NEW YORK (CN) - An executive cannot object to the way her company calculates her commissions after accepting them for years, the 2nd Circuit ruled.
Elaine Pachter was vice president of Bernard Hodes Group, a marketing and staffing services company. She sued to challenge deductions in her commission checks.
The case turned on the New York Court of Appeals' answers to two certified questions from the circuit. The court stated that executives are employees and that commissions are earned wages.
"Pachter knowingly acquiesced over a period of years to the approach used by Hodes when calculating her commissions," the circuit judges ruled, "conduct that constituted, at the very least, an implied agreement between the parties."
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.