PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – A Jacksonville man has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the former owners of Serenata Beach Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, alleging workers were required to perform duties “off the clock” and were not paid minimum wage for all hours worked.
RELATED: Troubled Serenata Beach Club reopens with new name, new ownership in Ponte Vedra Beach
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 26 in St. Johns County Circuit Court, was brought by Luis Alvarado on behalf of himself and other similarly situated employees who worked at Serenata Beach Club between August and September 2024.
Named as defendants are Bernoulli Growth Capital LLC, which does business as Serenata Beach Club LLC, along with Molly Butler and Michael Mota. The lawsuit alleges Butler and Mota had significant ownership interests in the business and control over day-to-day operations, including hiring, firing and maintaining payroll records.
The beach club has since been sold at a foreclosure auction and now operates under new ownership and a new name.
Mota, who said he briefly managed the club in 2024 before the foreclosure sale, denied he should be included in the lawsuit.
“100% no,” Mota said. “I never owned Serenata Beach Club. … It would be the owners of the club that owned all the debt.”
Mota said that during his time managing the property, he heard numerous complaints from employees about paychecks bouncing.
“It’s just an unfortunate situation,” he said. “I don’t think anybody was malicious, even the owners of the club. I think that it just got to be too much of a debt. Hence why everybody lost. I mean, the owners lost millions of dollars. So the employees certainly deserve to be paid and they’ll have to rectify that. But, you know, nobody won in this. It was a bad situation.”
A former employee who worked at the club in 2024 and spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed pay problems but said he left shortly before the August and September timeframe outlined in the lawsuit.
“There were several weeks,” the former employee said. “It wasn’t a single paycheck where it was like, ‘Oh, you’re going to be paid a few days late.’ It was several paychecks in a row where we missed the money. There was one time that we were all paid in cash.”
Alvarado alleges in the lawsuit that the club required staff to work before and after their scheduled shifts without clocking in to avoid paying overtime, in violation of the Florida Minimum Wage Act and the state constitution. The complaint claims employees were not paid for all hours worked and that management failed to properly compensate workers at the applicable minimum wage rate.
The proposed class would include nonexempt employees who worked at Serenata Beach Club during the relevant period and were allegedly subject to the same pay practices.
The case seeks damages exceeding $50,000, exclusive of interest, costs and attorneys’ fees. Alvarado is seeking unpaid wages, as well as additional relief allowed under the Florida Minimum Wage Act.
The proposed class would include nonexempt employees who worked at Serenata Beach Club during the relevant period and were allegedly subject to the same pay practices.
Court records indicate Alvarado provided written notice in November 2024 of the alleged unpaid wages, as required under state law prior to filing suit.
News4JAX has reached out to the former owner of Serenata Beach Club, Molly Butler, for comment on this story. We are still waiting to hear back from her.