Wholesale Laundry Bd. of Trade, Inc. v. City of New York

Decision Date28 February 1963
Citation239 N.Y.S.2d 128,12 N.Y.2d 998
Parties, 189 N.E.2d 623, 47 Lab.Cas. P 50,789 WHOLESALE LAUNDRY BOARD OF TRADE, INC., et al., Respondents, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, Appellant. NEW YORK STATE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., Respondents, v. CITY OF NEW YORK et al., Appellants.
CourtNew York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Godfrey P. Schmidt, New York City, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Bluestone & Kliegman, New York City (Myron P. Gordon, New York City, of counsel; David M. Bluestone, Jacob N. Kliegman, and Stanley Israel, New York City, on the brief), for appellants.

Leo A. Larkin, New York City (Seymour B. Quel, New York City, of counsel; John F. Kelly, Pauline K. Berger, George H. P. Dwight, and Bernard Friedlander, New York City, on the brief), for respondent City of New York.

Davies, Hardy & Schenck, New York City (Kenneth W. Greenawalt, New York City, of counsel; Raymond T. Munsell, New York City, on the brief), for Commerce and Industry Association of New York, Inc., as amicus curiae.

Lord, Day & Lord, New York City (Charles W. Merritt, New York City, of counsel; Gerard A. Navagh, New York City, on the brief), for New York Chamber of Commerce, as amicus curiae.

In each action: Judgment affirmed, without costs, upon the opinion (17 A.D.2d 327, 234 N.Y.S.2d 862) in the Appellate Division.

DESMOND, C. J., and VAN VOORHIS, BURKE and FOSTER, JJ., concur.

DYE, FULD and SCILEPPI, JJ., dissent and vote to reverse; DYE, J., in an opinion in which FULD and SCILEPPI, JJ., concur and FULD, J., in a separate opinion in which DYE and SCILEPPI, JJ., concur.

DYE, Judge (dissenting).

I dissent and vote to reverse on the ground that the City Minimum Wage Law is a constitutionally valid enactment. It merely provides that every employer shall pay to each employee a wage of not less than $1.25 per hour and $1.50 per hour one year hence which, when in force, will not result in the payment to any employee of a wage less than the State law minimum of $1.15 per hour, or less than $1.25 per hour after October 15, 1964. The local law here challenged does not permit what the State law prohibits and is not inconsistent therewith but, rather, supplemental thereto and in aid of its stated policy. In dealing as it does with conditions peculiar to the City of New York involving the preservation and promotion of the health, safety and general welfare of its inhabitants resulting from inadequate wage rates it constitutes a proper exercise of the city's police power (N.Y.Const., art. IX, § 12; City Home Rule Law, Consol.Laws, c. 76, § 11, subd. 2; New York City Charter, § 27; People v. Lewis, 295 N.Y. 42, 64 N.E.2d 702). When the City Council acts to protect local needs it will be upheld, especially when such action is in aid and furtherance of the State law (People v. Sampsell, 248 N.Y. 157, 161 N.E. 454). It may not be said that the State has pre-empted the field simply because the State law is State-wide in its application, particularly when it does not forbid enactment of a local law such as this.

The judgments appealed from should be reversed, with costs, and judgment should be rendered in favor of the city declaring the City Minimum Wage Law to be valid and constitutional.

FULD, Judge (dissenting).

I find nothing in the State Minimum Wage Law (Labor Law, Consol.Laws, c. 31, § 650) which gives evidence of any legislative design to exclude consistent local legislation and, since the New York City Minimum Wage Law (Administrative Code of City of New York, §§ 1113-1.0 et seq.) neither prohibits what the State statute affirmatively permits nor permits what it prohibits, I perceive no such conflict as to require the local law to be stricken as unconstitutional. There is no inconsistency between a city law and a State statute dealing with the same subject simply because the local law...

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