## Facts

- Oakhurst Dairy employed the plaintiffs as delivery drivers who transported dairy products in Maine.
- Maine’s overtime law generally requires time-and-a-half pay for hours worked over 40 per week, subject to enumerated exemptions.
- The dispute concerned Exemption F, which excludes from overtime: “The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of” certain foods, including perishable foods.
- The drivers did not “pack” products; they delivered products after packing had occurred.
- The drivers claimed Exemption F covers only “packing” (whether for shipment or for distribution), so they were not exempt and were owed overtime.
- Oakhurst argued “distribution” is a separate exempt activity, so the drivers were exempt because they distributed perishable foods.
- The statutory wording omitted a serial (Oxford) comma after “shipment,” creating competing grammatical readings.

## Issues

1. Whether Exemption F’s phrase “packing for shipment or distribution” exempts “distribution” as a standalone activity or instead describes only “packing” done for either shipment or distribution.
2. If the text is ambiguous, whether Maine’s interpretive rules for remedial wage-and-hour laws require construing the exemption narrowly in favor of overtime coverage.

## Decision

- The First Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment for Oakhurst on the interpretation of Exemption F.
- The court held the exemption’s wording is ambiguous as to whether “distribution” is independently exempt.
- Applying Maine’s rule that remedial labor statutes and overtime coverage are construed liberally for employees and exemptions narrowly against employers, the court adopted the drivers’ narrower construction.
- The court concluded that performing delivery/distribution alone did not place the drivers within Exemption F on the theory that “distribution” is a standalone exempt activity.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with that interpretation.

## Legal Principles

- When statutory text is reasonably susceptible to more than one grammatical reading, courts may find ambiguity even where competing canons point in different directions.
- The absence of a serial comma may contribute to ambiguity but is not necessarily determinative where drafting conventions discourage its use.
- Under Maine law, wage-and-hour provisions are remedial; ambiguities are construed to favor employee protection and overtime coverage.
- Overtime exemptions under Maine law are construed narrowly against the employer when the exemption’s scope is unclear.

## Conclusion

The First Circuit held that Maine’s overtime exemption for “packing for shipment or distribution” was ambiguous and, under Maine’s remedial-statute interpretive rule, must be read narrowly; delivery drivers who only distributed products were not exempt on the theory that “distribution” is an independent exempt activity, and their overtime claims could proceed on remand.


O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy, 851 F.3d 69 (1st Cir. 2017)