Mashel Law Wins Appellate Division Appeal Confirming the Scope of Damages Available Under New Jersey's Wage and Hours Laws is 6 Years

Mashel Law is pleased to announce that it successfully obtained a written published decision by the Superior Court of New Jersey’s Appellate Division where, in a case of first impression, it held that the New Jersey Wage and Hour Law (NJWHL) and the New Jersey Wage Payment Law (NJWPL) entitled our law firm’s clients and the similar class of workers they seek to represent as being eligible to seek six (6) years’ worth of unpaid wages, attorneys’ fees and liquidated damages. This decision reflects the state Legislature’s amendment in August 2019 of the NJWHL and NJWPL extending the scope of damages under those statutes to 6 years.

In April 2022 Mashel Law filed suit on behalf of its clients Christopher Maia and Sean Howarth against IEW Construction Group (IEW) for unpaid pre-and post-shift work for unpaid wage and statutory liquidated damages on behalf of themselves and a class of workers similarly situated. In doing so the Appellate Division rejected IEW’s argument that the August 2019 amendments to the NJWHL and NJWPL have to be applied retroactively for Plaintiffs to be entitled to the full scope of damages allowed under the New Jersey Wage Theft Act (WTA), thereby limiting our clients to only two-year’s worth of unpaid wages based on a pre-amendment two-year statute of limitations finding. Rather, the Appellate Court stated, “[a]pplying the law in effect at the time a complaint is filed…is not applying a statute retroactively; it is applying a statute prospectively to cases filed after its effective date. *** There is no support for that position in the text, structure, purpose, or legislative history of [New Jersey law]."

Amy C. Blanchfield, Esquire of Mashel Law who worked on the appeal with Stephan T. Mashel, Esquire of the firm was quoted by Law360, a nationwide subscription-based legal news service, commending the appellate opinion as one which “…will benefit the workers of New Jersey by ensuring they receive the full scope of statutory benefits the New Jersey Legislature … intended."