Opinion ID: 3045958
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Overtime Hours

Text: Appellants argue that the district court should have granted their Rule 50 motion because the evidence of Feliciano’s and Milan’s overtime hours was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict. The FLSA places upon the employeeplaintiff “the burden of proving that he performed work for which he was not properly compensated.” Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680, 686–87 (1946). However, if the employer failed to keep time records, as in this case, that burden is relaxed. Specifically, in that circumstance an employee has carried out his burden if he proves that he has in fact performed work for which he was improperly compensated and if he produces sufficient evidence to show the amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference. The burden then shifts to the employer to come forward with evidence of the precise amount of work performed or with evidence to negative the reasonableness of the inference to be drawn from the employee’s evidence. If the employer fails to produce such evidence, the court may then award damages to the employee, even though the result be only approximate. 25 Case: 11-15743 Date Filed: 03/06/2013 Page: 26 of 40 Id. at 687–88. In this case, there was sufficient testimony regarding the hours Feliciano and Milan regularly worked to allow the jury to approximate the hours they actually worked in each week for which they sought to recover unpaid wages. In other words, there was sufficient testimony “to show the amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference.” Id. at 687. Appellants did not negate the reasonableness of that inference as a matter of law; therefore, the district court did not err in denying Appellants’ renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law. Nor can we say that the jury’s verdict was against the great weight of the evidence such that the district court abused its discretion in denying Appellants’ alternative motion for a new trial.