Opinion ID: 1386400
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Gotham Was Reasonably Diligent in Attempting to Comply

Text: Additionally, Gotham's efforts to comply with the consent judgment were adequate to warrant relief from contempt. We have noted already that the staffing agency's legal obligations were difficult to discern and its managerial role vis-à-vis the nurses made compliance more challenging than would be the case in an ordinary employment context. See Dunn, 47 F.3d at 490 (affirming trial court's denial of petition for contempt where situation faced by defendant was complex and largely outside its control). Against that backdrop, Gotham sought the advice of counsel before adopting its overtime policy; it made its nurses aware of the rule; it discouraged its nurses from accepting Dyertime shifts without seeking prior approval and discouraged its clients from offering those shifts; and, when its instructions were disregarded, it negotiated with the hospitals to procure an overtime premium retrospectively. While these steps did not exhaust all means available to Gotham to ensure that overtime was not performed (and thus were inadequate to satisfy the strict standards for compliance with the Act), they are evidence of Gotham's diligent and energetic efforts to comply in a reasonable manner with the 1994 consent judgment. Consequently, we conclude the district court acted within its discretion in declining to impose contempt under a decree that did not, at the relevant time, unambiguously proscribe Gotham's actions and, one, moreover, with which the employer attempted to comply in a reasonable manner.