On February 17, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico entered an order on the parties’ stipulation that conditionally certified an FLSA collective action of casing employees in Calvillo v. Lewis Casing Crews, Inc., No. 2:16-cv-00921-MCA-CG. This Lewis Casing Crews oilfield overtime lawsuit is a separate case from Calvillo v. Bull Rogers, No. 2:16-cv-00919, which named a different employer. The Siegel Law Group represented the workers.
United States District Judge M. Christina Armijo signed the Order on Stipulation and Notice to Potential Class Members on February 17, 2017. The parties were the plaintiff, the workers who had already filed consents, and the defendants, Lewis Casing Crews, Inc. and an individual defendant. They agreed that, once the court signed, the case was conditionally certified as a collective action under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b).
The order defined the collective as: “Defendants’ current and former casing employees who provided casing services to Defendants’ customers at any time between August 12, 2013 and the present.”
Notice terms. Under the order:
The order defined the group by the work performed rather than by a job title, reaching current and former employees who provided casing services to the company’s customers.
This was an agreed order, not a contested ruling. The stipulation stated that nothing in it limited either side’s claims or defenses, and that the defendants kept their right to seek decertification later. Conditional certification is a preliminary step that allows notice; it is not a finding that Lewis Casing Crews broke the law.
The order does not describe how the casing employees were paid or the details of their overtime claims. As general information, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek for non-exempt employees, however they are paid.
Each worker joins an FLSA collective action only by filing a written consent. Because the parties agreed in this 2017 case, the court did not apply a contested standard, although federal courts then commonly used a two-step approach with a lenient first step. Some federal appeals courts have since changed this approach — the Fifth Circuit in Swales v. KLLM Transport Services (2021) and the Sixth Circuit in Clark v. A&L Homecare & Training Center (2023).
This page describes a 2017 court order. The time to join that collective was set by the court in that case. If you have worked in a similar role, the Siegel Law Group can evaluate your own claims.
Have you worked on an oilfield casing crew and regularly put in more than 40 hours a week without full overtime pay? Contact the Siegel Law Group for a free consultation.
Related rulings: Calvillo v. Bull Rogers, a separate casing crew overtime case in the District of New Mexico.
No, they are two separate lawsuits in the District of New Mexico. The Lewis Casing Crews case is No. 2:16-cv-00921 and named Lewis Casing Crews, Inc. and an individual as defendants. The Bull Rogers case is No. 2:16-cv-00919 and involved a different employer, with its own orders, notice, and deadlines.
The answer usually turns on exemption status. A non-exempt casing hand must be paid half again the regular rate, on top of straight-time pay, for every hour beyond forty in a workweek, whether the pay is hourly, daily, or by the job. Whether a particular worker is owed back pay depends on the pay records and hours.
Yes, it can. In this New Mexico case, the stipulation stated that the company was not giving up its ability to file a decertification motion at a later date. An agreed order speeds up notice to workers, but it does not settle whether the workers were similarly situated in the end or whether any overtime is owed.
The order gave workers forty-five (45) days from the mailing date of the notice to file their consent forms with the court, and a form postmarked on the final day counted as timely. Late filings were possible only if the parties jointly agreed or a worker showed good cause. That deadline applied only to that case.
The Siegel Law Group is a national overtime and wage law firm devoted entirely to representing workers denied overtime pay. Where many firms include wage cases as a small part of a broader employment practice, the Siegel Law Group has built its entire practice around overtime litigation — and the results reflect that commitment: $100M+ recovered for workers, 50+ class and collective action certifications, and 100+ federal lawsuits filed in 27+ federal courts nationwide. Founding attorney Jack Siegel is a Bloomberg BNA contributing author on wage and hour law.
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