Blogs

The Fifth Circuit issued a doozy of a “bench slap” to the U.S. Department of Labor for Rasputin-like tenacity in pressing a groundless Fair Labor Standards Act suit against a Texas security company. The decision, Gate Guard Servs., L.P. v. Perez, __ F.3d __, 2015 WL 4072105 (5th Cir. 2015), is available here.

Details and analysis are available around the web:

• Miriam Rozen, Fifth Circuit Sanctions Federal Government in FLSA Case, Texas Lawyer (July 7, 2015)

• Martha Neil, 5th Circuit: Feds must pay $500K in attorney fees to defendant company for bad faith in FLSA case ABA Journal (July 8, 2015)

• Sidney Powell, Breaking: Appellate Court Hammers Labor Dept for Abusive Litigation and Bad Faith, N.Y. Observer (July 3, 2015)

The appellate court held that the district court abused its discretion in denying fees. How often do you see that? According to the Fifth Circuit: “By focusing solely on whether the government’s claim that [the defendant] was violating the FLSA was colorable at the outset, the court ignored both that the case lost all ‘color’ as it proceeded and the government’s misconduct throughout this litigation.”

The case was decided under the provision of the Equal Access to Justice Act providing that the Government can be held liable for attorney’s fees “to the same extent that any other party would be liable under the common law.” 28 U.S.C. § 2412(b). Thus, the decision can be cited in support of motions for sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 11.