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bifurcated the damages and liability portions of the trial4
and, therefore, claim no discovery on personal injuries was
appropriate. This reasoning is unsatisfactory because it
ignores the fact that the bifurcation happened more than 2
years after the amended complaint was filed without reference
to injury or illness.
Moreover, the settlement terms make it unlikely that the
liquidated damages payments were made to compensate specific
personal injuries or sicknesses. All plaintiffs in Kinnett
received a liquidated damages settlement amount equal to their
back wages payment. The amounts paid were paid to each
plaintiff in the action without reference to the severity or
even existence of injury.
Finally, petitioners filed their cause of action under a
Federal act that does not provide for personal injury
compensation. The FLSA was enacted to establish minimum wages
and maximum hours for employees. See Brooklyn Sav. Bank v.
O’Neil, 324 U.S. 697, 707 (1945). According to 29 U.S.C.
section 216(b) (1994), the only relief available under the FLSA
for excessive hours worked is the payment of back wages and
payment of liquidated damages, which are intended to compensate
the employee for damages too obscure or difficult to estimate
4 The pretrial order does not explain why the damage and
liability portions of the trial were bifurcated.
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