A terminated Home Depot employee fell 40 minutes short of being able to be considered a manager and was thus not exempt from being paid overtime, says a federal appeals court, in overturning a lower court ruling, and reinstating his overtime as well as his age discrimination claim.

Carl Haynes, a Home Depot employee, was 62 and had worked almost 26 years for the company when he was terminated in February 2013 by the Atlantic-based retailer and replaced with a younger, lower-paid employee, according to the complaint in Carl Haynes v. Home Depot USA Inc; Does, 1-10.

An issue in the case was whether Mr. Haynes was primarily engaged in duties that made him exempt from overtime, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in Wednesday’s ruling in Carl Haynes v. Home Depot USA.

An employee is primarily engaged in exempt duties if the employee performed those duties over more than half of his work time under California law, said Wednesday’s ruling.

“Home Depot failed to make this showing,” said the ruling by a unanimous three-judge appeals court panel, which added up Mr. Haynes’ various managerial-type duties.

“Even at the high end, Haynes spent just over five hours and twenty minutes per day conducting managerial tasks. This falls short by about forty minutes of showing that Haynes met the exemption,” said the ruling, in overturning a ruling by the U.S. District Court in San Diego that dismissed this charge.

The 9th Circuit also reinstated Mr. Haynes’ age discrimination claim under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. “The record shows that (a district manager) systematically instructed the store managers at each manager meeting to target ‘older’ employees, including Haynes, for making too much money regardless of the value they brought to Home Depot,” the ruling said. 

“A reasonable factfinder could also conclude that (the district manager’s) instructions were heeded when at least ten assistant managers over forty were terminated in the four years the district manager served in that role.

“Lastly, a reasonable factfinder could conclude that Home Depot selectively enforced its rules and issued disciplinary notices against Haynes as part of (the district manager’s) mission to fire older employees,” said the ruling in reinstating Mr. Haynes’ age discrimination claim and remanding the case for further proceedings.

Mr. Haynes’ attorney, Kevin J. Mirch, of San Diego-based Mirch Law firm LLP, said the ruling is significant because Home Depot called employees who were not exempt from being paid overtime exempt, and “made them work at least 65 hours per week,” which was “obviously a violation of the law.”

Home Depot’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

In October, a state appellate court affirmed a lower court ruling and ruled Home Depot must pay $12,000 for violating California safety standards, holding it had violated California safety standards and that it had to require its employees to wear appropriate footwear and ensure workers complied with industrial truck operation standards.