Fourth Circuit Updates
Labor & Employment Law
In the Eastern District of North Carolina, U.S. District Judge Terrance W. Boyle recently granted conditional class certification to call center employees in their FLSA dispute against BB&T. In that case, Sheffield v. BB&T et al. (case number 7:16-cv-00332) plaintiff and the conditionally certified class allege that BB&T failed to pay overtime.
The text of Judge Boyle’s order can be found here: https://dlbjbjzgnk95t.cloudfront.net/0920000/920888/https-ecf-nced-uscourts-gov-doc1-13115406642.pdf
On April 28, 2017, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals approved R.J. Reynolds’ win in an ERISA class action in which the class sought in excess of $50 million, allegedly lost to retirement plan mismanagement. The divided three-judge panel (Judge Motz wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge Wilkinson joined; Judge Diaz wrote a dissenting opinion) held that a hypothetical prudent fiduciary would have acted in the same manner. That published opinion can be found here: https://dlbjbjzgnk95t.cloudfront.net/0918000/918744/https-ecf-ca4-uscourts-gov-cmecf-servlet-transportroom-servlet-showdoc-00406503221.pdf
