Slepian v. Pink Jeep Tours LLC, Pink Adventure Holdings LLC, and Herschend Adventure Holdings LLC

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Arizona ruled on cross-motions for summary judgment in an FLSA action brought by tour guides against Pink Jeep-related entities. The court denied summary judgment concerning the compensability of between-tour waiting time because material factual disputes remained, but held that time spent monitoring the employer’s tour-assignment system was compensable and not de minimis. The court also denied the defendants’ motion concerning damages computation and gap-time recovery issues to the extent presented in the available text.

Holdings

1. Summary judgment for the guides was denied because genuine disputes of material fact existed regarding whether guides could use between-tour time effectively for their own purposes and whether they were effectively engaged to wait.
2. Gantt-monitoring time was compensable under the FLSA because it was integral and indispensable to the guides' principal work and was not de minimis.
3. Pink Jeep was not entitled to summary judgment on the ground that plaintiffs could not prove damages; testimony, payroll records, and representative evidence could permit a jury to reasonably estimate uncompensated work and damages.
4. Plaintiffs could not recover pure gap-time wages, but their claims could proceed to the extent uncompensated work caused overtime or minimum-wage violations; Pink Jeep was not entitled to summary judgment on that theory.
5. Slepian's individual Arizona wage claim survived summary judgment because evidence that Pink Jeep promised hourly payment for all hours worked created a material dispute over whether he reasonably expected payment for compensable hours.
6. The court could not determine as a matter of law that Pink Jeep's withholding of wages was based on a reasonable good-faith dispute, so summary judgment was denied as to treble damages.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the guides' between-tour waiting time was compensable under the FLSA as time during which they were engaged to wait rather than waiting to be engaged.
2. Whether time spent monitoring Pink Jeep's Gantt scheduling system was compensable work under the FLSA and was not de minimis.
3. Whether disputes concerning damages calculations, representative testimony, expert testimony, and alleged calculation errors entitled Pink Jeep to summary judgment.
4. Whether the plaintiffs' claims were barred as impermissible pure gap-time claims or could proceed as overtime-gap and minimum-wage claims.
5. Whether Slepian presented a triable issue on whether he had a reasonable expectation of payment under Arizona wage law.
6. Whether the evidence established as a matter of law that Pink Jeep withheld wages based on a reasonable good-faith dispute, precluding treble damages.

Disposition

other