Richard Mazurek v. Metalcraft of Mayville, Inc .

In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
____________________
Nos. 22-1743, 22-1744, 22-1745, 22-1746, 22-1747, 22-1748, 22-
1749, 22-1750, 22-1751, 22-1752, 22-1753, 22-1754, 22-1755, 22-
1756, 22-1757, & 22-1758
R ICHARD M AZUREK, et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
M ETALCRAFT OF M AYVILLE, I NC .,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeals from the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Nos. 17-cv-1439, 20-cv-0435, 20-cv-0436, 20-cv-0438, 20-cv-0439,
20-cv-0440, 20-cv-0441, 20-cv-0443, 20-cv-0447, 20-cv-0448, 20-cv-0449,
20-cv-0451, 20-cv-0452, 20-cv-0454, 20-cv-0455, 20-cv-0490 —
Brett H. Ludwig, Judge.
____________________
A RGUED O CTOBER 28, 2022 — DECIDED A UGUST 2, 2024
____________________
Before S CUDDER , K IRSCH , and JACKSON -A KIWUMI , Circuit
Judges.
JACKSON -A KIWUMI , Circuit Judge. A group of employees
sued their employer, Metalcraft of Mayville, for failing to pay
them for time spent working just before or after their shifts.

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2 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
The workers suffered a major blow at summary judgment; the
district court ruled their lawsuits were based on vague recol-
lections and fragmentary evidence. Metalcraft, perhaps em-
boldened by the district court’s strong language in granting it
summary judgment, then pushed for sanctions against plain-
tiffs’ counsel, characterizing the lawsuits as frivolous from the
start. The district court disagreed, ruling that sanctions would
be “overkill.” Metalcraft brought this appeal in response, but
in doing so has made unwarranted claims about the frivolity
of the suits and cast unfair aspersions on the honesty of op-
posing counsel. Because there was just enough factual and le-
gal support for the plaintiffs’ claims and because the behavior
of plaintiffs’ counsel does not fit Metalcraft’s expansive alle-
gations, we uphold the denial of sanctions.
I
Richard Mazurek, a machinist at Metalcraft’s West Bend,
Wisconsin, plant, filed a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) col-
lective action in October 2017. The suit, pressed on behalf of
himself and a class of hourly employees at his plant and the
company’s Mayville, Wisconsin, plant, alleged the workers
were denied overtime pay. Metalcraft’s timekeeping system
allowed employees to punch in up to 15 minutes before their
scheduled start times and punch out up to 15 minutes after
their scheduled end times. When employees clocked in early
but did not perform compensable work, the clock-in time was
adjusted to the regular start time for the employee, as op-
posed to when they punched the clock. The employees al-
leged that these adjustments to the on-paper start time hap-
pened despite working during these 15-minute periods.
The collective action was decertified in April 2020. After-
wards, the workers filed 24 additional cases which the district

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 3
court consolidated. Nine cases were subsequently dismissed
for various reasons, the most common being communication
issues between client and counsel. Of the remaining cases, the
district court asked the parties to select two cases each for
summary judgment briefing.
The district court granted summary judgment to
Metalcraft in all four of the selected cases. Mazurek v.
Metalcraft of Mayville Inc., No. 17-CV-1439-BHL, 2021 WL
5964541, at *6 (E.D. Wis. Dec. 16, 2021) (Metalcraft I). In doing
so, it held that although FLSA plaintiffs have a lower burden
of proof when an employer’s record keeping practices do not
provide accurate time, employees still must provide some
level of proof as to the hours they worked and were not com-
pensated for, through methods like reconstructed memory or
inference. Id. at *4–5. The district court noted that this stand-
ard was designed to be lenient, but it was not an invitation to
“guess or invent working hours post hoc.” Id. at *5. All four
plaintiffs, the district court explained, acknowledged their re-
constructed worktime was guesswork and ruled out the ex-
istence of events or distinctive elements of the workday that
would jog their memories about how much work they did
during the disputed period. Id. at *7.
In a separate order issued the same day, the district court
explained, “[g]iven that Plaintiff’s counsel had the ability to
pick two of the cases presented at summary judgment, and
those cases shared the same fatal defect as those selected by
Defendant’s counsel, it appears that all pending cases may
share the same fate.” “[T]o avoid unnecessary and wasteful
motion practice in the remaining cases,” the district court or-
dered plaintiffs’ counsel to file a statement in each of the re-
maining 12 cases, “identifying any particular facts or legal

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4 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
arguments that might warrant a different outcome.” If differ-
ences existed for a particular case, the district court would
schedule further proceedings for that case. If not, the court
would enter summary judgment for Metalcraft.
In response, the 12 remaining plaintiffs voluntarily dis-
missed their cases with prejudice, stating that the district
court’s summary judgment order as to the four other plain-
tiffs was “likely determinative” of their claims.
Metalcraft then moved for sanctions in all 16 cases. In each
brief supporting the motion in the 12 remaining cases,
Metalcraft stated: “Our Motion for Sanctions for these twelve
cases are similar. Only the transcripts of the twelve are differ-
ent and those [two] cases having a statute of limitations is-
sue.” The word “transcripts” refers to the 12 remaining plain-
tiffs’ deposition transcripts, excerpts of which Metalcraft had
dropped into the part of its motion discussing each plaintiff’s
guesswork and speculation. As for the four cases resolved on
summary judgment, Metalcraft filed an identical sanctions
motion in each.
In moving for sanctions, Metalcraft argued that the 16
cases shared not only similar facts and law, but also the same
root cause of a Rule 11 violation: “no evidence, just specula-
tion.” According to Metalcraft, Mazurek’s deposition served
as the “cornerstone” illustrating the frivolity of the 16 cases
because he admitted he had no proof of a FLSA violation.
Metalcraft urged the district court to sanction the plaintiffs
because “a rudimentary inquiry of all sixteen plaintiffs based
on Mazurek’s deposition during a pre-filing investigation
would have made clear all sixteen cases did not have any
facts.”

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 5
The district court disagreed, pointing to precedent allow-
ing unreported work time to be reconstructed using methods
of proof below the standard in most commercial litigation.
Mazurek v. Metalcraft of Mayville Inc., No. 17-CV-1439-BHL,
2022 WL 1028928, at *2 (E.D. Wis. Apr. 6, 2022) (Metalcraft II).
The problem that undermined the suits, the court continued,
was a matter of “degree, not kind.” Id. The fact that the evi-
dence was not enough to win on summary judgment, the
court noted, did not retroactively make the cases frivolous
enough to merit sanctions, which would be “overkill.” Id. at
*3. In its sanctions decision, the district court made clear that
it was evaluating the evidence of the suits as a unit, and—like
Metalcraft—it did not make meaningful distinctions between
the quality of proof provided in each suit. Metalcraft now ap-
peals the denial of sanctions.
II
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b) requires attorneys
presenting a pleading or other paper to the court to certify,
among other requirements: (1) the pleading or other paper is
not being provided to unnecessarily delay or needlessly in-
crease the cost of litigation; (2) the claims are supported by
existing law or a nonfrivolous argument for modifying the
law; and (3) the factual contentions have evidentiary support.
F ED. R. C IV. P. 11(b). Rule 11 sanctions—monetary or other
penalties assessed against attorneys who violate these re-
quirements—are designed to deter baseless filings, like those
presented for an improper purpose. Pac. Dunlop Holdings, Inc.
v. Barosh, 22 F.3d 113, 118 (7th Cir. 1994). But because sanc-
tions can harm the reputation of attorneys and chill the crea-
tivity of counsel, care must be taken in their issuance. Id.

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6 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
(citing Mars Steel Corp. v. Cont’l Bank N.A., 880 F.2d 928, 936
(7th Cir. 1989) (en banc)).
We review a district court’s decision to impose Rule 11
sanctions for abuse of discretion. Cooney v. Casady, 735 F.3d
514, 518 (7th Cir. 2013). When evaluating the appropriateness
of sanctions, we consider the objective reasonableness of the
filing under the circumstances of the case. Pac. Dunlop Hold-
ings, 22 F.3d at 118. The focus of the rule is conduct and not
result; losing a legal challenge or motion, by itself, is not a rea-
son for sanctions. Id. at 119.
Metalcraft makes two primary arguments for the necessity
of sanctions: (1) there was no factual support for the employ-
ees’ claims, and (2) established FLSA doctrines, namely the
Portal-to-Portal Act and the de minimis doctrine, foreclosed
the employees’ claims as a matter of law. Neither of these ar-
guments finds support in the record.
A
Metalcraft argues there was no factual substance to the
FLSA claims brought against it by Mazurek, his coworkers,
and their attorneys. Metalcraft points to a deposition three
months before the initial collective action was filed, during
which Mazurek stated that he had memories, but not written
records, of the times he worked before the start of his shift.
Based on this statement, Metalcraft claims Mazurek
“doomed” his initial lawsuit and the 15 other lawsuits that
followed. Metalcraft made similar attacks on the proof pro-
vided by the other plaintiffs, and even accused plaintiffs’
counsel of suborning perjury by submitting evidence
Metalcraft considered contradictory.

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 7
But in asserting that Mazurek “doomed” his lawsuit from
the beginning and in alleging other instances of opposing
counsel chicanery, Metalcraft forgets that FLSA claims can be
made through reconstructed memories of the claimants.
When an employer does not keep accurate records of time
worked, employees have a lower burden for proving FLSA
damages. Brown v. Fam. Dollar Stores of Ind., LP, 534 F.3d 593,
595 (7th Cir. 2008) (citing Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co.,
328 U.S. 680, 687–88 (1946)). In those cases, “an employee has
carried out his burden if he proves that he has in fact per-
formed work for which he was improperly compensated and
if he produces sufficient evidence to show the amount and ex-
tent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference.”
Id. To show hours worked by “just and reasonable inference,”
an employee’s time can be reconstructed from memory, in-
ferred from the particulars of the claimant’s jobs, or estimated
through other methods. Espenscheid v. DirectSat USA, LLC, 705
F.3d 770, 775 (7th Cir. 2013). If that standard is met, the em-
ployer then has the burden of showing either (1) evidence of
the exact amount of work performed, or (2) evidence negating
the inference drawn from the employee’s evidence. Brown,
534 F.3d at 595.
The district court held that Metalcraft’s timekeeping sys-
tem, through its use of the 15 minute “grace period” and the
practice of rounding time up or down, “do[es] not provide an
accurate representation of the time employees spent perform-
ing compensable work.” Metalcraft I, 2021 WL 5964541, at *4.
Consequently, as the district court found, the lowered burden
for FLSA claimants came into play, and the invocation of
memory did not render the suit unfit for filing. Indeed, given
this lower standard of proof, Metalcraft’s allegations of per-
jury are unreasonable.

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8 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
The district court’s finding that the suits were not unfit for
filing applied not only to Mazurek but also to the other plain-
tiffs. In its order denying sanctions, the district court stated
that the plaintiffs marshalled a “handful of facts that might
support a FLSA action.” The dissenting opinion reads this
statement as pertaining to Mazurek’s case only, or to the four
summary judgment cases only, not also to the 12 other cases
for which Metalcraft sought sanctions. True enough, the dis-
trict court specifically quoted the summary judgment order’s
discussion of Mazurek’s claim. But in so quoting, the district
court stated, “Plaintiffs presented the Court with ‘a handful of
facts that might support a FLSA action[.]’” This indicates the
district court was speaking not only about Mazurek when
making the “handful of facts” comment, but also about the
collective of suits. We do not have reason to question the dis-
trict court’s decision on how to quote its prior decision.
More importantly though, that is not all the district court
said about the factual support underpinning each of the 16
cases:
The decisive issue in these cases was whether
Plaintiffs could prove their allegedly uncom-
pensated worktime as a matter of “just and rea-
sonable inference.” … As the Court noted in its
summary judgment order, Plaintiffs presented
the Court with “a handful of facts that might
support a FLSA action[.]” Mazurek, 2021 WL
5964541, at *7. The problem was one of degree,
not kind—the methods Plaintiffs used to esti-
mate worktime were simply too unreliable to
permit a factfinder to draw a “just and reasona-
ble inference.” Id. But a case is not frivolous, nor

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 9
is a factual presentation baseless just because it
crumbles at summary judgment. See Harrison v.
Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 974 F.2d 873, 886–87
(7th Cir. 1992). Plaintiffs came forward with the
kind of evidence that courts hearing FLSA ac-
tions have come to expect; they just failed to
come forward with enough of this type of evi-
dence. This failure was not sanctionable.
Metalcraft II, 2022 WL 1028928, at *2. No portion of this rea-
soning suggests that it applies to Mazurek only, as opposed
to all the plaintiffs.1
The dissenting opinion insists that, in addition to deter-
mining whether sanctions were warranted in some, all, or
none of the cases, the district court should have addressed
each of the 16 motions separately. Nothing prohibits this ap-
proach, but we know of nothing compelling the approach
1 The dissenting opinion contends that Mazurek’s testimony tells us
nothing about the factual basis for the 15 other cases, and it is not clear
whether there is support for equating Mazurek’s FLSA claim with the
other plaintiffs’ claims. The district court, however, did not hinge its deci-
sion as to the 15 other cases on Mazurek’s testimony. Plus, Metalcraft took
the opposite position, stating throughout its motions that the “pattern” of
“unreliable speculation and guesswork” that was “known [after] and exem-
plified [by] Mazurek’s testimony … continued for all sixteen of the individual
plaintiffs” and “a rudimentary inquiry of all sixteen plaintiffs based on Ma-
zurek’s deposition during a pre-filing investigation would have made clear
all sixteen cases did not have any facts.” Metalcraft theorized that Ma-
zurek’s testimony clued the other plaintiffs in on the guesswork and spec-
ulation in their individual cases. Ultimately, Metalcraft concluded—and
the district court agreed—that Mazurek and the 15 other cases “shared a
fundamental flaw”: no admissible evidence. Where Metalcraft and the dis-
trict court diverged was on the question whether that shared flaw made
the filing of the 16 cases frivolous and, therefore, sanctionable.

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10 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
either. Nor does the dissenting opinion identify any such au-
thority. And Metalcraft did not ask the district court or our
court to parcel out the suits. Rather, Metalcraft alleged the
workers as a collective did not have sufficient evidence for
their claims, and Metalcraft supported this position by em-
phasizing the similarity of the 16 cases. This presentation by
Metalcraft—focusing on the near identical nature of the cases
rather than the component cases, and at times concentrating
on the primary named plaintiff (Mazurek)—persisted despite
the decertification of the actual collective action and the filing
of individual suits. With this, the district court decided the 16
motions in a single order, concluding that none of the cases
warranted sanctions. Under these circumstances, we are
mindful of the discretion afforded district courts in making
sanctions decisions given their firsthand knowledge of the
proceedings. We are also mindful the district court’s explana-
tion must suffice to allow us to meaningfully review the de-
nial of sanctions. Tobey v. Chibucos, 890 F.3d 634, 655 (7th Cir.
2018). We are convinced that the district court’s order clears
this hurdle.2
We uphold any exercise of a district court’s discretion that
could be considered reasonable, even if we might have re-
solved the question differently. So, we uphold the decision
below; the district court did not abuse its discretion in deny-
ing sanctions based on the plaintiffs’ alleged speculation and
guesswork.
2 The district court did not address whether the statute of limitations
defense asserted in two cases rendered those plaintiffs’ claims frivolous.
But Metalcraft did not raise this issue on appeal, so it has been waived.
Lisle v. Welborn, 933 F.3d 705, 722 n.4 (7th Cir. 2019).

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 11
B
We turn to Metalcraft’s second argument about why sanc-
tions are necessary: Metalcraft believes two authorities, the
Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 and the de minimis doctrine, fore-
closed the plaintiffs’ FLSA claims as a matter of law. But
Metalcraft’s argument ignores nuances in the doctrines that
made the employees’ claims legally viable and sufficient to
avoid Rule 11 sanctions.
The Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 designates the following
activities as not compensable under the FLSA: “(1) walking,
riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of perfor-
mance of the principal activity or activities which such em-
ployee is employed to perform,” and (2) “activities which are
preliminary to or postliminary” to the employee’s principal
activities. 29 U.S.C. § 254(a). Metalcraft contends the pre-shift
activities the plaintiffs described were “merely preliminary
and two steps removed from their principal activities,” and
therefore barred under the statutory language.
However, the workers argued from the outset that the Por-
tal-to-Portal Act had no bearing on the calculation of hours
within the workday based on a Department of Labor regula-
tion stating that the provision does not apply to time between
the “first principal activity on a particular workday and be-
fore [the employee] ceases the performance of the last princi-
pal activity.” 29 C.F.R. § 790.6(a). The plaintiffs also pointed
to IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, which held that the time meatpacking
plant employees spent walking from their locker rooms to the
production area after putting on safety gear was not barred
from compensation under the Portal-to-Portal Act. 546 U.S.
21, 30–31, 37 (2005).

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12 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
Metalcraft counters by citing our decision in Chagoya v.
City of Chicago as evidence the Portal-to-Portal Act decisively
foreclosed the workers’ claims. 992 F.3d 607 (7th Cir. 2021).
There, we held members of a Chicago Police SWAT team
could not seek compensation under the FLSA for time spent
transporting, loading, and unloading their weapons and
other gear from department-provided vehicles and securing
it in their homes. Id. at 622. We ruled the FLSA did not cover
this time because those requirements were weapons security
directives removed from “the operators’ principal activity of
handling critical incidents.” Id. at 623. Metalcraft did not men-
tion this case until its reply brief for summary judgment, de-
priving the plaintiffs of the chance to respond, but that mat-
ters little anyway: Mazurek had already addressed in his
summary judgment motion the argument that pre-shift activ-
ities were “integral and indispensable” to his workday as a
machine operator. He rebutted, in advance, the very point for
which Metalcraft belatedly cited Chagova.
Metalcraft likewise insists the de minimis doctrine barred
the workers’ claims. The de minimis exception renders activ-
ities that take “insubstantial and insignificant periods of time”
not compensable under the FLSA. Frank v. Wilson & Co., 172
F.2d 712, 716 (7th Cir. 1949) (quoting Anderson, 328 U.S. at 693
(1946)). To evaluate these claims, courts “typically consider
the amount of time spent on the extra work, the practical ad-
ministrative difficulties of recording additional time, the reg-
ularity with which the additional work is performed, and the
aggregate amount of compensable time.” Kellar v. Summit
Seating Inc., 664 F.3d 169, 176 (7th Cir. 2011). The employer
bears the burden of showing the doctrine is applicable to a
particular FLSA claim. Id. Even though Metalcraft argues the
doctrine foreclosed the employees’ claims, it is far from the

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 13
absolute bar Metalcraft suggests. Mazurek and the other
plaintiffs carefully outlined reasons why their claim was not
de minimis under the Kellar factors.
In sum, the plaintiffs extensively briefed both the de min-
imis issue and the Portal-to-Portal Act at the summary judg-
ment stage. A party making a legal argument that turns out
to be barred by Supreme Court or Seventh Circuit precedent
is not per se sanctionable; an attempt to distinguish one’s case
from the precedent that purportedly forecloses the claim is
enough. Brunt v. Serv. Emps. Int'l Union, 284 F.3d 715, 721 (7th
Cir. 2002). The plaintiffs’ legal arguments on both issues fall
well short of the “baseless” threshold that merits Rule 11 sanc-
tions. See, e.g., Royce v. Michael R. Needle P.C., 950 F.3d 939, 957
(7th Cir. 2020) (upholding sanctions against a party that took
a position “disregarding what anyone having taken a first-
year contracts class could identify as the pivotal legal issues”).
In its attempt to persuade us that the employees’ claims
were never legally viable given the Portal-to-Portal Act and
the de minimis doctrine, Metalcraft points to the district
court’s brief statement at summary judgment that the plain-
tiffs “have not established” the work they performed was
compensable under either doctrine. Metalcraft I, 2021 WL
5964541, at *7 n.4. However, this statement, wedged into a
footnote, was eclipsed by the court’s overwhelming focus on
the deficiencies of the employees’ proof of time worked. Id. It
is not difficult to imagine, had there been better factual sub-
stantiation of the workers’ claims, the district court would
have looked more closely at the briefing on these FLSA excep-
tions and come to a different conclusion.
In continuing to press its view about the legal viability of
the employees’ claims, Metalcraft relies on arguments that

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14 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
ignore the difference between the standard for summary
judgment and the standard for sanctions. It claims the court’s
conclusions at summary judgment necessarily mean sanc-
tions are in order. However, we have urged caution in
“adopting findings and conclusions” from one stage of a liti-
gation to a different stage of the litigation with different legal
standards. Thomas & Betts Corp. v. Panduit Corp., 138 F.3d 277,
292 (7th Cir. 1998) (quoting Commc’ns Maint., Inc. v. Motorola,
Inc., 761 F.2d 1202, 1205 (7th Cir. 1985)). This instruction par-
ticularly applies in this case, as the standard for a grant of
summary judgment—when there is no genuine issue of ma-
terial fact, Sweatt v. Union Pac. R. Co., 796 F.3d 701, 707 (7th
Cir. 2015) (citing F ED. R. C IV. P. 56(c))—is distinctly different
from that for Rule 11 sanctions. Such sanctions are warranted
when an attorney’s pleadings are not well grounded by ap-
propriate factual contentions, “existing law[,] or by a nonfriv-
olous argument” for changing legal precedent. F ED. R. CIV. P.
11(b). Here, Mazurek and the other plaintiffs presented plau-
sible legal arguments for the compensability of their working
time, not to mention evidence appropriate in FLSA suits chal-
lenging employers with deficient internal recordkeeping
practices. See Brunt, 284 F.3d at 721; Brown, 534 F.3d at 595.
III
Notwithstanding our decision affirming the district court,
we note the court’s handling of the case perhaps invited
Metalcraft to mount this challenge. The court used strong lan-
guage throughout its summary judgment decision, slamming
the plaintiffs’ suits as “speculative,” “internally inconsistent,”
and an attempt to “extract and weaponize” a “morass of con-
tradictory allegations.” Metalcraft I, 2021 WL 5964541, at *5–7.
The court’s choice language risked suggesting to a summary

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 15
judgment victor that sanctions were a natural next step when,
for the reasons we have explained above, they were not.
Then the court wrote that it was declining to award sanc-
tions in part because doing so “would be overkill.” Metalcraft
II, 2022 WL 1028928, at *3. At the outset of its opinion, the dis-
trict court cited and discussed Rule 11 at length, before later
explaining why the suits were “not frivolous”; why the suits’
“factual presentations [were not] baseless”; and why it con-
cluded that the “plaintiffs came forward with the kind of evi-
dence that courts hearing FLSA actions have come to expect
… [but] failed to come forward with enough of this type of
evidence.” Id., at *1–2. This shows the district court did not
apply an erroneous legal standard, notwithstanding its word
choice later in the opinion.
Metalcraft’s arguments in favor of sanctions fail to meet
the high standard required to override the discretion of the
district court. The plaintiffs’ suits were based on legitimate le-
gal arguments, using legitimate methods of proof. That the
plaintiffs turned out to have insufficient evidence to support
their allegations might have been a sign of poor case strategy,
but it is not the kind of bad faith that justifies sanctions. As a
result, we AFFIRM the district court.

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16 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
K IRSCH , Circuit Judge, dissenting. I agree with the major-
ity’s conclusion that the district court did not abuse its discre-
tion in denying sanctions in Richard Mazurek’s lawsuit. But
in my view, the district court failed to analyze the factual un-
derpinnings of the other fifteen plaintiffs’ suits when denying
Metalcraft’s motions for sanctions.
Sanctions are appropriate when plaintiffs or their attor-
neys bring baseless suits not reasonably grounded in law or
fact. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 11; Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp., 496
U.S. 384, 393 (1990). The factual contentions underlying
claims must “have evidentiary support” or a likelihood
thereof “after a reasonable opportunity for further investiga-
tion or discovery.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b)(3). When reviewing a
denial of sanctions, we give deference to a district court’s fa-
miliarity with the proceedings. But that deference is not blind.
“Deferential review will not prevent this court from ensuring
that district judges reflect seriously, and consider fully, before
imposing (or denying) sanctions. Until discretion has been
taken seriously in the district court and exercised conscien-
tiously, the basis for deference is missing.” Mars Steel Corp. v.
Cont’l Bank N.A., 880 F.2d 928, 936 (7th Cir. 1989).
When deciding whether to impose sanctions under
Rule 11, a district court must give careful thought as to
whether they are warranted in each individual case. When a
sanctions motion contends that a suit lacks any reasonable ba-
sis, “the court must undertake an objective inquiry into
whether the party or his counsel should have known that his
position is groundless.” Cuna Mut. Ins. Soc’y v. Off. & Pro.
Emps. Int’l Union, Loc. 39, 443 F.3d 556, 560 (7th Cir. 2006)
(cleaned up). If a party moves for sanctions in multiple law-
suits that were consolidated for litigation, a district court

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 17
cannot take shortcuts. Determining whether an attorney’s be-
havior was sanctionable in one case neither blesses nor con-
demns his actions in another. After all, at its core, a Rule 11
inquiry is a case-by-case determination. See Beverly Gravel, Inc.
v. DiDomenico, 908 F.2d 223, 225 (7th Cir. 1990) (“What consti-
tutes a reasonable pre-filing investigation [under Rule 11] de-
pends on the circumstances of each case.”); Orlett v. Cincinnati
Microwave, Inc., 954 F.2d 414, 419 n.5 (6th Cir. 1992) (“The dis-
trict court itself recognized correctly that ‘a Rule 11 sanction
must be based on a case by case inquiry.’”); Matter of Yagman,
796 F.2d 1165, 1182 (9th Cir. 1986) (“Each case must be taken
individually and evaluated in light of its own peculiar cir-
cumstances.”). For this reason, a district court must analyze
each case separately and determine whether sanctions are
warranted in some, all, or none.
After Metalcraft won at summary judgment, it moved for
sanctions in each of the sixteen cases. The district court con-
solidated the motions and denied them all in a single order
without separately addressing Metalcraft’s evidentiary argu-
ments as to each motion. The court reasoned that sanctions
were not warranted based on its conclusion at summary judg-
ment that the plaintiffs presented “a handful of facts that
might support a FLSA action.” And it concluded that because
the plaintiffs had already lost at summary judgment, “sanc-
tions would be overkill.”
The district court committed two errors here that warrant
reversal and remand. First, the factual support that the district
court identified pertained to only one of the sixteen cases for
which Metalcraft sought sanctions. The “handful of facts that
might support a FLSA action” referred solely to the summary
judgment order’s discussion of Mazurek’s claim and his

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18 Nos. 22-1743, et al.
contradictory deposition testimony. But Mazurek’s testi-
mony—and any evidence supporting his claim—tells us noth-
ing about the factual basis for the other fifteen cases. The ma-
jority contends that, since the district court quoted its sum-
mary judgment order by referencing “Plaintiffs” rather than
just a single plaintiff, it implicitly considered the evidence
available in all sixteen individual cases. But that conclusion
contravenes the context of the district court’s discussion,
which wholly hinged on the evidence it reviewed at summary
judgment. Recall that only four representative cases—likely
the strongest ones—were tested at summary judgment. At
most, then, “Plaintiffs” refers to those four cases, not the
twelve others that were voluntarily dismissed (and poten-
tially were even weaker and more sanctionable than the rep-
resentative cases rejected at summary judgment).
To be sure, there is no evidentiary basis for equating the
FLSA claims reviewed at summary judgment with the other
plaintiffs’ claims. For instance, Mazurek stated that he had
memories, but not written records, of the times he worked be-
fore the start of his shift. But at least one other plaintiff, Casey
Lamberg, testified that he had no memories of working before
or after his shifts. The district court denied sanctions without
even assessing whether each of the other suits had any factual
support. The district court’s conclusion that Mazurek’s suit
(or the three other summary judgment suits) was not sanc-
tionable does not mean that the other plaintiffs’ suits can get
away with sanctionable conduct, if there was any.
The majority then asserts that Metalcraft did not parcel out
the suits before the district court, and that therefore, the dis-
trict court did not need to address each case individually.
That contention mischaracterizes the record. As mentioned,

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Nos. 22-1743, et al. 19
Metalcraft filed a separate motion for sanctions for each indi-
vidual case. For a case-by-case inquiry, that should have been
enough. Further, while substantial portions of those motions
were identical across all cases (which is to be expected in a
situation like this), each motion also contained unique evi-
dence and argument as to the named plaintiff. For example,
in Jeffrey Anders’s case, Metalcraft’s motion emphasized the
absurdity of the lawsuit within Anders’s specific employment
context, focusing on his substantial involvement in non-work-
related activities and noting that he received overtime pay
even when he was not working. The district court should
have addressed this motion (and the others) separately.
Second, reading the district court’s order, it is unclear
whether it applied the correct standard in assessing whether
sanctions were warranted. The district court declined to
award sanctions in part because doing so “would be overkill.”
The majority rightly identifies that overkill is not the stand-
ard, yet even so, defers to the district court’s decision in the
other fifteen suits that it failed to analyze. I would not.
“A serious Rule 11 motion is not a gnat to be brushed off
with the back of the hand. This motion was serious; it should
have received serious attention[.]” Szabo Food Serv., Inc. v.
Canteen Corp., 823 F.2d 1073, 1084 (7th Cir. 1987). I would va-
cate and remand to the district court with instructions to re-
consider Metalcraft’s motion for each individual suit under
the appropriate standard.
I respectfully dissent.

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