Eastern District of Tennessee Grants Plaintiff’s Motion to Toll the Running of On August 9, 2012, Magistrate Judge H. Bruce Guyton of the Eastern District of Tennessee granted Plaintiff Nicholas Bolletino’s motion to toll the running of the statute of limitations for Sales Professionals who worked for Cellular Sales of Knoxville, Inc. Plaintiff Bolletino is represented by Winebrake & Santillo as well as Barrett Johnston, LLC (Nashville, Tenn.) and Barkan Meizlish Handelman Goodin DeRose Wentz, LLP (Columbus, OH).
The lawsuit alleges that Cellular Sales violated the FLSA by misclassifying its Sales Professionals who worked in Verizon Wireless stores as “independent contractors” who were exempt from overtime pay when in reality they were “employees” entitled to such compensation. Cellular Sales denies any wrongdoing. The Complaint also alleges that Cellular Sales reclassified its Sales Professionals as employees in January 2012 entitled to overtime pay.
In Bolletino v. Cellular Sales of Knoxville, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112132 (E.D.Tenn. Aug. 9, 2012), the Eastern District of Tennessee held that tolling the statute of limitations as of June 6, 2012 for potential opt-in plaintiffs to this FLSA collective action was appropriate because each of the factors articulated by the Sixth Circuit in Allen v. Yukins, 366 F.3d 396, 401-02 (6th Cir. 2004) were fulfilled. The Court also cited to similar decisions to toll the running of the statute of limitations in FLSA collective actions in Abadeer v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136978 (M.D.Tenn. Dec. 14, 2010) and Baden-Winterwood v. Life Time Fitness, 484 F. Supp.2d 822 (S.D. Ohio 2007). A copy of the opinion is available here.