On May 2, 2016, the Ninth Circuit issued its decision in Corbin v. Time Warner Entertainment – Advance/Newhouse Partnership and affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of employer, Time Warner Entertainment-Advance/Newhouse Partnership (“TWEAN”) in a putative class action brought by a TWEAN employee seeking lost compensation based on TWEAN’s timekeeping policy.

Summary of the Claim.

The case turned on $15.02 and one minute. Seriously – it did! The amount of $15.02 represented the total amount of compensation that plaintiff, Andre Corbin (“Corbin” or “Plaintiff”) alleged he has lost due to TWEAN’s compensation policy that rounds all employee time stamps to the nearest quarter-hour. The one minute claim represented the total amount of time for which Corbin alleges he was not compensated as he once mistakenly opened an auxiliary computer program before clocking into TWEAN’s timekeeping software platform. Corbin argued that $15.02 in lost wages and one minute of uncompensated time entitled him to relief under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201, et seq., and various California state employment laws. The trial court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal disagreed.