Supreme Court upholds $5.8M judgment against Tyson Foods

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against Tyson Foods in a case challenging a $5.8 million judgment the company was ordered to pay employees for violating federal and state labor laws.

The justices ruled 6-2 to reject new limits on class action lawsuits.  The court upheld the lower court ruling in favor of the workers, despite arguments from Tyson Foods that the plaintiffs presented insufficient evidence to prove damages class-wide. 

“Because a representative sample may be the only feasible way to establish liability, it cannot be deemed improper merely because the claims is brought on behalf of a class,” the court said in the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The case stems from a class action lawsuit filed by employees at Tyson’s meat-processing facility in Storm Lake, Iowa who charged the company failed to pay employees overtime for putting on and removing personal protective equipment.

Though Tyson argued that the employees were required to demonstrate that uninjured class members would not recover damages, the court said that question was not fairly presented in this case. Tyson will have another opportunity to challenge the way the judgment is allocated to employees in the lower court.