Fire Law News

July 25, 2023

Tulsa Reaches $1 Million Settlement with Firefighters in FLSA Overtime Suit

The City of Tulsa has agreed to settle an overtime lawsuit with over 500 current and former Tulsa firefighters for $1,060,000. The suit was filed in January, 2022 by thirteen Tulsa firefighters alleging the city was not properly paying overtime.

By June, 2023 a Third Amended Complaint was filed with 526 plaintiffs, and a central allegation as follows:

Plaintiffs are paid a fixed salary every two weeks on their biweekly payday to compensate them for their regularly scheduled hours. Prior to April 2021, Plaintiffs received either “OT FLSA .5” or “OT FLSA 1.5” pay for their regularly scheduled overtime work that exceeded the applicable FLSA threshold.
However, in or about April 2021, Defendants ceased paying Plaintiffs FLSA overtime for their regularly scheduled overtime work. As a result, Defendants have failed to pay Plaintiffs one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for their regularly scheduled overtime work, as required by the FLSA.
At all times material herein, Defendants have known and should have known that uncompensated overtime work was being performed by Plaintiffs. For example, Defendants track Plaintiffs’ regularly scheduled shifts, including overtime hours, and any additional overtime shifts that are picked up or worked by the Plaintiffs. Defendants also administer Plaintiffs’ biweekly paychecks and thus knows Plaintiffs have not received FLSA overtime payments for their regularly scheduled overtime work since at least April 2021.
In addition...

San Diego Fire Dragged Into Child Neglect Suit

The San Diego Fire Department is being sued by the guardian ad litem for the estate of an 11-year-old girl and her two sisters who claim the fire department, the police department, and a handful of others bear partial responsibility for neglect and abuse perpetrated by their adoptive parents. Steven Ratner filed suit in San Diego County Superior Court on behalf of the estate of Arabella McCormack and her younger sisters identified as A.M. and E.M.

The suit names the city, San Diego County, the San Diego Rock Church, the Pacific Coast Academy, and several named individuals including the adoptive parents of the girls, Leticia McCormack and the estate of her now deceased husband, Brian McCormack. The disturbing factual allegations are as follows:

On August 30, 2022, Sheriff deputies and paramedics responded to a 911 call at Leticia and Brian McCormack’s residence and discovered that the McCormacks’ three adopted girls, Arabella (11 yrs. old), A.M. (7 yrs. old), and E.M. (6 yrs. old), were severely malnourished, neglected, and abused.
When the medics arrived, Arabella had no pulse, was not breathing, was cold to the touch, and nonresponsive. She weighed just 40 pounds. Her bones were sticking out. Her eyes were sunken with dark circles. Her teeth were yellow and calcified. She had bruises, ulcerations, cuts, and scabs. The medics performed CPR and rushed her to the hospital. Doctors attempted to save her life, but her heart kept failing and she was pronounced dead at 12:28 pm. X-rays revealed that she had thirteen bone fractures. Arabella was starved, beaten, and abused to death.
A.M. and E.M. were also severely malnourished, neglected, and abused.
[A] San Diego Fire Rescue Department employee... visited with the McCormacks’ adopted girls on several occasions prior to Arabella’s death [including having].... visited with all three girls just the week prior to Arabella’s death. [He] visited the girls in his fire department uniform and in the scope of his employment. When [he] visited, the girls were severely emaciated, underdeveloped, and the victims of prolonged starvation, isolation, lack of medical care, torture, and abuse. Their neglect was and should have been apparent to him.... [and he] owed a duty to report the girls’ neglect and abuse under Penal Code section 11164, et seq. ...

MORE INCLUDING A COPY OF THE COMPLAINT

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Curt Varone

Curt Varone has over 45 years of experience in the fire service. He served twenty-nine years with the Providence, Rhode Island, Fire Department, retiring as a Deputy Assistant Chief (shift-commander). He has been a practicing attorney for over 37 years licensed in both Rhode Island and Maine. He previously served as the Director of the Public Fire Protection Division at the National Fire Protection Association. Curt has written two books, Legal Considerations for Fire and Emergency Services, and Fire Officer's Legal Handbook. He is a contributing editor for Firehouse Magazine writing the Fire Law column and remains active as a deputy chief with the Exeter (RI) Fire Department.

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