In Henry v. Quicken Loans, Inc., the Sixth Circuit affirmed a five-week trial that gave a defense verdict to Quicken on a claim of failure to pay overtime wages brought by nearly 500 mortgage brokers. This case concerned the administrative exemption to the FLSA’s requirement of overtime wages. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this opinion, authored by Judge Sutton, is its treatment of this question as one of fact rather than one of law. In fact, the Court acknowledges that “this circuit and other circuits have resolved many administrative-exemption cases as a matter of law.” But the Court in this case saw a number of factual disputes that were ultimately resolved by the jury in favor of the defendant. Therefore, rather than treating analysis as a pure question of law, the Court gave substantial deference to the jury verdict, particularly given that the jury had heard from some forty witnesses who testified at the trial. The Sixth Circuit ultimately held that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s verdict.
