A guide, with live counts from the courts' own feeds
Your FedEx overtime case was severed and re-filed: what happens now
On 18 May 2026 the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania held that 14,296 delivery drivers suing Federal Express Corporation for unpaid overtime in three consolidated actions, Brannon, Abner and Smith, had been misjoined, severed their claims, and tolled the limitations period so that each driver could file a separate suit in an appropriate district. The suits reaching the courts’ filing feeds now are those separate cases, opened district by district as the list is worked through, which is why the plaintiffs’ surnames tend to arrive in alphabetical order. If you are one of those drivers, you now have a federal case with its own number, its own judge and its own docket, and this page explains what that case is and what will happen in it.
1,462 new suits naming Federal Express Corporation as defendant filed in federal court between September 20, 2026 and September 26, 2026, across 15 districts, counted from the district courts' own filing feeds.
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How the case runs
What the claim is
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires an employer to pay one and a half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a week (29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1)). A worker who was not paid that overtime can sue for the unpaid amount plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, and a court that finds for the worker must award attorney’s fees and costs (29 U.S.C. § 216(b)). The claim must be brought within two years of the violation, or three years if the violation was wilful (29 U.S.C. § 255(a)); in these cases the severance order tolled that period so that the re-filed suits are not late. Drivers of larger commercial vehicles can fall within the Motor Carrier Act exemption from overtime (29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(1)), and the exemption does not reach work on vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less (Pub. L. 110-244, § 306), which is why the weight of the vehicle a driver used can matter to the outcome.
Why your case is now on its own
Claims by many plaintiffs can be joined in one suit only when they arise out of the same transaction or occurrence and share a question of law or fact (Rule 20(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure), and a court may drop a misjoined party or sever a claim into a separate action (Rule 21). Once severed, each claim proceeds as its own case, normally in a district where the driver worked or where the defendant can be sued (28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)). The court in each district assigns its own case number and judge, and that number is what you use to find your docket.
What happens after the case is opened
The complaint must be served on the defendant within 90 days of filing (Rule 4(m)); a defendant that has already agreed to accept service may be served by waiver instead (Rule 4(d)). The defendant then has 21 days after service to answer or move to dismiss, or 60 days if it waived service (Rule 12(a)(1)(A)). The parties usually confer and file a discovery plan (Rule 26(f)), and the judge issues a scheduling order setting deadlines for discovery and motions (Rule 16(b)). Many courts with large numbers of these cases enter a single order treating them alike, and either side may ask to transfer a case to another district for convenience (28 U.S.C. § 1404(a)) or to consolidate related cases before one judge (Rule 42(a)).
How these cases end
An overtime case ends by settlement, by summary judgment, by trial, or by dismissal. A private settlement of an FLSA claim is normally reviewed by the court, or supervised by the Department of Labor, before it is final (Lynn’s Food Stores, Inc. v. United States, 679 F.2d 1350 (11th Cir. 1982), followed by many district courts), so a settlement in your case will usually appear on the docket as a motion for approval and an order. Dismissal for failure to serve or to prosecute is entered on the docket too, and it is the entry most worth catching early.
Know the day your docket moves
A lawyer handling thousands of severed cases cannot phone every client the day a docket moves. Your case will move on its own schedule: the summons, FedEx’s answer or motion, the scheduling order, a transfer or consolidation, a settlement motion, or an order to show cause why the case should not be dismissed. CaseMagic Watch reads your docket every day and emails you when a new entry lands, with the deadline that follows from it, so you hear about your own case from the court rather than from a form letter weeks later.
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Where they were filed
| District | New cases |
|---|---|
| M.D. Fla. | 285 |
| S.D. Tex. | 281 |
| C.D. Cal. | 265 |
| W.D. Tex. | 160 |
| D. Conn. | 111 |
| S.D. Fla. | 106 |
| E.D. Tex. | 88 |
| M.D.N.C. | 52 |
| E.D. Wash. | 38 |
| S.D. Iowa | 33 |
| S.D. Ind. | 24 |
| D.R.I. | 16 |
| S.D. Cal. | 1 |
| W.D.N.C. | 1 |
| W.D. Wash. | 1 |
A case is counted once, on the date its opening filing was made, when the defendant the court typed into the caption is one this kind of case is brought against. Districts that publish no filing feed are not counted. No names are listed here on purpose.
Questions people ask before they start
How do I find my own case?
Search your surname on CaseMagic’s company page for Federal Express Corporation, which lists every case against it opened in the last 30 days with the caption as the court wrote it, or ask your lawyer for the case number and district. The number, such as 2:26-cv-01234, identifies the office, year and sequence, and the district is part of the court’s own caption.
Do I need to do anything now that my case has been re-filed?
That is a question for the lawyer who filed it. The re-filing was done to satisfy the severance order, and the deadlines that follow run against your lawyer and the defendant. What you can do is watch the docket so that a deadline or an order affecting you is not a surprise.
Is the severance a ruling against the drivers?
No. Severance decides only how the claims are grouped, not whether they succeed. The court tolled the limitations period precisely so that severance would not cost any driver the claim.
Why do the counts on this page rise every day?
Because 14,296 separate suits take time to file. Each day’s new cases are the next instalment of that list, not a new dispute, and the count here is of suits naming Federal Express Corporation as first defendant in the last 30 days, read from the district courts’ own filing feeds.
CaseMagic is an independent service, not a law firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice. The rules cited are the ones in force as this page was written; check your court's local rules and any order in your own case.
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