United States Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit

No. 21-50256

Robert Kennedy, Individually and on behalf of all 

others similarly situated, 

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Pioneer Natural Resources Company, 

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Western District of Texas

USDC No. 7:20-CV-86

Before Jones, Higginson, and Duncan, Circuit Judges.

Per Curiam:*

Appellant Pioneer Natural Resources Company hired Onshore 

Quality Control Specialists, LLC and Applied Consultants, Inc. to 

independently oversee its pipeline construction and improvement projects. 

Onshore later hired Appellee Robert Kennedy in September 2018 and 

* Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this 

opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited 

circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

June 30, 2022

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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assigned him to its team providing services to Pioneer. Kennedy quit in early 

January 2019; Applied Consultants hired him the next day and also assigned 

him to its team servicing Pioneer. Kennedy then quitsometime in April 2019. 

As a condition of his employment with both Onshore and Applied 

Consultants, Kennedy signed substantially similar arbitration agreements. 

Both staffing companies also determined that Kennedy was exempt under 

29 U.S.C. § 213 from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards 

Act (“FLSA”).

Kennedy maintains that he and others were misclassified as 

independent contractors with Onshore and Applied Consultants, and that 

Pioneer was his actual employer. As a result, Kennedy filed a collective 

action against Pioneer in April 2020 to recover allegedly unpaid overtime 

wages and other damages under the FLSA. Pioneer moved to compel 

arbitration, seeking to enforce the arbitration agreements as a non-signatory. 

The district court adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation to deny 

that motion. Pioneer then timely appealed before moving for a stay, which 

the district court denied.

Pioneer argues that an arbitrator should decide whether Kennedy’s 

FLSA claims are arbitrable. It alternatively insists that the claims are still 

arbitrable even if the court decides arbitrability. And Pioneerfinally contends 

that the court should estop Kennedy from evading arbitration.

These arguments, though compelling, are foreclosed by several of our 

recent decisions that involved nearly identical circumstances. See Newman 

v. Plains All Am. Pipeline, L.P., 23 F.4th 393 (5th Cir. 2022); Newman v. Plains 

All Am. Pipeline, L.P., 2022 WL 1114407 (5th Cir. Apr. 14, 2022) (per curiam); 

Hinkle v. Phillips 66 Co., 35 F.4th 417 (5th Cir. 2022). The gravamen is that, 

according to these decisions, Kennedy did not agree to arbitrate his claims 

against Plains, and Plains does not have a close enough relationship with 

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Onshore and Applied Consultants to enforce their agreements through 

equity.

AFFIRMED.

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