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Updated: Judge Decertifies Conditional Class Action Certification Granted to Minor Leaguers


Earlier this month, I had provided an update on a Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") suit that had been filed several minor leaguers that claimed they were not paid paid overtime nor minimum wage for their work.  (Readers might remember the suit had received conditional class certification previously.)  In addition, readers might recall that a bill had recently been introduced in Congress which would prohibit minor leaguers from earning minimum wage.  The bill, known as the "Save America's Pastime Act", was quickly met with harsh criticism....so harsh that one of the sponsors of the bill almost immediately withdrew her support of the bill.

In regard to the FLSA suit, however, a federal judge recently decertified the class on the grounds that adjudicating the case on a collective basis would be unimaginable, if not impossible.  In the judge's opinion, he noted that the individual issues that would arise when considering the rate of pay each player received, how many hours they worked, etc were too extensive and varied to group everyone together in a class action.  (Of course, one of the requirements to get a class action certified is the requirement that the issues/facts of the case are "common enough" among the potential members of the class to warrant grouping all the parties together and trying the case as one big group).

This is not necessarily the end of the case, but it certainly makes it harder to proceed as the decertification of the class splinters the potential 2,000 players involved in the suit and would now force them to litigate their claims individually.  Of course, that would likely involve attorney's fees above and beyond what many players could afford.  

Stay tuned to see how this one plays out.

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