The city of Dallas has filed a lawsuit against a former firefighter in order to recover more than $127,000 in overpayments, documents show.
According to the lawsuit, the former firefighter, Ivan Gonzales, earned a total of $127,441.34 between June 2023 and February 2025.
Gonzales was hired by DFR in July 2022, and resigned in June 2023, the suit states. Sometime between June 2023 and July 2024, he moved to Florida.
Although Gonzales termination paperwork was submitted in June 2023, the suit states it wasn’t processed by the city’s human resources department until April 2025. Due to this, he remained on his captain’s team management roster until that time. The suit claims Gonzales’ captain’s roster had more than 250 other recruits, which prevented him from realizing Gonzales was still on the roster.
While recruits are required to submit time entries into the city’s payroll software, the lawsuit states there was a presumption that any recruit on the roster worked 40 hours a week. So when time entries weren’t submitted by deadline, the captain would submit these missed entries on the recruit’s behalf, which led to Gonzales’ continued receiving of paychecks.
According to the lawsuit, Gonzales knew he was still receiving these paychecks, and almost a year after he resigned, logged into the city’s payroll software to update his direct deposit bank account information.
“Since no work was performed for these paychecks, Mr. Gonzales is not entitled to that money, and these payments belong to the City in equity and good conscience,” the city argues in the suit.
In addition to recovering the payments, the suit states the city is also seeking prejudgment interest from April 7, the day the petition was filed.