N.H. State Court Can’t Use Equitable Jurisdiction in Wage Case

The superior court wasn’t allowed to exercise equitable jurisdiction in a wage case between a former innkeeper and the hotel’s owner after the state labor department rendered a decision in the dispute, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled.

Jean-Paul Downs and Jennifer Saunders were hired to run Debbie Orloff’s hotel in North Conway, N.H. Saunders was terminated on Aug. 3, 2018, and Downs was terminated on Sept. 9, 2018. The New Hampshire Department of Labor awarded both Downs and Saunders unpaid wages after a November 2018 hearing where Orloff didn’t respond to the agency’s notice or appear at the hearing, ...