Achieved Significant Victory When Court Denied Rule 23 Motion to Certify a Class

Winston represented a major national bank in a suit filed in the Southern District of California alleging violations of the FLSA, various California Labor Code and Wage Orders, and the California Unfair Business Practices Act. Plaintiffs alleged that our client misclassified plaintiffs and other in-store branch managers as exempt from overtime. The court granted conditional certification of a nationwide collective action, and over 500 in-store branch managers consented to join the lawsuit. Winston subsequently won our opposition to plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class under FRCP Rule 23. The court then granted our client’s motion for decertification of the nationwide collective action, agreeing with defendant that plaintiffs made generally conclusory allegations regarding overarching policies based on carefully chosen deposition excerpts without producing “‘substantial evidence’ of a ‘single decision, policy or plan.’”