Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo (14-1146)
argument 14-1146Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 1m
5 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 5 days ago
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What legal issue is the Supreme Court hearing in Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo?
We'll hear argument first this morning in case fourteen eleven forty six, Tyson Foods versus Buafacchio. Mr Phillips.
Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice. And may it please the court. This court has made clear that class actions are only appropriate when the plaintiff's proof is tailored to their specific theory of liability. in a way that allows qu class wide injury to be determined in one stroke, and that the lower courts must engage in a rigorous analysis in order to demonstrate that fact. In this Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the plaintiffs were allowed to pursue a class of more than thirty three hundred employees who occupied job more than four hundred jobs It's required widely differing amounts of time to perform their donning, doffing, and washing tasks.
Well is that is that so? Because as far as I understand this. There was some darning and doffing that was common, that is There was some sanitation. and some protective gear that they all had to wear. And then there was a difference between the knife wield knife wielders and the others, but they weren't all that different. So in one case one war. Mesh aprons in the other case rubber aprons didn't seem to be that wide disparity.
Well there there are a number of answers to that, Just Skinsberg. First of all, if you if you just look at the activities that Dr. Miracle specifically testified about. For certain activities, the he found some employees who take thirty seconds to get dressed and others who took more than ten minutes to get dressed in certain circumstances.
And you suggest in your brief that uninjured plaintiffs are included in aggravate damages, but you were the one that objected to a bifurcated trial. And so far as uninjured plaintiffs re recovering, uh that has to be determined on remanned anyway. I d I just don't understand your argument.
There are a number of questions embedded in there, Justice Kennedy. The first one is we objected all along to having this class certified on the basis that there were a wide range of the Well, but once
you lose that, uh you you s you have also other defenses, your own expert, uh uh Daubert objections, etcetera. Right.
Justice Kenny, we don't have to bring forward an expert. What we did in this case is we cross we cross examined both their the named plaintiffs, the four named plaintiffs who testified and demonstrated two things about that. One, that in general they way overestimated their own time, and two, none of their times were remotely the same as Dr. Miracle's time. So we proved that. Second, we cross examined Dr. Miracle about his testimony and demonstrated again, that his methods were completely haphazard and scattered and therefore couldn't demonstrate. And this notion that you Patch over the entirety of these problems simply by averaging all of the times of all of these employees is simply the kind of shortcut this court has has rejected in the past in both Comcast and Walmart.
I'm sorry, Judge.
Mr. Phillips, I I'm completely um at a loss as to what you're complaining about. That's exactly what you did. And what this expert did I mean, as far as I could tell between your expert that you use to calculate gang time And K time. did exactly the same thing this expert did. You came out with a lower number, but you use fewer people. At least their expert used hundreds of people instead of the few that you did. I'm I'm just completely at a loss. Would you suggest that if one plaintiff came into court that he could not use the um This expert. to prove his case circumstantially. to show that in fact the average is this and he doesn't really know how much time He took When he does it now, it may be twelve minutes.
Instead of ten?
Justice Sotomayor, I would I would yes, I would categorically reject that, because that's no more different than employee A coming into court and saying, I don't know what I worked, but employee B who does vastly different activities.
They know that um people were working over forty hours 'cause there were time records with respect to that. Um what you're s basically saying is
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What legal issue is the Supreme Court hearing in Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo?
0:01–7:49
2
How do the Justices define the requirements for class‑action certification under the FLSA?
7:49–14:35
3
Why is the Mount Clemens precedent pivotal to the parties’ arguments?
14:35–20:58
4
What arguments are made about the reliability of Dr. Miracle’s averaging methodology?
20:58–29:26
5
How did the jury’s verdict affect the calculation and distribution of damages?
29:26–37:16
6
In what way does the lack of employer time‑records shape the case’s evidentiary strategy?
37:16–45:07
7
What are the parties’ positions on remand, bifurcation, and allocation of the lump‑sum judgment?
45:07–53:57
8
What conclusions do the Justices reach about the propriety of the class certification and its broader impact?
53:57–1:02:15