STANTON v. International Fidelity Insurance Company, Defendant. (2025)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Lyle E. Frank, J.), entered on or about April 11, 2024, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the briefs, certified this action as a CPLR 901 class action upon finding, inter alia, the requisite commonality and numerosity, unanimously affirmed, with costs.

The court properly certified plaintiffs’ claims for breach of contract and recovery of wages pursuant to Labor Law § 220–g, among others, as a class action on behalf of all persons employed by defendant Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping Nursery & Florist Inc. at any time from August 15, 2015 through the entry of judgment, who worked as non-union flaggers.

Defendants’ contention that plaintiffs failed to satisfy the CPLR 901 commonality and numerosity requirements is unavailing.  Plaintiffs demonstrated commonality based on their claims that defendants systematically failed to pay prevailing wage rates and supplemental benefits to non-union flaggers working on public works contracts within the City of New York. Such claims are “particularly appropriate for class certification” (Dziura v. Human Dev. Assn., Inc., 231 A.D.3d 615, 616–617, 219 N.Y.S.3d 56 [1st Dept. 2024] [internal quotation marks omitted];  see Chua v. Trim–Line Hitech Constr. Corp., 225 A.D.3d 565, 566, 208 N.Y.S.3d 571 [1st Dept. 2024]).  Differences in the specific job duties, places of work, and separate payment arrangements of class members do not defeat commonality, as a systematic pattern of failure to pay prevailing wages was alleged (see Stecko v. RLI Ins. Co., 121 A.D.3d 542, 543, 995 N.Y.S.2d 13 [1st Dept. 2014]).  Damages may be easily calculated based on defendants’ payroll records.  Plaintiffs also alleged a pattern by defendants of failing to provide the required statutory notices.

Plaintiffs demonstrated numerosity in that they provided a list of 107 putative class members (see Borden v. 400 E. 55th St. Assoc., L.P., 24 N.Y.3d 382, 399, 998 N.Y.S.2d 729, 23 N.E.3d 997 [2014]), and defendants admitted that the class included at least 25 members.

We have considered defendants’ remaining arguments and find them unavailing.