## Facts

- Cervantes Agribusiness and Cervantes Enterprises, Inc. (collectively, Cervantes) operated agricultural businesses in southern New Mexico.
- Cervantes signed a written “Agreement of Outsourcing Support” with WKI Outsourcing Solutions, LLC (WKI), a labor contractor, for WKI to supply temporary farm laborers, including workers obtained through the federal H-2A program.
- WKI marketed itself as a lawful source of temporary agricultural labor from Mexico through H-2A. To obtain Department of Labor certification, WKI represented that it would pay the required higher wage rate (the adverse effect wage rate) and that qualified U.S. workers would receive priority for available positions.
- When WKI posted the openings associated with the H-2A clearance order, an unusually large number of U.S. workers applied. WKI filled all of the listed positions with domestic workers, including the plaintiffs, who were U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents working as farm laborers.
- After the positions were filled, Cervantes did not provide work to the domestic workers. WKI permitted Cervantes to cancel the outsourcing contract, apparently believing that U.S. agricultural businesses would not want to pay the higher H-2A wage rate for U.S. workers.
- The domestic workers sued WKI, WKI’s president, and Cervantes, asserting (as to Cervantes) breach of contract, violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA), and civil conspiracy, all tied to Cervantes’s failure to employ them after they were recruited through the H-2A process.
- The district court granted summary judgment to Cervantes on all claims, reasoning that WKI was an independent contractor rather than Cervantes’s agent because Cervantes lacked the right to control WKI’s recruiting and related conduct. The domestic workers appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether, viewing the record in the plaintiffs’ favor, a reasonable jury could find WKI acted as Cervantes’s agent when recruiting and making commitments to the domestic workers, permitting Cervantes to be held liable for breach of contract and AWPA violations.
2. Whether the plaintiffs presented evidence sufficient to create a genuine dispute that Cervantes and WKI agreed to commit unlawful acts, supporting a civil conspiracy claim.

## Decision

- Reversed summary judgment for Cervantes on the breach-of-contract claim.
- Reversed summary judgment for Cervantes on the AWPA claim.
- Affirmed summary judgment for Cervantes on the civil conspiracy claim.
- Remanded for further proceedings on the revived claims.

## Legal Principles

- On summary judgment, courts must view the evidence and reasonable inferences in the nonmovant’s favor; disputes turning on what a factfinder could reasonably infer generally cannot be resolved as a matter of law.
- An entity may act through an agent even if the agent is also a contractor; agency can be shown by evidence that the principal authorized the agent to act on the principal’s behalf in the relevant transactions.
- Where a labor contractor recruits workers and makes job-related commitments while acting with the grower’s authority, the grower may be bound for contract purposes and may face liability under AWPA for recruitment-related conduct tied to the employment relationship.
- Civil conspiracy requires proof of an agreement or meeting of the minds to accomplish an unlawful end (or a lawful end by unlawful means); suspicion, parallel conduct, or unilateral wrongdoing without evidence of agreement is insufficient.

## Conclusion

The Tenth Circuit held that the summary-judgment record could support a finding that WKI recruited the domestic workers as Cervantes’s agent in the H-2A process, so the breach-of-contract and AWPA claims against Cervantes could proceed, but it affirmed dismissal of the civil conspiracy claim because the plaintiffs lacked evidence of an agreement between Cervantes and WKI to engage in unlawful conduct.


Alfaro-Huitron v. Cervantes Agribusiness, 982 F.3d 1242 (2020)