Saman v. LBDP, Inc. et al, No. 8:2012cv01083 - Document 16 (D. Md. 2012)
Court Description: MEMORANDUM OPINION. Signed by Chief Judge Deborah K. Chasanow on 11/7/12. (sat, Chambers)
Download PDF
<![CDATA[
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND : ROSA SAMAN : v. : Civil Action No. DKC 12-1083 : LBDP, INC., et al. : MEMORANDUM OPINION Presently pending and ready for resolution is a partial motion to dismiss filed by Defendants LBDP, Inc., Edward S. Sokvary, and Lee Un Yong. (ECF No. 9). The issues are fully briefed and the court now rules pursuant to Local Rule 105.6, no hearing being deemed necessary. For the reasons that follow, the motion will be granted. I. Background According to the complaint, Plaintiff Rosa Saman was employed by Defendant LBDP, Inc., d/b/a La Baguette de Paris ( LBDP ), from discharged on approximately August February 2012. 25, 23, At 2009, all until relevant she was times, Defendants Edward S. Sokvary and Lee Un Yong were officers and controlling shareholders of LBDP, who created, maintained and administered its employment policies, had the power to hire and fire employees, controlled payroll responsibilities. scheduling, (ECF No. 1 ¶ 3). and handle[d] Plaintiff alleges that, throughout her employment, she typically work[ed] between 55-65 hours per week and sometimes was required to work in excess of 100 hours per week, but Defendants refused to pay [her] at the rate of one-and-one half (1½) times her regular rate of pay for hours worked per week in excess of forty (40). (Id. at ¶¶ 12, 15). By Plaintiff s estimate, she is owed at least $16,000 in overtime wages. (Id. at ¶ 15). The complaint further recites that, on or about February 17, 2012, while working at Defendant LBDP s Silver Spring location, [Plaintiff] was assaulted, harassed, and threatened by Victor Lopez, the spouse of another LBDP employee. 16). She District applied Court of for a temporary Maryland for restraining Montgomery (Id. at ¶ order County, in the which was granted on February 22, and a hearing was scheduled for February 29. On February 25, Plaintiff was notified by Defendant Lee that her employment . . . would be immediately terminated if she continued with the peace order proceedings. When Plaintiff refused to dismiss the immediately terminated [her] employment. Plaintiff commenced this action on (Id. at ¶ 19). proceedings, Ms. Lee 2012, by (Id.). April 10, filing a complaint alleging that Defendants failed to pay her overtime wages in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act ( FLSA ), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq. (count one), the Maryland Wage and Hour Law, Md. Code Ann., Lab. & Empl. §§ 3-401 et seq. 2 (count two), and the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law, Md. Code Ann., Lab. & Empl. §§ 3-501 et seq. (count three), and wrongfully terminated her employment in violation of Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. §§ 3-501 et seq. (count four). 11, Defendants filed a partial motion to dismiss, On May seeking dismissal of count three, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), and count four, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1). (ECF No. 9). Plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal as to count three (ECF No. 12), but opposed dismissal of count four (ECF No. 13). II. Defendants filed papers in reply. (ECF No. 15). Standard of Review Defendants challenge subject matter Plaintiff s wrongful termination claim. burden of proving that exists in federal court. subject jurisdiction The plaintiff bears the matter jurisdiction properly See Evans v. B.F. Perkins Co., a Div. of Standex Int l Corp., 166 F.3d 642, 647 (4th Cir. 1999). considering a Rule over 12(b)(1) motion, the court may In consider evidence outside the pleadings to help determine whether it has jurisdiction over the case before it. Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac R.R. Co. v. United States, 945 F.2d 765, 768 (4th Cir. 1991); see also Evans, 166 F.3d at 647. The court should grant such a motion only if the material jurisdictional facts are not in dispute and the moving party is entitled to prevail as a matter of law. Richmond, 945 F.2d at 768. 3 III. Analysis Federal jurisdiction in this case is predicated on the federal claim presented in count one of Plaintiff s complaint, alleging diversity violation of the FLSA. jurisdiction are not As met, the the requirements court may for exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff s state law claims only if they are so related to claims in the action within [the court s] original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy Constitution. under Article III 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). of the United States Defendants do not contend that count two, alleging violation of the Maryland Wage and Hour Law, falls jurisdiction. wrongful question, outside the scope of the court s supplemental They do, however, challenge jurisdiction over the termination then, is claim whether presented in Plaintiff s count wrongful four. The termination claim is sufficiently related to the FLSA claim over which the court has original jurisdiction. Judge Motz identified the general principles governing this issue in Williams v. Long, 558 F.Supp.2d 601, 604 (D.Md. 2008): As Judge Vratil of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas has stated, [s]everal courts have rejected the notion that the employer-employee relationship single-handedly creates a common nucleus of operative fact between the FLSA claim and peripheral state law claims. Wilhelm v. TLC Lawn Care, Inc., No. 07-2465, 2008 WL 640733, at *3 (D.Kan. March 6, 2008) 4 (citing Lyon v. Whisman, 45 F.3d 758, 762-64 (3d Cir. 1995) (where the employment relationship is the only link between the FLSA claim and state law claims, no common nucleus of operative fact exists and Article III bars supplemental jurisdiction); Rivera v. Ndola Pharmacy Corp., 497 F.Supp.2d 381, 395 (E.D.N.Y. 2007) (an employment relationship is insufficient to create common nucleus of operative fact where it is the sole fact connecting the FLSA claim to state law claims); Hyman v. WM Fin. Servs., Inc., No. 06-CV-4038, 2007 WL 1657392, at *5 (D.N.J. June 7, 2007) (exercising supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims unrelated to the FLSA claim would likely contravene Congress s intent in passing FLSA ); Whatley v. Young Women s Christian Assoc. of Nw. La., Inc., No. 06423, 2006 WL 1453043, at *3 (W.D.La. May 18, 2006) (a general employer-employee relationship does not create a common nucleus of operative fact between the FLSA claim and state claims)). According because, unlike to the Plaintiff, instant Williams case, it is distinguishable involved state law counterclaims against plaintiffs in a collective action under the FLSA. (ECF No. 13, at 3 (emphasis in original)). While this is certainly a distinction, it is one without substance. Indeed, most of the cases cited in Williams and, by extension, Wilhelm were not collective actions, nor were the state law claims presented as counterclaims. See Lyon, 45 F.3d at 763 (finding Article III bars federal jurisdiction over state law claims where the plaintiff s FLSA claim involved very narrow, well-defined factual issues about hours worked and her state 5 law contract and tort claims involved her employer s alleged underpayment of a bonus and its refusal to pay the bonus . . . if [the plaintiff] started looking for another job ); Rivera, 497 F.Supp.2d at 394 (dismissing state law claims where the only factual link between plaintiff s claims of sexual harassment[,] . . . unlawful retaliation, negligent retention and supervision of a supervisor, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and battery . . . and the FLSA overtime claim is that the underlying events occurred during the course of plaintiff s employment[.] ); Whatley, 2006 WL 1453043, at *3 (dismissing state law claims where the only nexus between Plaintiff s FLSA claim and her state-law claims for invasion of privacy, conversion of personal property, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of distress is the employer-employee relationship ). emotional Plaintiff has not attempted to distinguish those cases, nor does there appear to be a basis for doing so. Plaintiff argues that the instant case is more akin to McFarland (E.D.Va. v. Virginia 2007). Retirement (Id. at 4). Services, 477 While is it F.Supp.2d true that, 727 in McFarland, the court exercised supplemental jurisdiction over the plaintiff s state law wrongful termination claim where federal jurisdiction was predicated on an FLSA claim, there is no indication that the defendants 6 in that case challenged subject matter jurisdiction. raised the issue sua Rather, it appears that the court sponte to satisfy itself that it had jurisdiction to decide the Rule 12(b)(6) motion before it. The court the concluded, plaintiff s without state any substantive claims [for analysis, wrongful that discharge and retaliation] plainly arise from the same case or controversy as her federal [FLSA] claim, for both the [FLSA] claim and the state claims arise from the same set of facts, and it would be unreasonable to require that [the plaintiff] pursue her claims in two separate judicial proceedings. at 732. McFarland, 477 F.Supp.2d As support for this conclusion, the McFarland court cited White v. County of Newberry, S.C., 985 F.2d 168, 171 (4th Cir. 1993), a case in which the Fourth Circuit found that a state law claim of inverse condemnation was sufficiently related to a federal Response, claim Compensation under and the Comprehensive Liability Act Environmental because both claims revolve[d] around a central fact pattern, namely the alleged hazardous waste contamination caused by the County. F.2d at 172. presented White, 985 It is unclear how the wrongful termination claim in McFarland involved the same facts as the plaintiff s FLSA claim, nor is it clear how McFarland supports the exercise of supplemental jurisdiction in the instant case. Based on McFarland, Plaintiff argues that [i]t would be unreasonable to require [her] to 7 pursue her claims in two separate proceedings. (ECF misses the critical point. No. 13, at 4). This argument If Plaintiff s state law wrongful termination and federal FLSA claims do not share a common nucleus of ordinarily operative be fact expected to such try that the [Plaintiff] claims in one would judicial proceeding, White, 985 F.2d at 171 (quoting United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725 (1966)), the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the state law claim. The question of whether a court may exercise supplemental jurisdiction, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a), is decidedly different from whether it chooses to do so, pursuant to § 1367(c). The latter question involves the exercise of discretion; the former does not. See Shahriar v. Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, Inc., 659 F.3d 234, 245 (2d Cir. 2011) ( Where section 1367(a) is satisfied, the discretion only if to decline founded 1367(c). supplemental upon (emphasis an in jurisdiction enumerated original; is category internal available of subsection marks omitted)); Milan Express, Inc. v. Averitt Express, Inc., 208 F.3d 975, 980 (11th Cir. between a 2000) ( Section federal court s 1367 . power . to . reflects exercise a dichotomy supplemental jurisdiction, § 1367(a), and its discretion not to exercise such jurisdiction, § 1367(c) ). Here, the burden is on Plaintiff to demonstrate sufficient nexus between her state and federal claims. 8 a Because she has failed to meet that burden, Defendants motion to dismiss her wrongful termination claim will be granted.1 IV. Conclusion For the foregoing reasons, Defendants partial motion to dismiss will be granted. A separate order will follow. ________/s/_________________ DEBORAH K. CHASANOW United States District Judge 1 Defendants filed a motion requesting an extension of time to answer the complaint until ten days after the instant opinion and accompanying order are issued. (ECF No. 10). While one district court has held that a partial motion to dismiss does not stay the time for filing a responsive pleading addressing counts not challenged in the motion, Gerlach v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co., 448 F.Supp. 1169, 1174 (E.D.Mich. 1978), that decision has been heavily criticized. See Tingley Systems, Inc. v. CSC Consulting, Inc., 152 F.Supp.2d 95, 122 (D.Mass. 2001) ( Since the issuance of the Gerlach decision, no court has relied on its reasoning or followed its rulings. ). The vast majority of courts have found it best to stall the proceedings on all counts until after the court rules on the Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Godlewski v. Affiliated Computer Servs., Inc., 210 F.R.D. 571, 572 (E.D.Va. 2002). This court will follow the majority approach. Accordingly, Defendants motion for extension of time was unnecessary. 9
]]>
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You
should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google
Privacy Policy and
Terms of Service apply.
