Quicken Loans wins overtime trial

DETROIT (AP) -- Quicken Loans does not owe overtime to more than 300 former mortgage brokers who claimed their jobs amounted to sales for the online mortgage giant, a federal jury said last Thursday. The verdict means jurors were convinced that sales was not the primary job of the brokers in Michigan and Ohio who made calls for Quicken and tried to get people to agree to a loan between 2002 and summer 2006. Quicken had argued that an administrative exemption for certain employees in the financial industry applied to the brokers. Millions of dollars potentially were at stake because plaintiffs sought overtime on top of salary and commissions already received. "It was a complete and total victory," Quicken founder and chairman Dan Gilbert told The Associated Press. "This is a victory for justice. It's a confidence builder in the court system and a strike against extortionist law firms." Gilbert said fighting the lawsuit was about "right and wrong," not money. Don Nichols, a Minneapolis-based attorney for the former employees, said he was disappointed with the result but would press ahead with other lawsuits against Quicken. "It's been a six-year fight that's not even half over," Nichols told the Detroit Free Press. The evidence included numerous e-mails to call-center employees from Quicken executives that repeatedly referred to "sales." Nichols' co-counsel, Paul Lukas, said workers were "pounding the phones" 60 to 70 hours a week. He explained how workers sat at computers, made calls and tried to get people to agree to a loan and pay $500 to get an application started. Quicken's lawyers compared the workers to doctors, lawyers and other white-collar professionals who don't get overtime. No one kept track of hours, they noted. During closing arguments, Quicken's lawyers posted photos of many of the 25 plaintiffs who testified and accused them of shopping online and making personal calls while at work. "A bunch of their stories didn't make sense," attorney Jeffrey Morganroth said after the verdict. Published: Mon, Mar 21, 2011