{"id":1192,"date":"2024-02-09T09:41:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T13:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2024-02-09T13:58:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T17:58:52","slug":"three-months-after-class-certification-was-denied-new-mexico-federal-court-allows-sixteen-fedex-delivery-drivers-to-intervene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/2024\/02\/09\/three-months-after-class-certification-was-denied-new-mexico-federal-court-allows-sixteen-fedex-delivery-drivers-to-intervene\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Months After Class Certification Was Denied, New Mexico Federal Court Allows Sixteen FedEx Delivery Drivers To Intervene In A Class Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Jennifer A. Riley, and Emilee N. Crowther<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duane Morris Takeaways<\/em><\/strong>: In Martinez v. Fedex Ground Package System, Inc., No. 20-CV-1052, 2024 WL 418801 (D.N.M. Feb. 5, 2024), Judge Steven C. Yarbrough of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico granted<\/a> the intervention motion of 16 putative class members to join the lawsuit,\u00a0 The Court held that the plaintiff-intervenors met the standard for permissive intervention under Rule 24(b)(2).\u00a0 The Court\u2019s decision in this case serves as an important reminder that Rule 23 and Rule 24 employ two separate commonality standards, and that class action cases are not automatically over when a court denies class certification. <\/em><\/p>\n

Case Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 12, 2020, Plaintiffs Fernandez Martinez and Shawnee Barrett (collectively, \u201cPlaintiffs\u201d) filed suit against Defendant Fedex Ground Package System, Inc. (\u201cFedex\u201d), alleging that Fedex misclassified them as independent contractors and failed to pay them and putative class members overtime wages in violation of the New Mexico Minimum Wage Act (\u201cNMMWA\u201d).<\/p>\n

On November 8, 2022, Plaintiffs moved to certify a class of all current or former New Mexico FedEx drivers who were paid a day rate without overtime compensation.\u00a0 On October 27, 2023, the Court denied Plaintiffs\u2019 motion on the basis that Plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that common questions predominated over individualized issues pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3).\u00a0 Martinez v. FedEx Ground Package Sys.<\/em>, No. 20-CV-1052, 2023 WL 7114678 (D.N.M. Oct. 27, 2023).<\/p>\n

On December 15, 2023, a group of 16 putative class members (the \u201cIntervenors\u201d) filed a motion to intervene as plaintiffs in the Lawsuit under Rule 24.\u00a0 Martinez<\/em>, 2024 WL 418801, at 1. In their motion, the Intervenors alleged that they, like Plaintiffs, were \u201ccurrent or former New Mexico FedEx delivery drivers who were paid the same amount of money regardless of how many hours they worked in a day, resulting in no premium payment for overtime hours worked in violation of the [NMMWA].\u201d\u00a0 Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Court\u2019s Decision<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Court granted the Intervenors\u2019 motion.\u00a0 Id<\/em>. at 2.\u00a0 It held that the Intervenors presented sufficient \u201cquestions of law and fact in common with the main action\u201d under Rule 24.\u00a0 Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Court noted that permissive intervention under Rule 24 is appropriate where (i) a federal statute creates a conditional right, or (ii) where the \u201cintervenor has a claim or defense that shares with the main action a common question of law or fact.\u201d\u00a0 Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In its opposition, FedEx asserted that because the Intervenors were employed by independent service providers (\u201cISPs\u201d) to deliver packages on behalf of FedEx, and were not employed by FedEx directly, FedEx was not liable under the NMMWA for allegedly unpaid overtime.\u00a0 Id<\/em>.\u00a0 Further, FedEx argued that the commonality requirement of Rule 24 was not met because the Court already found the absence of a common question when it denied class certification.\u00a0 Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While the Court recognized that it denied class certification under Rule 23\u2019s commonality requirement, it was not persuaded by FedEx\u2019s arguments.\u00a0 The Court underscored that under Rule 24, \u201crather than asking whether a question is susceptible to resolution \u2018in one stroke,\u2019 courts must ask whether intervenors present \u2018questions of law and fact in common with\u2019 the main action.\u201d\u00a0 Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Court concluded that the \u201cexisting plaintiffs and every intervenor [would] assert that certain common aspects of [FedEx\u2019s] contracts with ISPs [made FedEx] a joint employer and, consequently, jointly liable for any [NMMWA] violations.\u201d\u00a0 Id<\/em>.\u00a0 Accordingly, the Court ruled that the Intervenors satisfied the Rule 24 commonality standard and were permitted to join the lawsuit as plaintiffs.\u00a0 Id<\/em>. at 3.<\/p>\n

Implications For Companies<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision in Martinez v. FedEx<\/em> serves as an important reminder for defendants that class actions are not necessarily over once class certification is denied \u2013 and some members of the putative class may take a run at joining the lawsuit per Rule 24.\u00a0 Additionally, it underscores the distinct commonality analyses under Rule 23 and Rule 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Jennifer A. Riley, and Emilee N. Crowther Duane Morris Takeaways: In Martinez v. Fedex Ground Package System, Inc., No. 20-CV-1052, 2024 WL 418801 (D.N.M. Feb. 5, 2024), Judge Steven C. Yarbrough of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico granted the intervention motion of 16 putative class … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Three Months After Class Certification Was Denied, New Mexico Federal Court Allows Sixteen FedEx Delivery Drivers To Intervene In A Class Action”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[7,9],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wage-hour-litigation"],"authors":[{"term_id":7,"user_id":575,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gmaatman","display_name":"Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/maatmangerald-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""},{"term_id":9,"user_id":576,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jariley","display_name":"Jennifer A. Riley","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/08\/rileyjennifer-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}