By Brendan O'Brien

Feb 4 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday decertified a class of Domino's Pizza drivers in Minnesota who had claimed the company wrongfully withheld gratuities from them.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 1,600 drivers did not all have the same circumstances in common, citing the 2011 Supreme Court ruling in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes.

In 2005, the pizza chain implemented a $1 per delivery charge in Minnesota. The charge was increased to $1.50 in 2008.

Matt Luiken and Jon Sandquist, along with fellow delivery drivers, accused Domino's of forcing them to share tips with the company in violation of the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act.

The class was certified by a federal court in Minnesota in November 2011. It included delivery drivers who worked in the state from March 6, 2006, to Feb. 28, 2010.

In its ruling on Monday, the 8th Circuit noted that some drivers alerted customers to the charges, while others did not.

Disclosure of the charge also varied by the method of ordering. If the customer ordered online, they received a notice that a delivery charge was applied to their bill, the 8th Circuit decision said.

By the end of 2009, Domino's began printing on some boxes: "any delivery charge is not a tip paid to your driver. Please reward your driver for awesomeness." By the middle of 2010, the notice was placed on all boxes.

The variety of transactions "made it unreasonable for some customers to construe the delivery charge as a payment for personal services, thereby preventing one-stroke determination of a class-wide question," the appeals court wrote, remanding the case back to the lower court.

Attorneys representing the pizza delivery drivers and Domino's Pizza were not immediately available for comment.

The case is in the United States Court of Appeals For The 8th Circuit, No. 12-1216.

For the delivery drivers: Michelle Drake, Matthew Morgan, Matthew Helland and Paul Lukas of Nichols Kaster; and Richard Paul of Stueve Siegel Hanson.

For Domino's Pizza: Juli Ann Lund, Philip Sechler, David Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, Collin Callahan, Daniel Katz and Jared Lee Hubbard of Williams & Connolly; and Tracey Holmes Donesky, Calvin Hoffman, Kristin Berger Parker and Wendy Canaday of Leonard, Street and Deinard.

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