How much does a truck weigh?

Carley and Brown, the plaintiffs in a case about overtime pay, drove a Ford F-350 in their work as “cementers” for oil wells. The threshold question was whether the  truck was a “motor vehicle[] weighing10,000 pounds or less”; if it was, a federal statute would remove them from overtime requirements. While seemingly clear, the  statute left open the important practical matters, requiring the Fifth Circuit to analyze it and conclude:

• What. Applying Skidmore deference to a Labor Department bulleting about the statute, “weight” specifically refers to the manufacturer’s specified “gross vehicle weight rating”;
• Who. So defined, the burden of proof about “weight” fell on Carley, as this statute “is . . . not an exemption . . . [but] rather, it codifies conditions under which” pay is required notwithstanding an exemption; and
• How. Echoing similar disputes about the relevance of property tax filings in valuation disputes, a document about vehicle registration, that stated the truck’s “empty weight” (7600 pounds) and “gross weight” (9600 pounds) did not overcome undisputed evidence that the GVWR was in fact 11,500 pounds.

Carley v. Crest Pumping Technologies, No. 17-50226 (May 16, 2018).