On Wednesday, an ex-employee filed a complaint in the Northern District of Texas against Backyard Beverages LLC, David Casique Abaonza, Bibere Beverages Inc., Moore & Moore Ventures Inc., and Charles Moore for allegedly failing to pay his overtime wages in a timely fashion, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The plaintiff, according to the complaint, worked for manufacturer Backyard Beverages from July 2019 until November 2020, where they were an administrative assistant tasked with answering phone calls from customers, office tasks, and other work as expected of them. They worked approximately 46 hours per week at $7.25 an hour and were paid $400 per month. However, the plaintiff contended that the Defendants “failed to keep proper time records” of their time records, and the refusal to pay overtime hours violates FLSA. Under the law, the plaintiff says he is entitled to “recover unpaid overtime wages and liquidated damages for up to three years prior to the filing of this lawsuit;” the plaintiff claims he is owed $22,646.58 in unpaid overtime wages and liquidated damages of the same amount.
According to the complaint, the defendants extended a line of credit to the plaintiff “for the purpose of operating Defendant’s business” and in exchange “the Defendants agreed to pay Plaintiff back all sums borrowed against his credit, plus 15% interest per year, plus any additional interest owed to the respective credit card companies” within 30 days that any sums were tendered. The plaintiff said they accrued nearly $60,000 in debt with this line of credit, and the defendants have only paid about $30,000 of it back.
Thus, the plaintiff is suing for violations of the FLSA, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment. The plaintiff is seeking damages in excess of $30,000, compensatory damages, interest, attorney’s fees and costs, and other relief.
The plaintiff is represented by James M. Dore.
