BENTON – Jurors made a mistake when they divided a wage claim against Longbranch Café and Bakery of Carbondale by ten, U. S. District Judge Staci Yandle ruled on Jan. 13.
She erased the jury’s $4,920.02 verdict and awarded $49,200.23 to 31 servers and baristas as the U. S. labor department requested.
“This amount was uncontroverted at trial,” she wrote.
She found the Constitution generally bars a judge from increasing a damage award but an exception applies when there’s no genuine issue as to the correct amount.
Longbranch paid servers and baristas $5 or $5.50 per hour and took a tip credit to meet minimum wage obligations.
At the end of a shift Longbranch distributed 90% of tips to servers and baristas and 5% each to the cook and the dishwasher.
At trial last July some current and former employees testified that the tip pool was voluntary and others testified that it wasn’t.
Labor department investigator Lindsey Corona testified that she calculated back wages by reviewing records from February 2018 to February 2020.
She said she determined the amount of the tip credit and multiplied it by the number of hours worked.
Longbranch owner Elaine Ramseyer Greenberg testified for 88 minutes.
Yandle instructed jurors that if the tip pool was invalid Longbranch owed the difference between the wages it paid and the minimum wage of $7.25.
She sent them out to answer five questions.
The first two asked whether Longbranch and Greenberg required servers to participate in a pool that included cooks and dishwashers.
The third asked whether they should award damages and advised them that they must answer "yes" if they answered "yes" to the first two questions.
The fourth asked if they should award the amount Coronoa calculated.
The fifth asked what amount they would award if not Corona’s amount.
Jurors deliberated for two hours and sent Yandle a note asking why they had to answer "yes" to the third question if they answered "yes" to the first two.
She told them to apply the law and complete the verdict form as indicated.
They answered "yes" to the first three questions and "no" to the fourth.
They answered the fifth question by awarding 10% of Corona’s amount.
The labor department moved to alter judgment or hold a damage trial.
Yandle denied a damage trial, finding it would be a useless formality that would serve no purpose.
She found the verdict constituted manifest error and the servers and baristas were entitled to $49,200.23.