Opinion ID: 2140651
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Recordkeeping

Text: The district court found that Farmers did not maintain the required wage and hour records for the claims representatives and thus concluded that Farmers violated Minn.Stat. § 177.30. Farmers does not dispute the fact of the recordkeeping violation; rather, Farmers disputes whether the plaintiffs pleaded a violation of the recordkeeping provision in their complaint and whether the issue of recordkeeping was raised by the evidence during trial. No questions were submitted to the jury regarding recordkeeping. Provided that the issue of recordkeeping was pleaded or raised by the evidence, the issue was within the district court's authority under Minn. R. Civ. P. 49.01(a). We have held that [i]n the furtherance of justice, pleadings are to be liberally construed. Sollar v. Oliver Iron Mining Co., 237 Minn. 170, 175, 54 N.W.2d 114, 117 (1952). The recordkeeping provision of the MFLSA was referenced in the complaint, and Farmers admitted in its answer that it did not keep records pursuant to the MFLSA. We conclude that Farmers was on notice of the issue of recordkeeping from the pleadings. Furthermore, recordkeeping was an issue at trial. For instance, when a liability claims manager for Farmers was asked whether Farmers had made any efforts to determine how many hours the claims representatives were actually working, the manager answered that Farmers had not. In addition, the plaintiffs' expert testified that Farmers did not collect information on the actual hours worked by the various claims representatives. Indeed, the plaintiffs would have had no need for an expert witness to calculate the number of hours worked had Farmers kept records as required by the MFLSA. We conclude that recordkeeping was raised by both the pleadings and the evidence at trial. Because the issue of recordkeeping was not submitted to the jury on the special verdict form, the court was within its authority pursuant to Minn. R. Civ. P. 49.01(a) to make factual findings regarding the recordkeeping requirements of the MFLSA.