In the case of Bone v. XTO Energy, Inc., Cory Bone and Luis Carrillo filed a lawsuit against XTO Energy (XTO) for not providing overtime compensation for hours worked more than 40 per week. Bone and Carrillo were safety consultants for XTO, an oil and gas-producing company. They sought to bring a collective action under the FLSA and a class action lawsuit, including other similarly situated safety consultants.
XTO filed a motion to dismiss the class/collective claims, arguing that they were overbroad and lacked jurisdiction. XTO claimed that there was a lack of personal jurisdiction against claims made by any non-New Mexico employees. The court decided to limit the FLSA Collective action to only those safety consultants who worked for XTO in the state of New Mexico.
Bone and Carrillo argued that XTO’s connections to New Mexico justified the court’s jurisdiction, but the court found that argument to be insufficient. Due to this confusion in jurisdiction, the court ruled that Bone and Carillo had two choices. They either had to accept the removal of any non-New Mexico employees from the lawsuit, or they had to transfer the case to Delaware, where XTO is incorporated and may, therefore, be subjected to general jurisdiction.
The court postponed ruling on other issues until the jurisdiction matters were resolved.
Key lessons from this case:
- Personal jurisdiction is an essential factor in overtime law cases, and employees must establish its presence for their claims to proceed.
- Collective actions under FLSA allow employees with similar claims against an employer to join together in a single lawsuit.
- The court can choose to defer a case if it does not fall under their jurisdiction, despite the legitimacy of any overtime allegations made.
If you want to know more about overtime regulations, read our guide on New Mexico Overtime Laws.
