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Irizarry v. Catsimatidis

Irizarry v. Catsimatidis

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

December 13, 2012, Argued; July 9, 2013, Decided

Docket No. 11-4035-cv

Opinion

 [*101]  Wesley, Circuit Judge.

After the failure of a settlement in a wage-and-hour case brought by a group of employees of Gristede's supermarkets, the  [*102]  plaintiff employees moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of whether John Catsimatidis, the chairman and CEO of Gristede's Foods, Inc., could be held personally liable for damages. The case turns on whether Catsimatidis is an "employer" under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. § 203(d), and the New York Labor Law ("NYLL"), N.Y. Lab. Law §§ 190(3), 651(6). The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Crotty, J.) granted partial summary judgment for the plaintiffs  [**3] on the issue, establishing that Catsimatidis would be held jointly and severally liable for damages along with the corporate defendants. See Torres v. Gristede's Operating Corp., No. 04 Civ. 3316(PAC), 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114209, 2011 WL 4571792 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 9, 2011) ("Torres III"). Catsimatidis appeals. We affirm the district court's decision so far as it established that Catsimatidis was an "employer" under the FLSA; we vacate and remand the grant of partial summary judgment on plaintiffs' NYLL claims.

Background

Catsimatidis is the chairman, president, and CEO of Gristede's Foods, Inc., which operates between 30 and 35 stores in the New York City metro area and has approximately 1700 employees. Although a series of mergers and acquisitions has complicated the question of which companies are responsible for the Gristede's business and supermarkets, the parties have not made corporate structure the focus of this case. They essentially agree that Catsimatidis is the owner and corporate head of all implicated companies, but they dispute the manner and degree of his control over the stores and employees.

In 2004, a group of then-current and former employees of Gristede's supermarkets sued several companies involved  [**4] in operating the stores. The employees also sued three individual defendants: Catsimatidis, Gristede's District Manager James Monos, and Gristede's Vice President Gallo Balseca. The district court certified a class composed of "[a]ll persons employed by defendants as Department Managers or Co-Managers who were not paid proper overtime premium compensation for all hours that they worked in excess of forty in a workweek any time between April 30, 1998 and the date of final judgment in this matter (the 'class period')." Torres v. Gristede's Operating Corp., No. 04 Civ. 3316(PAC), 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74039, 2006 WL 2819730, at *11 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2006) ("Torres I") (quotation marks omitted). In this decision, the court noted that the parties disputed the duties of co-managers and department managers, though the scope of plaintiffs' duties are not at issue in this appeal.

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722 F.3d 99 *; 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 13796 **; 163 Lab. Cas. (CCH) P36,139; 20 Wage & Hour Cas. 2d (BNA) 1674; 2013 WL 3388443

BOBBY IRIZARRY, RUBEN MORA, JOSELITO AROCHO, JOSEPH CREMA, ALFRED CROKER, FRANK DELEON, MARIO DIPRETA, WILLIAM HELWIG, ROBERT MISURACA, ROBERT PASTORINO, VICTOR PHELPS, DANIEL SALEGNA, GILBERTO SANTIAGO, Plaintiffs-Appellees, CARLOS TORRES, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, LEWIS CHEWNING, Plaintiffs-Counter-Defendants-Appellees, RAYMOND ALLEN, LLANOS BLAS, NABIL ELFIKY, MOHAMMED DABASH, CARLOS MARTINEZ, LUIS MORALES, STEVE GROSSMAN, FRANKLYN COLLADO, DAVID ADLER, DINO A. ZAINO, PATRICK LABELLA, ROBERT MASTRONICOLA, ANTHONY BROOKS, VICTOR BENNETT, CANDIDO MOREL, JOSE MARTINEZ, WAYNE HENDRICKS, HAROLD HORN, TROY MILLER, OUSMANE DIATTA, ELLIOT STONE, TINA RODRIGUEZ, GABRIEL KARAMANIAN, BRIAN HOMOLA, ANNA GARRETT, NELSON BETANCOURT, JOSE DELACRUZ, YURI LAMARCHE, MICHAEL GROSECLOSE, RODOLFO DELEMOS, PIO MOREL, ABIGAIL CLAUDIO, MALICK DIOUF, DAVID OTTO, ALEJANDRO MORALES, VICTOR DIAZ, PAUL PETROSINO, EDUARDO GONZALEZ, JR., JOSE BONILLA-REYES, VINCENT PEREZ, MARTIN GONZALEZ, CALVIN ADAMS, WILLIAM FRITZ, KATHERINE HALPERN, CHRISTIAN TEJADA, EDWARD STOKES, PLINIO MEDINA, TOWANA STARKS, LAWSON HOPKINS, RUBEN M. ALEMAN, EUGENE RYBACKI, EARL CROSS, MANOLO HIRALDO, ROBERT HAIRSTON, Plaintiffs, -v.- JOHN CATSIMATIDIS, Defendant-Appellant. GRISTEDE'S OPERATING CORP., GRISTEDE'S FOODS NY, INC., NAMDOR, INC., GRISTEDE'S FOODS, INC., CITY PRODUCE OPERATING CORP., Defendants-Counter-Claimants, GALLO BALSECA, JAMES MONOS, Defendants.*1

Subsequent History: US Supreme Court certiorari denied by Catsimatidis v. Irizarry, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 1802 (U.S., Mar. 10, 2014)

Prior History:  [**1] A class of current and former employees of Gristede's supermarkets sued several corporate and individual defendants for alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Crotty, J.) granted partial summary judgment for the plaintiffs, concluding that John Catsimatidis, the owner, president, and CEO of Gristede's, was the plaintiffs' "employer" under both laws. Catsimatidis appeals, and we AFFIRM IN PART, VACATE IN PART, AND REMAND.

Torres v. Gristede's Operating Corp., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114209 (S.D.N.Y., Sept. 9, 2011)

CORE TERMS

employees, district court, individual defendant, factors, merchandising, supervision, decisions, damages, payroll, cases, store manager, quotation, marks, guards, plaintiff employee, economic reality, involvement, plaintiffs', parties, totality of the circumstances, hired, day-to-day, possessed, display, sales, partial summary judgment, security guard, hire and fire, occasionally, complaints

Civil Procedure, Summary Judgment, Appellate Review, Standards of Review, Judgments, Evidentiary Considerations, Evidence, Inferences & Presumptions, Inferences, Burdens of Proof, Nonmovant Persuasion & Proof, Governments, Legislation, Interpretation, Labor & Employment Law, Wage & Hour Laws, Scope & Definitions, General Overview, Definition of Employ, Definition of Employers, Definition of Employees, Employment Relationships, At Will Employment