Employees suing Consolidated Nuclear Security over allegedly withheld wages are again without lawyers and have only two weeks to explain why the case should not be dismissed.
After the first set of lawyers for the three named plaintiffs, all employees of the manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., bowed out of the case earlier this year over an undisclosed conflict of interest the plaintiffs in May secured new counsel who on May 24 themselves withdrew from the case, according to documents filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Plaintiffs James Myers, James Young and Douglas Messerli allege that Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) illegally withheld a total of $10 million from thousands of employees. CNS said in court filings that it paid its employees in Tennessee that money.
The court now considers the plaintiffs, who attempted to certify a class action against the company, to be representing themselves, according to an order signed by District Judge Katherine Crytzer on May 24. Plaintiffs cannot pursue class action lawsuits without an attorney because they involve the rights of absent people.
Attorneys for CNS filed a motion to dismiss the case on May 9, maintaining their argument that the plaintiffs were paid the amount owed.
“Plaintiffs admit CNS paid them for every pay period they worked,” CNS said in a motion for summary judgement. “Their principal argument is that when CNS informed them of their ‘annual salary’ for 2017, that created a quasicontractual right to receive that ‘annual salary’ within calendar year 2017. They are wrong for several reasons.”
The plaintiffs filed a motion to extend the deadlines for certifying the class action and to respond to the CNS motion for summary judgment.
Crytzer on May 26 signed an order giving the plaintiffs 21 days to respond to the CNS motion but denying their request to extend the deadline to certify the class action suit. Because the three of them have now missed the chance to have the case certified, they are now suing for their individual claims. They have until June 16 to file a response to CNS.
