District Judge Dale A. Kimball denied Gentry Mountain Mining's motion to dismiss an amended complaint alleging the company failed to compensate workers for time spent at its mine, while also ruling that the statute of limitations is equitably tolled for putative collective action members during the pendency of the motion.
The underlying dispute centers on allegations that Gentry Mountain Mining violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Portal-to-Portal Act by failing to pay Plaintiff Duncan Thomas and other similarly situated employees for time worked at the defendant's mining operations.
Thomas originally filed his complaint on July 29, 2025. The defendant moved to dismiss the initial filing under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) on August 19, 2025.
On February 12, 2026, Judge Kimball denied that first motion to dismiss. The court directed Thomas to file an amended complaint incorporating additional facts from his opposition brief by March 4, 2026.
Thomas filed the amended complaint as ordered. The defendant then filed a second motion to dismiss targeting the new pleading, advancing arguments identical to those raised in its first motion.
Citing its prior February ruling, the court denied the second motion to dismiss on April 23, 2026.
The order also addressed a request by Thomas to equitably toll the statute of limitations for putative collective action members. The court noted that equitable tolling in FLSA cases is applied on a case-by-case basis to prevent inequity and lies within the sole discretion of the district court.
Judge Kimball concluded that the interests of justice were best served by granting limited equitable tolling. The statute of limitations is tolled for putative collective action members from February 27, 2026—the date the defendant filed the current motion to dismiss—through the date of this order.