CHICAGO (LN) — U.S. District Judge Jeremy C. Daniel on March 13 denied Helia Healthcare Services' motion to dismiss a putative wage-and-hour class action brought by a former hourly employee who claims the company systematically docked her pay for breaks she never took and shortchanged overtime for hundreds of workers across its Illinois and Missouri nursing facilities.
Amanda High worked for Helia from October 2022 until March 2025. She alleges that while she and similarly situated employees regularly worked more than forty hours a week, Helia automatically deducted thirty minutes per day from their recorded hours — time for which they were neither relieved of duties nor paid. She further claims Helia failed to factor bonuses into the regular rate of pay when calculating overtime, depressing those checks as well.
High brings claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Illinois Minimum Wage Law, and the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act on behalf of herself and those similarly situated.
Helia moved to dismiss under Rules 12(b)(6), 12(b)(7), and 12(c), but Daniel found the company's two-page motion simply asserted that it never employed High, never made the deductions she described, and that High had failed to name a necessary party. To back those denials, it attached a purported pay stub, an email between counsel, and an internal memo on its lunch-break timekeeping policy.
Daniel refused to consider any of those documents. Because none were referenced in High's complaint, the court declined to consider them, and it exercised its discretion to deny Helia's implicit request to convert the motion into one for summary judgment.
The company's failure-to-join argument fared no better. Dismissal on that ground requires a defendant to establish that the requirements of Rule 19 have been satisfied, Daniel noted, citing the Seventh Circuit's holding in Davis Cos. v. Emerald Casino, Inc. Helia made no effort to do so, and Daniel quoted the circuit's admonition that such dismissal is not the preferred outcome under the Rules.
The core problem, Daniel wrote, was that Helia never actually contested whether High's allegations were sufficient to state a claim. The veracity of those allegations, he noted, is simply not at issue at the pleading stage.
Helia must answer the complaint on or before April 3, 2026, and the parties are set for a scheduling conference April 23, 2026.