Case: Wage & Hour/Overtime (5th Cir.)

Sufficient evidence supports a district court’s finding that Maverick County in West Texas willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by its pay practices, the Fifth Circuit ruled, upholding the trial court’s determination that the county must pay almost $570,000 in back wages to more than 30 sheriff’s deputies and nearly $200,000 in attorneys’ fees. The trial court reasonably found the deputies’ testimony that the county knew they weren’t receiving overtime pay because they complained about it at public meetings more credible than the “conflicting testimony” given by the county judge, the appeals court said, and evidence of prior federal ...