United States Fifth Circuit

Summary judgment for plaintiffs, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, in an action seeking back wages and damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is affirmed where a regulation interpreting the professional exemption to FLSA overtime requirements did not speak to the precise question at issue, and an agency's informal interpretive statements excluding plaintiffs from the exemption merited deference.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/27/2006
• Published 03/28/2006

Judges

• JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:, Before KING, SMITH and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Anne Payne Fugett (argued), U.S. Dept. of Labor, OSHA, Washington, DC, for Chao, Sec. Dept. of Labor, Amicus Curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• James A. Jones, Gillespie, Rozen, Watsky, Motley & Jones, Dallas, TX, Richard J. Burch (argued), Bruckner Burch, Houston, TX, for Plaintiffs-Appellees., Ann Marie Painter, Ronald E. Manthey, Jay Forrest Utley (argued), Weldon Barton Rankin, Baker & McKenzie, Dallas, TX, for Defendants-Appellants.