Wright v. Family Dollar, Inc.

Wright v. Family Dollar, Inc.

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff Syreeta Wright filed a two-count putative class action complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County, alleging that her former employer, defendant Family Dollar, failed to pay actual and overtime compensation to her and other "associates" (non-exempt, store-level employees) in violation of the Illinois Wage Payment & Collection Act, 820 ILCS § 115, et seq. (Count I), and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law, 820 ILCS § 105, et seq. (Count II). Defendant removed the case to federal district court pursuant to the Class Action Fairness Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1453. Defendant has filed the instant motion to strike class allegations pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(c)(1)(A) and (d)(1)(D), contending that plaintiff cannot establish typicality and adequacy of representation,  [*2] Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a)(3)-(4). For the following reasons, defendant's motion is granted.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff alleges that defendant withheld compensation from associates by giving its store managers unfeasibly low payroll budgets which, despite defendant's official policy prohibiting managers from requiring associates to work without compensation, effectively forced all managers to do exactly that. Plaintiff's putative class consists of "all individuals who were employed by the Defendant as an Associate in any Illinois store at any time during the relevant statute of limitations period who: 1) were not paid for regular hours worked; or 2) worked more than forty (40) hours in a week, but did not receive overtime pay." The complaint alleges that, during the limitations period, plaintiff worked as an Associate (from September 2008 through January 2009) and then as a Store Manager (from February 2009 through May 2009).

DISCUSSION

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