Seyfarth Shaw Secures Major Dismissal in Wage and Hour Lawsuit

Contact:
Ivette Delgado, Senior Public Relations Associate
(212) 218-5273, idelgado@seyfarth.com

BOSTON (July 25, 2011) — Lawyers from Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Labor & Employment group secured a major dismissal for Boston-based client Caritas Christi Health Care System (Caritas), when plaintiffs attempted to plead a collective class action, claiming 12,000 employees were improperly paid overtime.

According to a July 20 article in Law360, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. granted a motion for dismissal with prejudice, stating that the plaintiffs’ complaint did not sufficiently plead a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Barry Miller, an attorney in Seyfarth’s Boston office was quoted as saying the original complaint’s claims were “almost…recitations of legal elements and provided no information about …the entities for which the named plaintiffs worked, much less the activities that they claimed they were due compensation for.”

The judge concurred, noting, “it is not sufficient…to repeat the statutory standard in other language.” He also dismissed additional plaintiffs’ claims against Caritas under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that were also derivative of FLSA claims.

Along with Miller, the team representing Caritas was led by Seyfarth Shaw Boston office Labor & Employment partners Richard Alfred and Krista Pratt.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as well as internationally in London. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate and real estate. The firm’s clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, and our practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the economy. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com.

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