Truck driver loses appeal on minimum wage claim

NEW ORELANS – A delivery truck driver who sued over minimum wage claims lost an appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

A former employee of the Intelligent Mexican Marketing (IMM) company claims he was owed overtime and backlogged minimum wage payments for work he completed from June 2010 to July 2012.

On July 13, 2011, Meza filed a suit against IMM and its owners, David Benitez and Ricardo J. Villareal, claiming he was owed $2,080 in unpaid back wages and $15,224 in unpaid overtime. He was fired shortly after filing the complaint.

Intelligent Mexican Marketing was awarded summary judgment in the case. The company had cited a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to claim that Meza was an outsides salesman and not just a delivery man for the company.

Meza argued that he was not in a position to make sales and appealed the district court decision that favored IMM.

In a per curiam opinion, Circuit Judges Harold R. DeMoss, R. Markley Dennis and Edward C. Prado affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment of IMM. The court noted that “for purposes of the FLSA, Meza was more similar to an outside salesman than to a deliveryman.”

Case no. 12-10785.