BENTON, Circuit Judge.
Dimas Lopez and 19 other employees represent a class of hourly production employees at a meat-processing facility of Tyson Foods, Inc. The employees sued Tyson for not paying wages due under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA),
The employees are current and former hourly employees at Tyson's facility in Lexington, Nebraska. Tyson acquired the plant in 2001 when it purchased IBP, Inc., which operated many meat-processing facilities. The Lexington plant employs about 2400 production employees.
To calculate the employees' compensable working time, Tyson measures "gang time" — when the employees are at their working stations and the production line is moving. The employees claim Tyson failed to provide FLSA overtime compensation for donning (putting on) personal protective equipment (PPE) and clothing before production and again after lunch, and for doffing (taking off) PPE and clothing before lunch and again after production.
In addition to "gang time," Tyson adds "K-code" time to each employee's paycheck. Before 2007, Tyson paid four minutes of K-code time per day to each employee in order to compensate for the donning and doffing of unique items. From January 2007 to March 2010, Tyson added up to six minutes per day for pre- and post-shift walking time required of the employee. Since March 2010, Tyson has paid 20 to 25 minutes per day in order to compensate for all contested activities. Tyson does not record the actual time that employees perform any of these tasks.
The employees sued in federal court in June 2006, claiming violations of the FLSA and NWPCA. The state claim alleged Tyson violated the NWPCA by failing to pay what the FLSA required. Thus both claims turn on FLSA liability.
Tyson moved for partial summary judgment, which was denied. The employees moved for partial summary judgment, which was partially granted. After a nine-day trial, the jury returned a verdict for Tyson. The employees did not move —
The FLSA prohibits the employment of any person "for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed." 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1); IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 546 U.S. 21, 25, 126 S.Ct. 514, 163 L.Ed.2d 288 (2005). An employee who sues for unpaid overtime "has 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, 66 S.Ct. 1187, 90 L.Ed. 1515 (1946), superseded by statute on other grounds, Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, Pub.L. No. 80-49, 61 Stat. 84; Fast v. Applebee's Int'l, Inc., 638 F.3d 872, 881 (8th Cir.2011). "Neither `work' nor `workweek' is defined in the statute." Alvarez, 546 U.S. at 25, 126 S.Ct. 514. At one time, the Supreme Court defined work as "physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business." Tennessee Coal, Iron & R.R. Co. v. Muscoda Local No. 123, 321 U.S. 590, 598, 64 S.Ct. 698, 88 L.Ed. 949 (1944), superseded by statute on other grounds, Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, Pub.L. No. 80-49, 61 Stat. 84. The Court then "clarified that `exertion' was not in fact necessary for an activity to constitute `work' under the FLSA." Alvarez, 546 U.S. at 25, 126 S.Ct. 514, citing Armour & Co. v. Wantock, 323 U.S. 126, 133, 65 S.Ct. 165, 89 L.Ed. 118 (1944).
Whether an employee's activity is "work" does not end the compensability analysis. In the Portal-to-Portal Act, Congress excluded some activities that might otherwise constitute work from the FLSA. The Act excepts two categories:
29 U.S.C. § 254(a); Alvarez, 546 U.S. at 26-28, 126 S.Ct. 514. "[A]ctivities performed either before or after the regular work shift, on or off the production line, are compensable ... if those activities are an integral and indispensable part of the principal activities for which covered workmen are employed and are not specifically excluded by [29 U.S.C. § 254(a)(1) ]." Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U.S. 247, 256, 76 S.Ct. 330, 100 L.Ed. 267 (1956) (emphasis added). And, "any activity that is `integral and indispensable' to a `principal activity' is itself a `principal activity' under [29 U.S.C. § 254(a) ]." Alvarez, 546 U.S. at 37, 126 S.Ct. 514.
The Department of Labor has a "continuous workday rule," generally defining an employee's "workday" as "the period between the commencement and completion on the same workday of an employee's principal activity or activities." 29 C.F.R. § 790.6(b); Alvarez, 546 U.S. at 29, 37, 126 S.Ct. 514 (describing and applying the continuous workday rule). During the continuous workday, the compensability
The employees argue that the district court should have granted them judgment as a matter of law that the donning and doffing of non-unique items was: (1) compensable as part of the continuous workday, (2) "work" under the FLSA, and (3) "integral and indispensable" under the Portal-to-Portal Act. This court is unable to address these arguments because the employees did not preserve them for appeal.
The employees do not identify where in the record they raised the first issue in the district court. They therefore failed to preserve it for appeal. See Wiser v. Wayne Farms, 411 F.3d 923, 926 (8th Cir.2005) ("[O]rdinarily this court will not consider arguments raised for the first time on appeal."), quoting Wever v. Lincoln Cnty., Neb., 388 F.3d 601, 608 (8th Cir.2004).
According to the employees, they preserved the other two issues by raising them in their motion for summary judgment. They acknowledge that the denial of a motion for summary judgment — an interlocutory judgment — is normally not appealable after a trial on the merits. See Keup v. Hopkins, 596 F.3d 899, 904 (8th Cir.2010). They argue that a denial based on the interpretation of a purely legal question is appealable. In Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Golden Triangle, 121 F.3d 351 (8th Cir.1997), this court rejected a "dichotomy ... between a summary judgment denied on factual grounds and one denied on legal grounds [as] both problematic and without merit." Id. at 355. Two years after Metropolitan Life, a panel of this court adopted the factual/legal dichotomy rejected in Metropolitan Life and held that "when the material facts are not in dispute and the denial of summary judgment is based on the interpretation of a purely legal question, such a decision is appealable after final judgment." White Consol. Indus., Inc. v. McGill Mfg. Co., 165 F.3d 1185, 1190 (8th Cir.1999); see also Owatonna Clinic — Mayo Health Sys. v. Med. Protective Co. of Fort Wayne, Ind., 639 F.3d 806, 809-10 (8th Cir.2011) (acknowledging the competing lines of cases, but not reaching the issue). Recently, this court en banc held that "when faced with conflicting panel opinions, the earliest opinion must be followed `as it should have controlled the subsequent panels that created the conflict.'" Mader v. United States, 654 F.3d 794, 800 (8th Cir. 2011) (en banc), quoting T.L. ex rel. Ingram v. United States, 443 F.3d 956, 960 (8th Cir.2006). Therefore, Metropolitan Life's earlier holding is the law in this circuit. A denial of summary judgment is not appealable after a final judgment regardless of whether the issue is factual or "purely legal."
The employees challenge Jury Instructions 15, 17, 19, and 24. To preserve alleged errors in the jury instructions,
If preserved, this court reviews the district court's instructions to the jury for abuse of discretion. Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1044. "[This court's] review is limited to whether the jury instructions, taken as a whole, fairly and adequately represent the evidence and applicable law in light of the issues presented to the jury in a particular case." Linden v. CNH Am., LLC, 673 F.3d 829, 836 (8th Cir. 2012). "Even if a district court erroneously instructs a jury, this court reverses only where the error affects the substantial rights of the parties." Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1044 (internal quotation marks omitted).
If not preserved, this court reviews the district court's instructions for plain error. Id. at 1045; Fed.R.Civ.P. 51(d)(2). "Plain error is a stringently limited standard of review, especially in the civil context, and must result in a miscarriage of justice in order to compel reversal." Schaub v. VonWald, 638 F.3d 905, 925 (8th Cir.2011). "Under the invited error doctrine, an erroneous ruling generally does not constitute reversible error when it is invited by the same party who seeks on appeal to have the ruling overturned." Matthew v. Unum Life Ins. Co. of Am., 639 F.3d 857, 868 (8th Cir.2011).
The employees and the Secretary of Labor attack the district court's instruction to the jury — in Instructions 15 and 17 — that "[w]hen activities occur pre-shift or post-shift, only the time reasonably spent is compensable." They assert that this language contradicts the Alvarez Court's adoption of the continuous workday rule, which — they believe — requires compensation for an employee's actual time spent performing any compensable activity.
The employees did not preserve this argument for appeal:
The discussion with the district court did not specifically raise the grounds now asserted on appeal. See Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1045 ("An objection must be specific, precise enough to allow the district court to address any problems and avoid a retrial."). At trial, the employees argued only that actual time is the issue in this case because of a prior ruling; they did not invoke the FLSA or case law to support removing the "reasonable time" language. At the close of the conference, the district judge promised to "take a look" at Judge Bataillon's order to determine whether the issue of actual versus reasonable time had been previously decided. That order denied Tyson's motion for summary judgment claiming that some of the employees' claims were barred by Tyson's compliance with an injunction requiring it to compensate employees for the average time to don and doff unique items. In rejecting average time, the order never mentions "reasonable time."
The employees' counsel did not raise any objection to the reference to "reasonable time" in Instruction 17. Nor did they object before or after the charge was read to the jury with the "reasonable time" language and the court invited any new objections.
Because it was not preserved, this court reviews for plain error, which exists if:
Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1045 (internal quotation marks, citations, and alterations omitted). The employees do not meet their burden of showing reversible plain error because any error was not clear and did not affect substantial rights.
The employees also cannot show that an error in the "reasonable time" instruction affected their substantial rights. The jury answered only one question: "Did the employees of Tyson Foods perform any compensable work for which they were not compensated?" (The jury said no.) This court has "no way of determining from this general verdict why the jury found [Tyson] not liable." Regions Bank v. BMW N. Amer., Inc., 406 F.3d 978, 980 (8th Cir.2005). The employees may be correct that the jury would have found Tyson liable if not instructed to consider only the "reasonable" time. However, it is also possible that the jury decided the activities were not compensable because they were not "work" under the FLSA or because they were not "integral and indispensable" under the Portal-to-Portal Act. Because of the verdict form, this court can only speculate as to the effect of the "reasonable time" instructions, and "[s]peculation ... is not a sufficient basis for finding a plaintiff's substantial rights were affected." Id. at 981.
The employees argue that the district court committed two errors in instructing whether donning and doffing the non-unique items was work under the FLSA. The district court instructed the jury:
Instruction No. 17.
The employees contend that the district court should not have submitted the "work" issue to the jury, because it is a question of law, not fact. However, their only objection at trial to the work instruction was that the court had "ruled in [their] favor on summary judgment, putting the work issue out of the case." That does not preserve review of the new grounds they raise on appeal. See Parkus, 135 F.3d at 1234. This court is unable to review for plain error, because the employees invited any error by requesting an instruction that submitted the work question to the jury. See Matthew, 639 F.3d at 868. On May 9, 2011, the employees requested an instruction entitled "FLSA — `Work' Definition":
Plaintiffs' Proposed Jury Instruction No. 20 (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted). The employees cannot now assert that the district court erred by submitting the "work" issue to the jury when they requested it.
The employees also challenge the last sentence of Instruction 17. It followed the explanation that the unique items were compensable and told the jury, "This determination should not effect [sic] your determination of the compensability of the other activities at issue in this lawsuit." According to the employees this instruction contradicts the continuous workday rule, which covers activities that fall between compensable activities. They did not raise this objection below, so this court reviews for plain error. Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1045.
Viewing the instructions as a whole, the district court did not err. In the instruction immediately following the allegedly erroneous language, the district court properly instructed the jury on the continuous workday rule.
The employees contest the district court's instruction on whether a meal period is compensable. The employees objected to the instruction during the charging conference. This court reviews for an abuse of discretion. Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1044-45. The district court instructed the jury:
Instruction No. 19.
The employees contend the district court erred by refusing an instruction
The employees try to distinguish Henson factually because it addressed employees seeking compensation for entire meal periods while on call, not employees seeking compensation for donning and doffing at the beginning and end of their meal period. However, the Henson court did not limit its holding to cases involving on-call employees: "Because this standard is flexible, it allows courts to consider different factors depending on the nature of the business involved, whether the dispute involves factory workers or firefighters." Id. at 534 (describing the standard as "a practical, realistic approach under the unique circumstances of each case [to use] when deciding whether certain activities constitute compensable work"). The employees also ask this court to abandon Henson in light of the Supreme Court's adoption of the continuous workday rule in Alvarez, 546 U.S. at 37, 126 S.Ct. 514. However, the adoption of that rule — limiting the impact of the Portal-to-Portal Act — does not affect the compensability of meal periods. The district court did not abuse its discretion in instructing the jury on the compensability of meal periods.
The employees argue that the district court erred by instructing the jury to ignore the K-code changes in determining Tyson's liability. The court instructed:
Instruction No. 24. Tyson requested the instruction before trial, but the district court did not include it in its proposed instructions. During the charging conference, Tyson again requested the instruction, citing Federal Rule of Evidence 407. The employees objected on the grounds that no objection was made during the trial and it was too late for a limiting instruction. At the conference, the district court expressed doubt about including the instruction, but eventually did. Before the charge was read to the jury, the employees renewed their objection without offering new grounds.
On appeal, the employees argue that: (1) the limiting instruction entered the case too late and without a previous objection; (2) Rule 407 does not apply in an FLSA case for overtime, a strict liability claim; and (3) the evidence should have been admitted for several purposes other than to prove liability. This court reviews their first argument — properly raised in the district court — for abuse of discretion, and the others for plain error. See Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1044-45; Parkus, 135 F.3d at 1234.
Second, the district court did not commit plain error by allowing the limitation under Federal Rule of Evidence 407. Plain error exists if:
Bauer, 680 F.3d at 1045 (internal quotation marks, citations, and alterations omitted). The employees fail to show that any error was clear under current law. Rule 407 states: "When measures are taken that would have made an earlier injury or harm less likely to occur, evidence of the subsequent measures is not admissible to prove: negligence; culpable conduct; a defect in a product or its design; or a need for a warning or instruction."
The employees argue that Rule 407 does not apply because their FLSA claim is a strict liability claim. Prior to its amendment in 1997, Rule 407 applied only to "negligence or culpable conduct." See Fed.R.Evid. 407 advisory comm. notes. It was then "the law of this Circuit ... that Rule 407 d[id] not require the exclusion of subsequent remedial measures in strict liability cases." Porchia v. Design Equip. Co., 113 F.3d 877, 880 (8th Cir.1997). This court's cases applying that rule involved products liability. See, e.g., Porchia, 113 F.3d 877; Buchanna v. Diehl Mach., Inc., 98 F.3d 366 (8th Cir.1996); Burke v. Deere & Co., 6 F.3d 497 (8th Cir.1993). The first case in this line, Robbins v. Farmers Union Grain Terminal Ass'n, 552 F.2d 788, 793 (8th Cir.1977), relied on the California Supreme Court's opinion in Ault v. International Harvester Co., 13 Cal.3d 113, 117 Cal.Rptr. 812, 528 P.2d 1148, 1151 (1974). Ault, in turn, based its holding on the fact that the exclusionary rule embodied in Rule 407 "may fulfill [its] anti-deterrent function in the typical negligence action, [but] the provision plays no comparable role in the products liability field." Id., 117 Cal.Rptr. 812, 528 P.2d at 1151 (emphasis added). The 1997 amendment "adopts the view of a majority of the circuits that have interpreted Rule 407 to apply to products liability actions." Fed. R.Evid. 407 advisory comm. notes. It is unclear whether this court's "strict liability" exception to Rule 407 survived the 1997 amendment. See Porchia, 113 F.3d at 880 n. 3 ("In stating this rule ... we reiterate concerns stressed by this Court in Burke, regarding the dangers inherent
Finally, the district court did not commit plain error by improperly excluding evidence under Rule 407 when it should have been admitted for other purposes. See Fed.R.Evid. 407 ("[T]he court may admit this evidence for another purpose, such as impeachment or — if disputed — proving ownership, control, or the feasibility of precautionary measures."). The employees argue that the evidence was probative of several other purposes, including impeaching Tyson's testimony that the activities took a shorter period of time, calculating backpay due to the class, proving any unpaid overtime was not de minimis, and establishing the feasibility of precautionary measures. However, the court did not err because the instruction only restricted consideration of the K-code change for the ultimate question of liability. It left open its use for the other purposes identified by the employees.
The employees argue that the district court's instruction submitting the "work" issue to the jury was inconsistent with the summary judgment order of April 6, 2011. They contend the district court violated due process by effectively — without notice or a hearing — amending its pre-trial ruling after the close of evidence. This court need not determine whether such an amendment would violate due process because the court's instruction is consistent with its earlier ruling.
Tyson's answer to the complaint listed several affirmative defenses, including: "All or part of the time for which plaintiffs or any proposed class members seek compensation does not constitute compensable working time." The employees moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that this affirmative defense should not be available. Specifically, they forecast that Tyson's defense would rely on Reich v. IBP, Inc., 38 F.3d 1123 (10th Cir.1994), which held that donning and doffing non-unique sanitary and safety equipment was not compensable "work" under the Tennessee Coal definition because it did not involve "physical or mental exertion." Id. at 1125-26, citing Tennessee Coal, 321 U.S. at 598, 64 S.Ct. 698. The employees urged the district court to preclude this argument because the Supreme Court stated in Alvarez that "`exertion' was not in fact necessary for an activity to constitute `work' under the FLSA." Alvarez, 546 U.S. at 25, 126 S.Ct. 514. The district court agreed and granted summary judgment to the employees in part, explaining that "[Tyson] will be denied the ability to bring an affirmative defense alleging that the donning and doffing of standard (non-unique) clothing or gear is noncompensable because it is not `work' pursuant to the Reich and Tennessee Coal analysis."
The district court's ruling, however, did not remove the issue of work entirely from the case. There remained the issue whether donning and doffing non-unique items is work under the Supreme Court's current definition. Tyson was precluded from relying on the rejected portion of the Tennessee Coal definition as a defense. The employees at all times bore the burden of proving they performed uncompensated work. Anderson, 328 U.S. at 686-87, 66 S.Ct. 1187.
The employees' due process argument — that the submission of the work issue "blindsided" them — is further undercut by their own instruction on "work," submitted over one month after the summary judgment order. Their Proposed Jury Instruction No. 20 mirrors the district court's
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.