Winebrake & Santillo just recovered over $20,000 in a trial against McCoy Corporation (d/b/a “McCoy’s Building Supply”) on behalf of a salaried Assistant Store Manager. The Court’s decision issued by Judge Carmen E. Garza from the District of New Mexico held that McCoy’s Building Supply violated the law by failing to pay overtime compensation to a salaried Assistant Store Manager.
Plaintiff asserted in this lawsuit that McCoy’s violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the New Mexico Minimum Wage Act (MWA) by failing to pay Plaintiff his overtime wages. As an Assistant Store Manager at McCoy’s store in Roswell, New Mexico, Plaintiff was paid on a salaried basis and typically worked 58 hours a week.
The case went to trial in December 2016 and Judge Garza presided over the two-day bench trial in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Plaintiff’s trial attorneys, Mark Gottesfeld from Winebrake & Santillo, LLC, along with co-counsel Brandt P. Milstein, argued that Plaintiff was entitled to overtime pay based on his actual work performed such as merchandising, stocking, running the cash register, providing customer service, cleaning the store, loading and unloading vehicles, and yard work.
Specifically, Plaintiff presented evidence at trial that, even though he was paid a salary, he spent almost all of his time performing the same duties as other McCoy’s employees, who were eligible for overtime pay, holding job titles such as Yard Crewmember, Stock Crewmember, Cashier, Sales Associate, and Yard Leader. McCoy’s argued at trial that it provided Plaintiff training on how to be a manager and expected him to perform managerial duties. However, Plaintiff’s Store Manager even admitted at trial that Plaintiff should have spent 25 to 30% of his time performing manual, non-managerial work. Moreover, Plaintiff’s trial attorneys presented evidence that the employees at McCoy’s Roswell store did not need direction or supervision from Plaintiff.
In Judge’s Garza’s decision ordering that McCoy’s pay Plaintiff overtime compensation, the Court found that Plaintiff spent the “vast majority of his time” performing manual tasks at McCoy’s Roswell store and that “the sheer amount of time Plaintiff spent performing nonexempt work disqualifies him from exemption under the MWA.” Further, the Court ruled that the managerial duties that Plaintiff actually performed for McCoy’s “were relatively unimportant.”
The Court awarded Plaintiff $6,411.60 in overtime wages, $12,823.20 in treble damages, and also pre-judgment interest at 10%, and post-judgment interest at 8.75%. Plaintiff’s attorneys will petition the Court to seek recovery of their attorney’s fees and costs from McCoy’s.
McCoy’s Building Supply is headquartered in San Marcos, Texas.