Another Court Dismisses FLSA Case As Moot But Questions Still Remain About The Mootness Doctrine Following Dionne V. Floormasters

A Florida federal court recently dismissed an FLSA action as moot, thereby denying plaintiff's counsel a fee recovery, after plaintiff's counsel deposited a check representing full compensation for plaintiff's actual and liquidated damages.

But in her decision in Craig v. Digital Intelligence Systems Corp., Case No. 8:10-CV-2549-T-EAJ (M.D. Fla., November 2, 2011), Judge Elizabeth Jenkins of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Dionne v. Floormasters, 647 F.3d 1109 (11th Cir. 2011) – in which the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an FLSA case on mootness grounds – was not controlling, because "plaintiff in Dionne agreed that his claim was moot and should be dismissed. . . . As a result, the Eleventh Circuit did not address the district court's ruling that the action was rendered moot by the defendant's tender of full compensation."

In deciding that issue, Judge Jenkins declined to follow a recent ruling by Middle District Judge James Whittemore in Klingler v. Phil Mook Enters., Inc., No. 8:11-CV-1586-T-27TGW, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110205 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 14, 2011). In Klingler, Judge Whittemore ruled that allowing the defendants to avoid responsibility for attorney's fees would run counter to the FLSA's goal of fully compensating a wronged employee and that the tender was an attempt to circumvent the requirements of Rule 68. Judge Jenkins wrote that "the issue of attorney's fees is collateral to the merits of Plaintiff's FLSA claim. And Klingler is distinguishable from the present case because the plaintiff in Klingler denied receiving the tender payment." In contrast, Judge Jenkins noted:

Plaintiff's acceptance and endorsement of a check for full compensation for damages, coupled with the deposit of the funds in the law-firm trust account, rendered his claims moot. Here, it is undisputed that Plaintiff and his counsel accepted the check even though his counsel was on notice that the check was tendered for the purpose of mooting Plaintiff's claim. Plaintiff endorsed the check, and his counsel deposited it in the law-firm trust account. That the check was in Plaintiff's name and he endorsed it strengthens the conclusion that Plaintiff accepted the tender of full compensation for damages.

Judge Jenkins went on to hold that plaintiff did not have a right to an award of attorney's fees and costs under the FLSA because plaintiff was not the...