I wrote a while back about a Second Circuit ruling against JP Morgan holding that mortgage loan underwriters are entitled to overtime. They had been classified as exempt by JP Morgan but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and ruled that they were not bona fide administrators.

Recently, another federal court, this time in Washington, followed suit and ruled that mortgage loan underwriters at Residential Capital should not have been denied overtime pay. That case is called Bollinger v. Residential Capital, LLC and is a must read in this area of practice.

The essence of these rulings is that mortgage loan underwriters simply do not work as administrators – employees whose work relates to the “general business operations” of the company. The court in Bollinger said it this way:

“Plaintiffs’ work was not administrative. The work Plaintiffs did—collecting customers’ financial data and measuring that data against Defendants’ lending guidelines—was necessary because Defendants provided mortgages, not because Defendants were in business generally.”

Under this analysis, other types of underwriters would also be entitled to overtime. Even insurance underwriters, who similarly work because their employers provide insurance, not because they are in business generally, would be non-exempt and entitled to overtime.

We’ll check to see if there have been any insurance underwriters who have won a case like this and report back. Stay tuned.