McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Sav. Bank, 2017 WL 2855084 (9th Cir. 2017)

Mortgage underwriters at Provident Savings Bank review mortgage loan applications using guidelines established by Provident and investors in the secondary mortgage loan market, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA. In this lawsuit for unpaid overtime arising under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the summary judgment that was entered in favor of Provident and ordered, instead, that summary judgment be entered in favor of McKeen-Chaplin, concluding that “where a bank sells mortgage loans and resells the funded loans on the secondary market as a primary font of business, mortgage underwriters who implement guidelines designed by corporate management, and who must ask permission when deviating from protocol, are most accurately considered employees responsible for production, not administrators [exempt from overtime] who manage, guide, and administer the business.”