AUBURN – Lawyers for the former DeCoster Egg Farm will be in court Monday to ask a judge to throw out a class-action lawsuit filed against the farm by truck drivers demanding back overtime pay.

Their argument: Eggs are perishable, and the state’s overtime law doesn’t require employers to pay overtime to drivers delivering food that rots.

“The interstate transportation of eggs by truck plainly falls within the overtime exemption applicable to the distribution of agricultural produce and perishable foods,” wrote Vermont lawyer Thomas Somers in a motion requesting a summary judgment in the case.

The lawsuit was filed in 2001 on behalf of about 50 truck drivers, seeking more than $1 million in overtime pay dating back to September 1997.

It names two defendants: Austin “Jack” DeCoster and Northern Transportation LLC., which is one of eight smaller companies that now make up the former DeCoster Egg Farm.

The truckers worked for Northern Transportation. They explain in their suit that they were paid per trip, not per hour.

Some weeks, their schedules required them to work 40 hours a week. Other weeks, the length of their trips required them to work much more.

The truckers argue in their suit that the egg farm is required by Maine law to pay them time and a half for any hours worked over 40 hours per week. But that never happened, they said.

They claim that they attempted to collect overtime pay for six months, but the managers told them that they didn’t have enough money.

Perishable foods

The issue is a complicated one that involves conflicting interpretations of state law, court decisions and legal opinions about the breakup of DeCoster’s farm. The argument dates back to 1965 when Maine’s overtime law was enacted.

The law lists certain types of companies that are exempt from paying overtime. Trucking is not included on the list.

But it does exempt employees involved with the shipping or distribution of agricultural produce, meat and fish products, and perishable foods.

That exemption alone is enough to rule against the truckers, the lawyers for the egg farm argue in their motion.

“Plaintiffs could be called at almost any time to carry eggs by truck to virtually any place in the northeastern United States or eastern Canada. Eggs are a perishable agricultural product,” the court document states.

However, the truckers have another defense.

In September 1997, as a result of a previous lawsuit filed by workers at the egg farm, the Maine Legislature enacted a law that explicitly requires large agricultural operations – defined as “egg processing facilities that have over 300,000 laying birds” – to pay overtime wages to any employee who works more than 40 hours a week.

The truckers claim this change makes them exempt from the perishable food clause.

The lawyer for the farm argues in his motion that the drivers worked for a trucking company, not an egg farm.

“The plaintiffs are employed by an interstate trucking company, not an egg-processing facility with over 300,000 laying birds,” Somers wrote.

Company breakup

DeCoster split his operation into eight smaller corporations in 1997. At the time, a spokesperson for the farm said the move was made to structure the business like the DeCoster hog farms in the Midwest.

But critics, including the truckers who filed the suit, have contended that the breakup was only a paper transaction and that DeCoster still controls the wages and working conditions of the workers, including those who worked for Northern Transportation.

A hearing on Monday afternoon in Androscoggin County Superior Court will give lawyers for both sides an opportunity to present their arguments.

If a judge grants the request for a summary judgment, the truckers would not get a chance to present their case to a jury.

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com

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