance inquiry regarding whether Evidence; pleadings and supplementary questions of law or fact common to class material members predominate over any questions Whether and when statistical evidence can affecting only individual members, as basis for be used to establish classwide liability will class certification, asks whether the common, depend on the purpose for which the evidence aggregation-enabling issues in the case are is being introduced and on the elements of more prevalent or important than the non- the underlying cause of action. Fed.Rules common, aggregation-defeating individual Civ.Proc.Rule 23(b)(3), 28 U.S.C.A. issues. Fed.Rules Civ.Proc.Rule 23(b)(3), 28 U.S.C.A. 13 Cases that cite this headnote 171 Cases that cite this headnote [8] Federal Civil Procedure Evidence; pleadings and supplementary [5] Federal Civil Procedure material Common interest in subject matter, In a case where representative evidence is questions and relief; damages issues relevant in proving a plaintiff's individual When one or more of the central issues in claim, that evidence cannot be deemed the action are common to the class and improper merely because the claim is brought can be said to predominate, the action may on behalf of a class; to so hold would be considered proper for class certification ignore the Rules Enabling Act's pellucid even though other important matters will instruction that use of the class device cannot have to be tried separately, such as damages abridge any substantive right. 28 U.S.C.A. § or some affirmative defenses peculiar to 2072(b); Fed.Rules Civ.Proc.Rule 23(b)(3), 28 some individual class members. Fed.Rules U.S.C.A. Civ.Proc.Rule 23(b)(3), 28 U.S.C.A. 9 Cases that cite this headnote 87 Cases that cite this headnote [9] Labor and Employment [6] Evidence Working time Nature and source of evidence in general When employers violate their statutory duty Federal Civil Procedure to keep proper records, and employees thereby have no way to establish the © 2018 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 2 Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, 136 S.Ct. 1036 (2016) 194 L.Ed.2d 124, 84 USLW 4142, 166 Lab.Cas. P 36,425, 94 Fed.R.Serv.3d 386... time spent doing uncompensated work, the 7(a), 16, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 207(a), 216; Fed.Rules remedial nature of the FLSA and the great Civ.Proc.Rule 23(b)(3), 28 U.S.C.A. public policy which it embodies militate against making the burden of proving 49 Cases that cite this headnote uncompensated work an impossible hurdle for the employee, and an employee has [11] Federal Civil Procedure carried out his burden if he proves that Consideration of merits he has in fact performed work for which Federal Civil Procedure he was improperly compensated and if he Matters Affecting Right to Judgment produces sufficient evidence to show the When the concern about the proposed class amount and extent of that work as a matter is not that it exhibits some fatal dissimilarity of just and reasonable inference; under these but, rather, a fatal similarity, i.e., an alleged circumstances, the burden then shifts to the failure of proof as to an element of the employer to come forward with evidence of plaintiffs' cause of action, courts should the precise amount of work performed or with engage that question as a matter of summary evidence to negative the reasonableness of the judgment, not class certification. Fed.Rules inference to be drawn from the employee's Civ.Proc.Rule 23, 28 U.S.C.A. evidence. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, § 1 et seq., 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. 11 Cases that cite this headnote 30 Cases that cite this headnote [12] Federal Civil Procedure Weight and Sufficiency of Evidence [10] Federal Civil Procedure Evidence; pleadings and supplementary Once a district court finds evidence to be material admissible, its persuasiveness is, in general, a matter for the jury. Federal Civil Procedure Employees 6 Cases that cite this headnote Labor and Employment Employees similarly situated Representative proof from a sample, based on an expert witness's estimation of average time that employees at pork processing plant spent *1039 Syllabus * donning and doffing protective gear, could be used by employees to fill the evidentiary Respondents, employees of petitioner Tyson Foods, work gap created by employer's failure to keep in the kill, cut, and retrim departments of a pork adequate records of time spent donning and processing plant in Iowa. Respondents' work requires doffing, for purposes of employees showing them to wear protective gear, but the exact composition the predominance of common questions of of the gear depends on the tasks a worker performs on law or fact, as basis for class certification of a given day. Petitioner compensated some, but not all, overtime claims under Iowa Wage Payment employees for this donning and doffing, and did not Collection Law (IWPCL) and certification of record the time each employee spent on those activities.

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