Delivery Drivers Lawsuit Settlement Boiled Down to Missing Comma

A delivery drivers lawsuit settlement for $5 million came down to where a comma was placed inside the state law regarding overtime protection. This delivery drivers lawsuit settlement established a fund for the employees who alleged that they were owed overtime based on their interpretation of the state laws.

Class Action Claim Leads to Delivery Drivers Lawsuit Settlement

The delivery drivers lawsuit settlement came out of a class action claim filed in 2014. The drivers argued that they were entitled to receive overtime pay and that their employer, Oakhurst Dairy, wrongfully denied them this protection. The dairy was sold to a farmers cooperative, and that cooperative said that the verbiage of a state law classified the workers in question as being exempt from overtime protections.

Although the employees were successful in the delivery drivers lawsuit settlement, Oakhurst Dairy admitted no wrongdoing by signing and accepting that agreement. Each of the named plaintiffs in the delivery drivers lawsuit settlement will receive $50,000 from the settlement fund. Five total drivers came forward to file the suit and are considered named plaintiffs.

Additionally, other drivers may be eligible to get a portion of the fund. That will come as either $100 or overtime pay they were eligible for based on work history from a four-year period. In total, it’s expected that 127 drivers may be eligible to recover a portion of the delivery drivers lawsuit settlement.

Originally, a federal court in Maine said that the state laws did not provide overtime protection for those employees. According to that statute, overtime payments are not required for employees who are engaged in a broad range of activity types, including “storing, marketing, packing for shipment or distribution of” a number of product types like dairy goods, milk, and cheese.

When that original ruling was appealed by the drivers, the main issue came down to the interpretation of a comma in the law-drafting manual for the state. The court ultimately ruled that because of the confusion in the wording of the law that it should be construed liberally.

The judge at the lower court determined that the drivers were exempted from overtime protection because of the role they played in shipping and distributing the products in question. However, the drivers said that the lack of a comma between “shipment” and “distribution of” implied that those tasks were linked together.

The drivers said that since they played no role in packing the products and only in delivery of them that they were not exempted from overtime pay.  The case came down to the lack of a comma between those tasks, with the higher court determining that the drivers were right.

Overtime pay arguments are some of the most common claims in wage and hour lawsuits. Where applicable, employers have to pay overtime to those workers who spend more than a given period of time per day or per week with their job. Often, these cases come about when employees believe they were entitled to overtime pay but their classification or the employer’s interpretation of the law differs, ultimately prompting a lawsuit.

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