Major Win for Goals Plastic Surgery: The Southern District Court of New York Grants Decertification of a Class Action

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Aug 16, 2024, 08:38 ET

NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In a significant legal development, the Southern District of New York has granted the decertification of a class and collective action against Goals Plastic Surgery. The lawsuit, which centered on wage and hour claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law (NYLL), was brought forward by employees seeking collective redress. The court found that the employees' claims lacked the required commonality and typicality, leading to the decertification. This ruling underscores the complexities of class action litigation and the critical need for uniformity in plaintiffs' claims.

In 2018, four employees of New York based, Goals Plastic Surgery, filed suit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law, by denying overtime wages. Later, in 2021, the court, with respect to the employees' FLSA and NYLL claims and a F.R.C.P. Rule 23(b) class, certified the case a collective action, which led the defense to move to decertify the ruling, claiming that discovery had revealed significant differences between members making up the class, revealing some are actually salaried employees, which are arguably exempt from overtime requirements, leading to a federal district court granting the employer its motion.

Throughout litigation of over six years, the record showed that even though they were afforded a lengthy discovery period, extensions and a reopening, plaintiff's counsel failed to produce class-wide payroll records and without those records, as counsel commented "it became impossible to present a coherent statement of damages as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26." The record also showed on various matters, plaintiffs counsel failed to diligently pursue discovery and comply with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, therefore, failed to adequately represent the class in the lead up to trial.

Failure of class counsel to seek evidence of damages required the reevaluation of the counsel's adequacy to represent the class, and because of this, as well as the failure to comply with the obligation to produce a viable class-wide statement of damages under USDC SDNY DOCUMENT ELECTRONICALLY FILED: 8/9/2024, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26, Defendants' motion for decertification of the class was GRANTED.

Goals Plastic Surgery is the nation's leading brand in aesthetics, founded by Dr. Sergey Voskin, with locations in NYC, Miami and Atlanta, Goals strives to provide patients with the safest and most effective enhancement procedures synonymous with the Goals brand.

sources used and quoted:

Case 1:18-cv-08649-GHW Document 274 Filed 08/09/24

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SOURCE Goals Plastic Surgery