Evans v. Tiger Claw, Inc.

163 A.3d 1282

Christopher EVANS

v.TIGER CLAW, INC., et al.

AC 38445

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued March 15, 2017

Officially released May 23, 2017

Mariusz Kurzyna, New Britain, with whom, on the brief, was Peter Goselin, Hartford, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Taryn D. Martin, Plainville, with whom was Robert A. Ziegler, Plainville, for the appellee (named defendant).

Alvord, Prescott and Bear, Js.

PER CURIAM.

The plaintiff, Christopher Evans, appeals from the judgment, rendered after a trial to the court, denying his claim for hourly wages allegedly due from the defendant, Tiger Claw, Inc. (defendant).¹ On appeal, the plaintiff claims that the trial court erred (1) "in failing to apply or misapplying fundamental tenets of wage and hour law"; (2) "in applying an incorrect burden of proof"; and (3) "in finding that [the] plaintiff has not proved that [the] defendant failed to pay any wages to which [the] plaintiff was otherwise entitled." We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts were found by the court or are not disputed. The defendant was a start-up company when the plaintiff began working there in January, 2003. The defendant manufactured hidden deck fasteners for the construction industry. David Hartmann, David Martel, and Donald Martel were corporate officers and held various managerial positions within the defendant. The plaintiff was hired as a sales representative for a new line of deck fasteners and was compensated on a commission basis, with an agreement that his first $10,000 in commission earnings would be withheld and invested in shares of the company's stock. Because the defendant was just starting up and had little support staff, it was further agreed that if the plaintiff was called upon from time to time to perform administrative functions that were not sales related, the defendant would compensate the plaintiff on an hourly basis, based on time records submitted periodically by the plaintiff.

The plaintiff worked primarily as a sales representative from January, 2003 until April, 2005, calling customers, visiting wholesalers and retailers, attending trade shows, creating and editing promotional materials, and keeping track internally and externally of the market.² After the plaintiff had accumulated $10,027.26 in sales commissions, which was set aside in a stock fund, he was paid commissions for subsequent sales that he made and received Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Forms 1099 for that income.

The plaintiff submitted a record of time spent on administrative work to the defendant in February, 2003 for work performed in January, 2003. The plaintiff was not paid for the administrative work he performed in January, 2003, and he never demanded payment for that administrative work during his employment. The plaintiff did not submit any other records of time allegedly spent on administrative work until he stopped working for the defendant.³ When it became clear that the plaintiff would be leaving in March, 2005, the plaintiff presented the defendant with more than two years of administrative time records for which he demanded compensation. The defendant disputed the plaintiff's entitlement to compensation for such administrative time.

The plaintiff essentially stopped working for the defendant on March 16, 2005, and he resigned effective that date. On April 7, 2005, the defendant's counsel sent a letter to the plaintiff, officially terminating his employment. The defendant paid out all of his remaining earned commissions and reported on an IRS Form 1099 for the year 2005 that the plaintiff received $8861.49 for that year.

On October 13, 2006, the plaintiff filed a complaint with the state Department of Labor (department) for unpaid wages totaling $191,966.91. After an investigation, Blair F. Bertaccini, a department wage enforcement agent, determined that certain costs had been deducted improperly from one of the plaintiff's commission checks and that the plaintiff was owed $3603.67 in unpaid wages. The plaintiff was unwilling to resolve his claim for that amount, and he withdrew his complaint at the department. On August 13, 2007, the plaintiff commenced the present action against the defendant and against Hartmann and the Martels in their individual capacities.

The plaintiff's operative complaint alleged that the defendant, Hartmann, and the Martels (1) failed to pay him hourly and commission wages and/or the shares of stock to which he was entitled and (2) obtained the plaintiff's property, i.e., wages and/or stock, by false pretenses. The defendant, Hartmann, and the Martels filed special defenses alleging that the plaintiff's claims were barred by the statute of limitations articulated in General Statutes § 52–596 and by the doctrine of res judicata. Following a six day trial, the court, Hon. Robert I. Berdon , judge trial referee, issued its memorandum of decision on April 27, 2011. Although the court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff, it limited his recovery for unpaid hourly wages to $3603.67, which was the amount Bertaccini recommended to resolve the wage claim filed by the plaintiff with the department. The court held that the doctrine of res judicata precluded any further recovery by the plaintiff for unpaid hourly wages. The court added $10,027.26 to that award, however, representing the sales commissions set aside for the purchase of corporate stock, for a total recovery of $13,630.93, plus taxable costs.

The plaintiff appealed the judgment of the trial court claiming that "the court improperly concluded that the doctrine of res judicata precluded the recovery of those wages because of a prior determination by a wage enforcement agent for the department of labor." Evans v. Tiger Claw, Inc. , 141 Conn.App. 110, 112, 61 A.3d 533, cert. denied, 310 Conn. 926, 78 A.3d 146, 856 (2013). The defendant, Hartmann, and the Martels filed a cross appeal from the judgment, "claiming that the court improperly (1) awarded the plaintiff $10,027.26 for unpaid commissions and (2) found [Hartmann and the Martels] liable for the amounts awarded to the plaintiff." Id. This court reversed the judgment "as to the according of res judicata effect to [Bertaccini's] determination of the plaintiff's wage claim" and remanded the case for a new trial on that issue. Id. at 124, 61 A.3d 533. This court further reversed the judgment with respect to the personal liability of Hartmann and the Martels and remanded the case with direction to render judgment in their favor but affirmed the award of $10,027.26 in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for unpaid wages. Id.

On remand, the case was tried to the court, Pittman, J. , on the limited issue of whether the defendant failed to pay the plaintiff any other wages or commissions and, if so, what amount of compensation was due. Prior to trial, the plaintiff filed a motion in limine requesting that the court "limit any documentary or testamentary evidence that the defendant asserts shows the hours worked by or wages paid to the plaintiff and apply the burden-shifting framework set out in" Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. , 328 U.S. 680, 66 S.Ct. 1187, 90 L.Ed. 1515 (1946),⁴ and adopted by our Supreme Court in Schoonmaker v. Lawrence Brunoli, Inc. , 265 Conn. 210, 828 A.2d 64 (2003). The court denied the motion without prejudice before trial "because there is currently an insufficient basis upon which to make such a decision."

At trial, the plaintiff presented evidence that he was entitled to additional compensation at an hourly wage for substantial administrative work he purportedly performed for the defendant. In particular, the plaintiff produced as evidence several spreadsheets that he represented were contemporaneous records of his daily "administrative hours" for the years 2003, 2004, and 2005. The defendant rebutted that evidence primarily through the testimony of Hartmann, who explained why the plaintiff's figures in his spreadsheets were not credible or why certain tasks listed by the plaintiff in his spreadsheets constituted sales work, compensable through his sales commissions, not administrative work. Hartmann stated on several occasions that he did not know what many of the tasks identified by the plaintiff were.⁵ In addition, Hartmann stated that, although he conceptually understood what some of the listed tasks were, he did not know that the plaintiff actually performed those tasks or why he would perform them.⁶ Finally, Hartmann testified that there were some tasks he knew that the plaintiff was performing despite being instructed not to do so.⁷

On August 6, 2015, the court issued its memorandum of decision, in which it concluded that "the plaintiff ... failed to prove his entitlement to any additional compensation by a preponderance of the evidence ...." Although the court noted that "the plaintiff was always considered an independent contractor, not an employee" by the parties, it assumed arguendo that the Anderson burden-shifting scheme for unpaid wages claims by employees applied to the case.⁸

The court found that the plaintiff's spreadsheets of his "administrative hours" were "not a contemporaneous record of the plaintiff's administrative work" and that "the number of ‘administrative hours' reflected on them is not believable (and, in some instances, barely humanly possible), especially when coupled with the plaintiff's primary [forty]-hour-per-week job as a sales representative, a job he performed well, according to David Hartmann. These time records cast doubt upon the entire presentation of the plaintiff about his performance of any administrative work at all for the defendant." The court further found that, "with rare exception, the plaintiff was not directed by the defendant to do any of the administrative functions for which he finally submitted a demand. Rather from a review of the spreadsheets and an analysis of the evidence as a whole, particularly the plaintiff's own testimony, the court finds that ...