Moses & Singer LLP recently defeated a plaintiff's motion seeking court-authorized notice to a proposed nationwide collective of performers in a case against an entertainment company client under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law.

The plaintiff alleged that the company misclassified performers as independent contractors, resulting in unpaid minimum wage and overtime, and sought to send court-authorized notice of the lawsuit to performers nationwide so they could opt in. As the Court observed, the proposed group would have captured "thousands of workers" performing different duties in different locations.

Following extensive briefing, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan denied the motion. Applying the Sixth Circuit's standard, the Court concluded that the plaintiff had not shown a strong likelihood that she was similarly situated to the performers in the proposed nationwide group. Among other things, the Court found that the plaintiff had not identified a single company-wide policy that violated the FLSA as to all of those performers, and that the proposed group did not share similar job duties.

The decision represents a significant interim victory for the client, preventing the proposed nationwide collective action from proceeding on the terms sought by the plaintiff. The Moses Singer team includes Daniel Hoffman, Avi Skoff, and Holly Clancy. The case is DeGroot v. Murder Mystery Company Inc., et al., Case No. 1:24-cv-1016 (W.D. Mich.).