Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Law360 in “4th Circ. Says Worker Can't Revive Wage Classes After Deal,” by Benjamin Morse. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
In a published opinion, a unanimous three-judge panel said James Mebane could not challenge a North Carolina federal court's decertification of two Rule 23 classes and a Fair Labor Standards Act collective in his suit against GKN Driveline North America Inc. after resolving his own FLSA and North Carolina Wage and Hour Act claims against the company. …
The panel applied the same reasoning to the FLSA collective action, noting that the Third Circuit, citing Rhodes, has held that a lead plaintiff who voluntarily dismisses his individual claims with prejudice gives up any remaining representative interest in pursuing collective claims.
"Given our decision in Rhodes, we agree and conclude that Mebane also lacks standing to appeal the district court's decertification of the FLSA collective action," the panel said
Paul DeCamp of Epstein Becker Green, counsel for GKN, told Law360 in a statement Tuesday that "the decertification ruling in the district court confirms that the case was never appropriate as a class or collective action, and the unanimous decision of the Fourth Circuit makes clear that the plaintiff should never have filed this appeal."
"The court correctly focused on the plaintiff's lack of Article III standing to continue litigating certification issues after settling his individual claims, and circuit precedent is crystal clear on that point," DeCamp added. "Any remaining issues are between the putative class, class counsel and her insurance carrier."
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