Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ared-4_20-cv-00118/USCOURTS-ared-4_20-cv-00118-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 710
Nature of Suit: Fair Labor Standards Act
Cause of Action: 29:201 Denial of Overtime Compensation

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IN THE UNITED ST ATES DISTRICT COURT 

EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS 

CENTRAL DIVISION 

NIKKI VANHORN; STORME HASKINS; 

WHITTNEY MITCHELL; DAMIEN 

MITCHELL; and DEAN MORRISON, 

Each Individually and on Behalf of 

All Others Similarly Situated 

v. No. 4:20-cv-118-DPM 

COMMUNITY BUILDERS, 

INCORPORATED; CBI HOME 

IMPROVEMENTS; and GREG WOLTER 

ORDER 

PLAINTIFFS 

DEFENDANTS 

According to Greg Wolter, its owner and CEO, Community 

Builders offers affordable, high-quality remodeling solutions to 

homeowners. CBI Home Improvements is supposedly a related entity. 

Siding and roofing seem to be mainstays for this business. Vanhorn 

and the other plaintiffs say they worked for Community Builders, CBI, 

and Wolter. Some folks were canvassers, displaying the company's 

products to potential clients, while others were in a call center, helping 

customers, contractors, and prospects. The workers were paid hourly. 

They say they worked more than forty hours a week, were not paid for 

their overtime, and got shorted on bonuses. They also say that, in the 

last three years, there were more than ten canvassers and ten call center 

employees in Arkansas and Oklahoma who were underpaid in the 

Case 4:20-cv-00118-DPM Document 23 Filed 06/17/20 Page 1 of 4
same way. The workers move to conditionally certify a collective 

action. Community Builders, CBI, and Wolter oppose certification. The 

employers make several points: they have a clear and strictly enforced 

time-keeping policy; they pay their workers for all their time on the 

clock; and there's no practice or policy to shave time in the ways 

alleged. 

All material circumstances considered, the workers have made 

the modest factual showing required under the fairly lenient legal 

standard. Helmert v. Butterball, LLC, 2009 WL 5066759 at *3 (E.D. Ark. 

15 Dec. 2009); Freeman v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 256 F. Supp. 2d 941, 

944-45 (W.D. Ark. 2003). Vanhorn and the others were similarly 

situated. Even though they had two different jobs, they worked under 

the same hourly /bonus pay structure. Plus, they allege that they were 

affected in the same basic ways. Smith v. Frac Tech Services, LLC, 

No. 4:09-cv-679-JLH, Doc. 65 (E.D. Ark. 24 Nov. 2009). Because all the 

declarations are from Arkansawyers, who say they know about the 

employers' practices in Arkansas, the Court declines to include 

Oklahoma workers in the group. The pay structure was the same in 

both places. But the workers haven't offered evidence that the same 

kind of problems existed in the employers' Oklahoma operation. 

Dandison v. Hank's Furniture, Inc., No. 4:15-cv-62-DPM, 

2015 WL 2354032 at *1 (E.D. Ark.15 May 2015). The Court also declines 

the employers' request to carve out part-time employees from the 

-2-

Case 4:20-cv-00118-DPM Document 23 Filed 06/17/20 Page 2 of 4
group. That cut risks eliminating workers who may have crossed the 

forty-hour mark. The Court therefore conditionally certifies the 

following group: 

All current and former call center personnel and canvassers 

who worked for Community Builders, Inc., CBI Home 

Improvements, and Greg Wolter, and were paid an hourly 

rate, at any time since 4 February 2017. 

The employers must provide plaintiffs' counsel ( on an electronic 

spreadsheet) a list of names, addresses, and e-mail addresses of group 

members. 

The notice, consent form, email, and follow-up notice are 

approved with tweaks. Doc. 11-1, Doc. 11-2, Doc. 11-3, Doc. 11-4 & 

Doc. 11-5. Update the group description. Delete the dash in "hourly 

paid" each time that phrase appears. Plaintiffs' counsel must send the 

notice by regular mail with a follow-up notice by e-mail, as the 

employers propose. Texts are not necessary. The employers must also 

post the notice at the Arkansas call center and any other company 

location in Arkansas where the canvassers are based. Here's the 

schedule: 

• Community Builders, CBI, 

and Wolter produce spreadsheet 

• Notice period opens 

• Opt-in period closes 

* * 

-3-

* 

26 June 2020 

1 July 2020 

1 October 2020 

Case 4:20-cv-00118-DPM Document 23 Filed 06/17/20 Page 3 of 4
Motion, Doc. 11, granted as modified. 

So Ordered. 

v 

D.P. Marshall Jr. 

United States District Judge 

-4-

Case 4:20-cv-00118-DPM Document 23 Filed 06/17/20 Page 4 of 4