United States Seventh Circuit

In plaintiffs' suit against their employer under the FLSA, the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), and the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, claiming that the employer violated the minimum wage and maximum hour provisions of both the FLSA and the IMWL, district court's denial of plaintiffs' effort to proceed as a class under Rule 23(b)(3) on the ground that there is a clear incompatibility between the plaintiffs' FLSA proceeding and their proposed class action is reversed and remanded, as there is no categorical rule against certifying a Rule 23(b)(3) state law class action in a proceeding that also includes a collective action brought under the FLSA because nothing in the text of the FLSA or the procedures established by the statute suggests either that the FLSA was intended generally to oust other ordinary procedures used in federal court or that class actions in particular could not be combined with an FLSA proceeding.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/02/2010
• Decided 01/18/2011
• Published 01/18/2011

Judges

• WOOD

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel