Patty Archer and Gia Sutti worked in the bank's eSmartLoan.com division, which offered nonconforming mortgage loans to borrowers over the Internet. The division has since been sold to Capital One Financial Corp.

The two say they regularly worked "far in excess" of 40 hours a week but were not compensated for their overtime hours.

Archer and Sutti filed the lawsuit as a collective action, similar to a class action, under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuit seeks relief on behalf of themselves and similarly situated employees.

An attorney for National Bank of Kansas City, Steve Mauer of Bryan Cave, said the bank earlier this month reached a settlement with 158 former or current loan processors and originators following "a complete review under the supervision of the (U.S.) Department of Labor."

Mauer said the bank had revised its overtime policies "to be fully compliant with the Department of Labor." He said the bank's earlier classification of the employees was in line with previous industry policy.

"Everybody in the industry paid these people the same way," he said. "It was just the way they did it."

Mauer said Archer and Sutti were not included in the settlement, because they could not be contacted. He said the nine plaintiffs in the earlier lawsuit filed their action before the bank undertook its review.

The earlier lawsuit was one of several brought against local financial institutions, including Bank of Blue Valley and First Horizon Home Loan Corp., under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuits are pending.

"As we learn more about the industry, it's not surprising that additional job classifications have come to our attention that have been misclassified," said the attorney who filed the lawsuits, George Hanson of Stueve Siegel Hanson Woody.

National Bank of Kansas City is based in Leawood and formerly was known as Horizon National Bank.

Stinson addition

Edward Stratemeier, a longtime veteran of Aventis Pharmaceuticals, has joined Stinson Morrison Hecker's intellectual property and technology division.

Stratemeier was at Aventis for 22 years, most recently as head of a team of 40 lawyers in the United States, Canada and Europe involved in commercial work, litigation, employment law, securities law, business development transactions, compliance, privacy and Food and Drug Administration regulatory matters.

To reach Dan Margolies, call (816) 234-4481 or send e-mail to dmargolies@kcstar.com.