O\' Connor v Oakhurst Dairy PDF

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O’Connor v Oakhurst Dairy Student Name: Michael Rouzer Statement of Facts: A group of delivery drivers for Oakhurst Dairy sued the company for unpaid overtime wages. Oakhurst Dairy processes, stores, markets, and distributes milk and other dairy products. Oakhurst designated the drivers as “route salesman” on their official job description but the drivers claim they are solely engaged in delivery of the products. State and deferral wage laws state that employers must pay their employees overtime for any hours they work over 40 hours, unless they are exempted from overtime rules by the relevant statutory language. Oakhurst argued that they were not exempted from the overtime wage requirement while Oakhurst argued they were due to a provision talking about working with perishable foods. Procedural History: The district court agreed with Oakhurst and granted partial summary judgement to the defendants and otherwise dismissing various of the plaintiffs’ claims. The drivers appealed. Issues: Whether or not the drivers are included in the exemption for overtime pay. Holding: District Courts summary judgement is reversed. Reasoning: Does a serial comma include them? No serial comma to be found so court must dispute their inclusion or exclusion. Must look at the language more narrowly to see the real meaning behind what the legislatures wrote. Dispute over the end of the exemption in which it says “packing for shipment or distribution”. Are distribution and packing for shipment separate objects? If so, the drivers would be exempt from protection. After must dispute the court decides that looking at the missing comma will not help them reach their decision. Oakhurst argues that the idea behind the exemption was to protect against the distorting effects the overtime law would have with employers and how they will handle perishable foods. The distribution by drivers is no different than the effects the packers could have on the product. On the other hand, the court argues that the effect packers have can greatly effect perishable foods if they take significantly longer than usual whereas drivers tend to go on long journeys where this is not as big of an issue. None of the evidence that was brought forward was clearly decisive one way or the other. Because of this the court is back to where they began. The main purpose of the Maine overtime laws is to make sure that all employees are adequately paid for their time working. The court interprets the ambiguity of Exemption F (Overtime exemption) and with this ambiguity finds in favor of the drivers narrower reading of the exemption. Result/Application: Oakhurst drivers are paid overtime wages for anything over 40 hours that they work....