Dr. Nathan Woods Testifies, Rebuts Opposing Expert Reports in Wage-and-Hour Dispute that Resulted in a 90% Reduction in Damages for Client

Edgeworth Economics Partner Dr. Nathan Woods was retained by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in a wage-and-hour dispute between client East Penn Manufacturing and the United States Department of Labor. In this five-year-long litigation, East Penn faced allegations of unfair pay practices with claims of back wages, liquidated damages and administrative penalties in excess of $220 million. Ultimately, a federal jury in Philadelphia rejected 90% of the damages and all remaining liability in this enforcement action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Dr. Woods contributed expert reports, rebuttals to opposing expert reports, and testified before the jury in this matter. His findings pointed to underlying variability in the data and the absence of a consistent pattern between days and employees in recorded times, as well as the critical mistakes of opposing experts, who used the wrong source data, excluded certain data more favorable to East Penn, and valued time already compensated as occurring “off-the-clock” in their damages estimates. Dr. Woods also valued East Penn’s payments for shower and dressing time and documented $26 million in overtime payments made by East Penn over the analysis period. 

The jury’s damages award is being appealed by East Penn.