Yu v. Knighted LLC

OPINION & ORDER Pro se Plaintiff Siji Yu (“Plaintiff”) brings this Action pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. §201 et seq., against Knighted LLC (“Knighted” or “Defendant”), alleging that it failed to pay him for the overtime hours he worked. (See generally Am. Compl. (Dkt. No. 38).)¹ Before the Court are the Parties’ Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment (the “Motions”). (See Def.’s Not. of Mot. (Dkt. No. 124); Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J. (“Pl.’s Mot.”) (Dkt. No. 128).) For the reasons explained herein, Plaintiff’s Motion is denied and Defendant’s Motion is granted.I. BackgroundA. Factual BackgroundThe Court has described the allegations and procedural history of this case in two prior Opinions. See Yu v. Knighted LLC, No. 15-CV-9340, 2017 WL 666118 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 16, 2017); Yu v. Knighted LLC, No. 15-CV-9340, 2018 WL 369191 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 9, 2018). The Court therefore assumes familiarity with the dispute and will provide factual and procedural background only as relevant to the instant Motions.The following facts are taken from Defendant’s statement pursuant to Local Civil Rule 56.1, (Def.’s Local Rule 56.1 Statement (“Def.’s 56.1″) (Dkt. No. 126)), and Plaintiff’s statement pursuant to Local Civil Rule 56.1, (Pl.’s Mot. 1-9 (Pl.’s Local Rule 56.1 Statement (“Pl.’s 56.1″))), and the admissible evidence submitted by the Parties.²1. Plaintiff’s BackgroundPlaintiff earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at Shanghai University in China, and subsequently received a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in computer science from the City College of New York. (Def.’s 56.1

8-9, 11; Pl.’s Mot. Ex. 11 (Deposition of Siji Yu (May 11, 2018 & June 27, 2018) (“Yu Dep.”)) 24-26.) When Plaintiff was hired by Knighted, he had twenty years of experience in information technology and over ten years of experience working in database administration and development. (Def.’s 56.1 12; Def.’s 56.1 Ex. 4 (“Yu Resume”).) Plaintiff specialized in databases and, in particular, relational databases, which are databases that have “a kind of relationship between each spreadsheet by spreadsheet or each table by table.” (Def.’s 56.1