CHICAGO, October 1, 2020: Morgan Lewis recently secured a victory for Novant Health in Marshall v. Novant Health, when the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina granted summary judgment in Novant Health’s favor, and simultaneously denied a former nurse’s motion for conditional certification of a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The former employee accused Novant Health of violating the FLSA and North Carolina Wage and Hour Act by failing to pay her an appropriate overtime rate, failing to pay her overtime for work performed during meal breaks, and depriving her of regular (non-overtime) wages.
US District Judge Max Cogburn granted summary judgment to Novant, holding that the former employee failed to present evidence showing she was regularly deprived full meal breaks, that Novant’s policies prevented her from recording or getting paid for time when she worked through part of her breaks, or that Novant had any actual or constructive knowledge of her allegedly uncompensated meal break work. Judge Cogburn further denied her motion to conditionally certify a nationwide class of more than 15,000 healthcare workers within the Novant system, reasoning that the failure of her claims on the merits precluded the former employee from being similarly situated to the members of the purported class.
The Morgan Lewis team representing Novant Health was led by partners Chris Boran and Sari Alamuddin with support from associates Patrick Duffey and Matthew Russell.