Dagan v. Jewish Community Housing for Elderly
Dagan v. Jewish Community Housing for Elderly
Opinion of the Court
From October 1, 1991, through June 13, 1994, Aviad Dagan and Vered Dagan, husband and wife, were employed as the “site representatives” at the Golda Meir House,
In exchange for their services (described below) the plaintiffs were provided with a rent-free apartment including utilities, and were initially paid $25.00 per month for basic telephone service, later increased to $30.00 per month. They received no other compensation. Following the termination of their employment effective June 13, 1994, the plaintiffs brought suit, with a jury claim,
The Golda Meir House (house) is an apartment building. The
The mission statement of the defendant states that its basic purpose is to promote, encourage, and support the independence, safety, and security of its residents. To that end the defendant is a provider of “quality of life services.” and an organizer of “support services.” These include safe and attractive facilities, meals, transportation, and social, cultural, and educational activities as well as home health and nursing care, special clinical diets, and personnel to assist the residents.
Identical employment agreements were signed by each plaintiff. The agreement recites that the rent-free apartment is the “work site” for the job and, together with the provision of utilities and basic telephone service, is in exchange for the duties required to be performed. The agreement includes a job description of a “site representative.” The job description sets out the duties to be performed. Each site representative is required to be “on call” one hundred twenty-three hours weekly.
The central issue in this controversy is the need to determine the working hours of the plaintiffs for the purpose of applying the minimum wage and overtime provisions of G. L. c. 151. More particularly, the question is: when does “on-call” time — that is to say, time when the site representative is on duty but not actually working — constitute working time for the purpose of applying the minimum wage and overtime provisions of G. L. c. 151? An agreement to work for less than the minimum wage is unenforceable. G. L. c. 151, § 20.
Since the plaintiffs, who oppose the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, will have the burden of proof at trial, the defendant is entitled to summary judgment “if [it] demonstrates, by reference to material described in Mass. R. Civ. P. 56 (c),
With that standard in mind, we review the submissions of the parties.
The defendant’s submissions. 1. The employment agreement (described above) includes a job description which states that the “[h]ours of Site-Rep. duty are as follows[:] . . . Monday through Thursday — 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. . . . Friday through Monday — 5:00 p.m. Friday eve. to 8:00 a.m. Monday morning,” and a full day of duty on Jewish and legal holidays as specified by management. Holidays aside, the job description required each plaintiff to be on call one hundred twenty-three hours weekly.
The duties of a site representative, as stated in the job description and a handbook for site representatives, include the following: regular security rounds of the facility are to be maintained, and miscellaneous housekeeping tasks are to be performed regularly, such as monitoring and changing trash containers, and cleaning up the results of accidental spills. A log, or incident report, of all maintenance and social problems and other events which occur during duty hours is to be maintained. The overarching duty is to “[r]espond[] immediately to resident emergency call[s] or alarms [and to] [c]all[] emergency medical help as needed.” Also included is the need to “[r]espond[] to ALL resident calls to determine the nature of said call.” “Site Representatives ... are responsible for supplying reasonable and courteous service to our residents in every situation.”
2. The plaintiffs maintained a log of each call received from a resident. In the year 1993, for example, by which time the plaintiffs were familiar to the residents, the log showed ninety calls over the twelve months, or an average of 1.73 calls per week.
3. Excerpts from the deposition of the plaintiff Vered Dagan, which consist only of nine pages, include Vered’s (Aviad Dagan’s wife) testimony that weekday nightly rounds were “never” performed by both plaintiffs together; that the rounds were performed twice a night — at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. — and required about “15 to 20 minutes . . . walking fast.”
4. Excerpts from the deposition of the plaintiff Aviad Dagan, which are more extensive but are frequently disjointed, include the following testimony: Aviad worked Monday through Thursday, during the day, at another job. On Fridays, during the day, there was a period of unknown duration when he and a “partner” attempted to conduct a business — never described — which was “wholesale market to the blind.” The business came to nothing. Aviad made the weekday nightly rounds with considerable care. He did the regular rounds at 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. and a brief round at 5:00 p.m. when he returned from his daytime job. The 5:00 p.m. round took about thirty to forty-five minutes; the 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. rounds took not more than an hour or an hour and a quarter. When he was on call he was either in his apartment or someplace in the building. Either Vered or Aviad responded to calls, depending on who was available at the time of the call. All meals were regularly prepared and eaten in their apartment. While on call the plaintiffs were free to sleep, watch television, listen to the radio, play games on the computer, entertain friends (although done only infrequently), and take care of miscellaneous personal responsibilities such as paying bills and doing laundry.
2. A document on the stationery of the defendant, captioned “LIVE-INS RESPONSIBILITIES,” which appears to have been prepared for the benefit of the residents, states that “LIVE-INS ARE EXPECTED TO RESPOND TO ALL MEDICAL, SECURITY AND MAINTENANCE EMERGENCY; THEY ARE ON CALL FROM 5:00 p.m. TO 8:00 a.m. ON WEEKDAYS AND THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE WEEKEND AND HOLIDAYS. DURING THESE TIMES THEY ALWAYS REMAIN ON THE PREMISES. ... IN THE EVENINGS, THE LIVE-INS ARE ONLY REQUIRED TO STAY AWAKE UNTIL 10:00 p.m. [emphasis added], THEY WILL OF COURSE RESPOND TO EMERGENCIES AT ANY TIME DURING THE NIGHT.”
3. A document, captioned “Wage Calculation for Live-in Coverage by JCHE Paid Staff,”
We now consider whether the defendant has made the showing required by Kourouvacilis, and if so, whether the plaintiffs
The essential facts put forward in the defendant’s submission are these: (i) under the provisions of the job description, the on-call hours of a site representative were one hundred twenty-three hours weekly; (ii) during on-call hours, the plaintiffs were required to remain on the premises, subject to the demands of management and the residents; (iii) the plaintiffs’ actual working time consisted of making nightly rounds of the facility, Monday through Friday,
These facts are not disputed by the plaintiffs’ submissions or by any other material available under Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(c), 365 Mass. 824 (1974) (pleadings, answers to interrogatories, etc.), and no additional facts are proffered by the plaintiffs regarding their use of on-call, non-working time other than the defendant’s notice to the residents that the plaintiffs were not to be disturbed after 10:00 p.m. except in the case of an emergency. Given the absence of any contrary showing by the plaintiffs regarding the facts proffered by the defendant, those facts are undisputed. There being no genuine issue as to any material fact, the case is ripe for summary judgment. Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(c). More particularly, we must decide, as matter of law on the undisputed facts, whether the defendant’s submission sufficiently demon
The plaintiffs, citing Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 136-137 (1944), and DeCourcey v. Weston Racquet Club, Inc., 15 Mass. App. Ct. 373 (1983),
In Skidmore, the Supreme Court considered the question whether on-call time was compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq. (1938) (employees must be compensated at no less than the minimum wage and one and one-half times their regular rate for overtime work). The Court stated that “[w]hether in a concrete case such [on-call] time falls within or without the Act is a question of fact to be resolved by appropriate findings of the trial court.” Skidmore, 323 U.S. at 136-137.
However, a number of Federal circuit court opinions have held that where the facts are undisputed, Skidmore does not preclude the resolution of the question as matter of law. See Bright v. Houston N.W. Med. Center Survivor, Inc., 934 F.2d 671, 674-675 (5th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 1036 (1992) (“[T]he undisputed facts show that the on-call time is not working time”; Skidmore distinguished; summary judgment for the defendant affirmed); Martin v. Ohio Turnpike Commn., 968 F.2d 606 (6th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1054 (1993) (summary judgment for the defendant employer affirmed); Birdwell v. Gadsden, Ala., 970 F.2d 802, 807-808 (11th Cir. 1992) (“Whether a certain set of facts and circumstances constitute work for purposes of the FLSA is a question of law” [emphasis added]; Skidmore explained); Owens v. Local No. 169, Assn. of Western Pulp & Paper Workers, 971 F.2d 347, 356 (9th Cir. 1992) (plaintiffs failed to contest or rebut the defendant employer’s proffered evidence, or to present any evidence of the plaintiffs’ personal use of on-call time, thereby permitting summary judgment for the defendant). Contrast Cross
Further, DeCourcey does not provide any assistance to the plaintiffs. The case did not come to us on undisputed facts, see DeCourcey, 15 Mass. App. Ct. at 374-375, and thus the issue in the instant case was not presented in DeCourcey.
There remains the pivotal question: whether, as a matter of law on the undisputed facts, the plaintiffs’ entire on-call time (one hundred twenty-three hours)
The central fact of this case is that when not actually engaged in the nightly rounds, or responding to calls from the residents — a weekly total for both tasks of not more than eighteen and one-quarter hours, see note 14, infra, and related text — the plaintiffs were at home either sleeping, eating, or pursuing other desired personal or recreational activities which had no connection with — much less a benefit to — the defendant. While the plaintiffs’ freedom of movement after 5:00 p.m. on weekday evenings until 8:00 a.m. the following morning, and during the entire weekend beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Friday until 8:00 a.m. on the following Monday, was limited by the requirement that they remain on the corporation’s premises during all on-call hours, the plaintiffs’ home was within those premises and there
There is no Massachusetts appellate decision which bears directly on this case, but numerous Federal cases that arose under die cognate Fair Labor Standards Act support the conclusion reached by the judge. A United States District Court judge recently summarized the Federal case law. Recognizing that on-call time necessarily restricts in some measure the freedom of the employee, the judge wrote, “[E]very case that has addressed this issue, tells us that without some significant additional restriction on the employee’s off-duty [i.e., on-call but nonworking] time, such that the time can be said to have been spent primarily for the employer’s benefit, the time will not be compensable.” Darrah v. Missouri Hy. & Transp. Commn., 885 F. Supp. 1307, 1313 (W.D. Mo. 1995).
The case before us is similar to Kelly v. Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home, Inc., 847 F.2d 147 (4th Cir. 1988), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 835 (1989), where the facts were undisputed. There the plaintiff was engaged by a funeral home to perform light housekeeping from 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight and 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., six days a week. He was provided a rent-free apartment on the premises of the funeral home, and was required to stay on the premises during the night hours. Between midnight and 6:30 a.m. the plaintiff’s only duty was to answer the telephone, and to go out and pick up a corpse if required. The plaintiff claimed overtime under the FLSA on the theory that he was employed to work from 9:00 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. The Court of Appeals concluded that nighttime interruptions were infrequent, and that the plaintiff was merely required to stay in his own residence during the night hours. In affirming the allowance of a defense motion for summary judgment, the court said, “[I]t is not realistic to assume that [the defendant funeral home] would employ someone for 69 hours per week, thereby incurring large overtime expense, to perform the tasks assigned to [the plaintiff].” Id. at 148. After reviewing the authorities from the Fourth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits, the court concluded that the requirement of remaining on the employer’s premises, coupled with infrequent interruptions, do not convert nonworking, on-call hours to compensable working hours. Id. at 148-149.
Also instructive is the recent decision in Brekke v. Blackduck, 984 F. Supp. 1209, 1219-1221 (D. Minn. 1997) (“[T]he relevant
We conclude that in the circumstances of this case, the one hundred four and three-quarters hours of weekly non-working, on-call time (one hundred twenty-three hours total on-call time, less eighteen and one-quarter hours of working time) is noncompensable time under G. L. c. 151.
As noted above, Aviad testified that the three nightly rounds took him a total of three and one-quarter hours, a total of sixteen and one-quarter hours for five weekday nights. Emergency calls averaged approximately 1.73 calls per week, see note 7, supra, and related text, but no evidence was offered by either party as to the amount of time required to respond to such calls. If we assume a generous two hours per week to respond to telephone calls, the actual working time required by the job and performed by the plaintiffs was approximately eighteen and one-quarter hours weekly.
The result is that the plaintiffs have no reasonable expectation of establishing their statutory claim,
Judgment affirmed.
Since this case comes up on the allowance of the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the availability of the jury claim has not been briefed or argued. For discussion of the right to a trial by jury, see Dalis v. Buyer Advertising, Inc., 418 Mass. 220 (1994).
General Laws c. 151, § 1, as in effect prior to St. 1995, c. 196, § 1, in pertinent part read: “[A]n oppressive and unreasonable wage . . . shall be null and void. A wage of less than four dollars and twenty-five cents per hour, in any occupation . . . shall conclusively be presumed to be oppressive and unreasonable . . . .”
The overtime statute, G. L. c. 151, § 1A, as appearing in St. 1961, c. 431, provides, in pertinent part: “[N]o employer in the commonwealth shall employ any of his employees ... for a work week longer than forty hours, unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of forty hours at a rate not less that one and one half times the regular rate at which he is employed.”
In response to the defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment. The plaintiffs’ motion was denied by the judge. The correctness of that ruling is not argued on appeal, and the point is waived. See Mass.R.A.P. 16(a)(4), as amended, 367 Mass. 921 (1975).
There is a two-year statute of limitations, G. L. c. 151, § 20A, regarding suits to recover any underpayment. Therefore, at best, the plaintiffs could recover for the period September 27, 1992 (two years before their complaint was filed), through June 13, 1994.
The judge found that, on the basis of the log of all calls during their entire period of employment, October, 1991, to June, 1994, the plaintiffs received “a total of 229 calls . . . ranging from one to 15 calls in a month, with an average of one or two calls per week.”
This document appears to set forth the required coverage during the period the plaintiffs take vacation time. The coverage is to be provided by the regularly-paid staff of the house.
However, under the provisions of the job description and the site representative handbook, the weekend began on Friday at 5:00 p.m., and the nightly rounds were required only during “weekdays.” Nevertheless, we have assumed, favorably to the plaintiffs, that the rounds were also made on Friday nights.
We have noted that the plaintiffs received no cash payments from the defendant (other than for basic telephone service), and that Aviad worked a daytime job Monday through Thursday.
The only other relevant Massachusetts appellate decision of which we are aware is Erickson v. Waltham, 2 Mass. App. Ct. 436, 442 (1974), where we said that “[generally speaking, time available for, or spent, sleeping and eating is non-compensable, even where the employee is required to be on the employer’s premises,” quoting Rapp v. United States, 340 F.2d 635, 642 (Ct. Cl. 1964).
Moreover, General Elec. Co. v. Porter, 208 F.2d 805 (9th Cir. 1953), cert. denied, 347 U.S. 951 (1954), upon which we relied as authority for the proposition that “the question whether ‘sleep time’ [is] compensable [is] a mixed question of law and fact,” DeCourcey, 15 Mass. App. Ct. at 375, appears to have been superseded by more recent Ninth Circuit cases such as Owens v. Local No. 169, Assn. of Western Pulp & Paper Workers, 971 F.2d 347 (9th Cir. 1992) (described in the text, supra), and Berry v. County of Sonoma, 30 F.3d 1174 (9th Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1150 (1995) (discussed in the text, infra).
While both plaintiffs signed employment agreements, there is no evidence that the work assignment was done by more than one person. That is to say, the plaintiffs presented no evidence that both plaintiffs did each (or any) nightly round, or that both plaintiffs responded to calls from a resident. (Vered’s undisputed deposition testimony was that the rounds were conducted by one person, not two.) The plaintiffs’ aggregate claim to two hundred forty-six hours of compensable time weekly is entirely without foundation.
An alternative calculation would be as follows: the value of the apartment translates to 38.1 hours per week at minimum wage. As noted in the text, supra, weekly rounds equaled sixteen and one-quarter hours. Since it is implausible in the extreme that as much as 21.85 hours per week (38.1 less 16.25) would have been spent responding to the few emergency calls, the actual working time required by the job and performed by the plaintiffs could not realistically have approached anywhere near 38.1 hours weekly.
As the plaintiffs are not entitled to overtime pay, we need not address the defendant’s argument that the plaintiffs are exempt from the provisions of G. L. c. 151, § 1A, pursuant to § 1A(1) and/or § 1A(16).
General Laws c. 149, § 148 (count II), requiring the prompt payment of wages earned, presents no issue on the facts of this case. The plaintiffs make no sufficient appellate argument to the contrary.
Reference
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- Aviad Dagan & another v. Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly
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