A Georgia federal judge on Tuesday cut state law claims from a class action accusing Res-Care Inc. of paying its home care workers less than minimum wage for the time they spend driving between residences.  Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the plaintiffs' Georgia Minimum Wage Act claims against Res-Care and its Southern Home Care Services Inc. division, finding that to consider the claims he would have to rule on an issue of Georgia state law as a matter of first impression.

The plaintiffs sued Louisville, Ky.-based Res-Care and its Atlanta-based SHCS in May 2007, alleging they failed to pay employees overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The GMWA claims were added in a 2009 amended complaint.  Res-Care filed a motion in February seeking to dismiss the plaintiffs' state law claim, contending that an exemption in the GMWA for “domestic employees” applied to the plaintiffs. Judge Thrash held that the court could not say as a matter of law whether the plaintiffs were “domestic employees” because their complaint did not enumerate their duties.  The judge also found that no court has interpreted the GMWA's “domestic employees” provision, and so exercising supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims would require him to define “domestic employees” for the first time. The judge opted not to exercise such jurisdiction and dismissed the GMWA claims without prejudice.

“While we understand the court's decision to decline supplemental jurisdiction over what it determined was a novel issue under Georgia law, the company's determination to fight a two-front war in state and federal court is penny-wise and pound-foolish,” J. Derek Braziel of Lee & Braziel LLP, who represents the plaintiffs, told Law360 on Tuesday. (click on link to read full story)