Judge Certifies Overtime Action Against Claim Jumper
October 25, 2004
Daily Journal Extra
By Draeger Martinez
Certification by Orange Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Bauer in an unpaid-overtime lawsuit against the Claim Jumper restaurant chain has turned a simple complaint from a former employee into a class action open to 80 Claim Jumper employees.
But the company claims many of the eligible employees have no interest in the suit and has produced their sworn statements to prove it.
Head plaintiffs' attorney John Quisenberry, founder of the Quisenberry Law Firm in Century City, says that Claim Jumper wrongfully classified lead plaintiff Jay Daum and dozens of other "assistant kitchen managers" as executives.
That designation means that the prospective class members received salaries for spending more than half their work hours performing supervisory duties, making them ineligible for overtime.
But the nature of most of the employees' duties - monitoring food preparation, keeping the kitchen clean, cooking meals when chefs get too busy - tells another story, Quisenberry says.
He says that each restaurant in the chain has numerous "managers" at different levels of responsibility: assistant kitchen managers, kitchen managers, restaurant managers and general managers.
But Quisenberry asserts that having "manager" in one's title doesn't automatically make an employee a restaurant executive.
"The chain's lawyers believe that the executive exemption applies," he says, "but we believe that the employees did not perform executive duties for more than half of their hours worked."
The chain's lead attorney, Michael Kun of Jackson Lewis in Los Angeles, says Bauer's ruling surprised and disappointed him.
"We're optimistic that the Court of Appeal will reverse that ruling and that our client will ultimately prevail in the case," Kun says.
Robert Ott, chief operating officer of Claim Jumper's parent company, adds that the suit has no merit and that the chain has paid its employees correctly. Jay Daum v. CWN Management Inc. 02CC10201 (Orange Super. Ct., certified Sept. 30, 2004).
Ott pointed to sworn statements taken by dozens of employees eligible to join the class. In each statement filed in response to Daum's lawsuit, the employees testified that they spend more than half of their work hours making "discretionary decisions" suited to executive-level employees and that they have no interest in joining the suit.
Quisenberry says that Claim Jumper management is using a novel, but ultimately futile, defense against his client's claims.
"The defendants' major defense is, 'Our employees have no objection to our violating the labor law.' But whether there are objections or not, the violations are wrong," Quisenberry says.
The employees, he says, "don't like being told that they don't use discretion when they do, but what they don't realize is that they don't use the kinds of discretion that the law discusses."
"It's so clear that these guys are busting their butts to do a good job," Quisenberry says, "and they are clearly entitled to overtime."
The suit demands $4 million in unpaid overtime, plus interest, court costs and penalties.
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