In November of 2011, our law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of furniture installers claiming unpaid wages. The defendants consisted of two related furniture installation businesses—AMI Installations, LLC and Installation Enterprises, Inc.—and their owners, Shane Jespersen and Carla Jespersen. We represented a total of five plaintiffs, all of whom were employed by the defendants as furniture installers.
The plaintiffs claimed that they were required to work at the defendants’ warehouse for approximately one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening every day, all of which was unpaid. Plaintiffs also were not properly paid for their travel time, which included a daily roundtrip commute from defendants’ warehouse to the jobsite and back.
On October 22, 2013, we completed a 6-day jury trial. After deliberating for approximately four hours, the jury came back with a unanimous verdict finding that our clients were entitled to recover every penny they requested. In addition and in order to further compensate our clients, the jury unanimously agreed to multiply the total recovery times two. The total unpaid wage award to be shared amongst the five plaintiffs is $99,348. In addition, we obtained joint liability against Shane Jespersen and Carla Jespersen as the owners of AMI Installations and Installation Enterprises.
The laws under which we filed the lawsuit provide for the recovery of all reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs incurred. Our law firm is currently in the process of drafting a motion to the Court requesting the approval of such relief. In so doing, we hope to allow our clients to keep the entire $99,348 awarded by the jury and to force the defendants to separately pay all of the attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by our law firm.
The case is: Smith, et al. v. AMI Installations, LLC, et al.; Case No. 03-C-11-011570; Baltimore County Circuit Court. The trial judge was the Honorable John J. Nagle, III. The plaintiffs were successfully represented at trial by Bruce M. Luchansky and Judd G. Millman.