Facts

Leland Stanford Junior University, the official name for Stanford University, is a private research university. On August 28, 2018, Jeffrey Taylor, Crystal Townley, and Sean Zirkle filed a collective action and class action complaint asserting various Fair Labor Standards Act and California Labor Code claims. Stanford sought to dismiss the case or compel arbitration. After the court denied Stanford's motion to dismiss on June 28, 2019, the parties thereafter reached a conditional settlement less than a year later, on April 24, 2020. By August 17, 2021, the court preliminarily approved the settlement agreement, also approving a class of Collective Action members consisting of all individuals employed by Stanford's Department of Public Safety in the job classification of community service officer, deputy sheriff, sergeant, and an investigator subclass.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs, Taylor, Townley and Zirkle, generally alleged issues pertaining to the proper calculation of overtime. They also argued that defendant, Stanford, violated provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and disagreed over the statute of limitations.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant, Stanford University, denied all contentions, specifically disputing, for example, that it was entitled to seek offsets and credits pursuant to 29 U.S.C. Section 207(h)(2) and it acted in good faith so that plaintiffs were not entitled to liquidated damages.

Settlement Discussions

The parties participated in a mediation session on September 16, 2019 with Jeffrey A. Ross.

Result

The case settled for $275,800.