Morehead v. People of State of New York Tipaldo
| Decision Date | 01 June 1936 |
| Docket Number | No. 838,838 |
| Citation | 103 A.L.R. 1445,80 L.Ed. 1347,56 S.Ct. 918,298 U.S. 587 |
| Parties | MOREHEAD, Warden, v. PEOPLE OF STATE OF NEW YORK ex rel. TIPALDO. * |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. Henry Epstein, of Albany, N.Y., for petitioner.
Messrs. Nathan L. Miller and Arthur Levitt, both of New York City, for respondent.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 588-601 intentionally omitted]
Mr. Dean G. Acheson, of Washington, D.C., for the States of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, as amici curiae by special leave of Court.
Mr. Paul Windels, Corp. Counsel, of New York City (Messrs. Paxton Blair and Paul J. Kern, both of New York City, on the brief), amici curiae.
This is a habeas corpus case originating in the supreme court of New York. Relator was indicted in the county court of Kings county and sent to jail to await trial upon the charge that as manager of a laundry he failed to obey the mandatory order of the state industrial commissioner prescribing minimum wages for women employees.
The relator's petition for the writ avers that the statute, chapter 584 of the Laws of 1933 adding article 19 to the Labor Law N.Y. (Consol.Law, c. 31), under which the commissioner made the order, in so far as it purports to authorize him to fix women's wages, is repugnant to the due process clause, article 1, § 6, of the Constitution of the State and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The application for the writ is grounded upon the claim that the state statute is substantially identical with the minimum wage law enacted by Congress for the District of Columbia, 40 Stat. 960, which in 1923 was condemned by this court as repugnant to the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 525, 43 S.Ct. 394, 67 L.Ed. 785, 24 A.L.R. 1238.
The warden's return, without disclosing the commissioner's order, the prescribed wages, the findings essential to his jurisdiction to establish them, things done in pursuance of the act, or the allegations of the indictment, merely shows that under an order of the county court he was detaining relator for trial. The case was submitted on petition and return. The court dismissed the writ. People ex rel. Tipaldo v. Morehead, 156 Misc. 522, 282 N.Y.S. 576. Relator took the case to the Court of Appeals. It held the act repugnant to the due process clauses of the State and Federal Constitutions. 270 N.Y. 233, 200 N.E. 799. The remittitur directed that the order appealed from be reversed, the writ sustained, and the prisoner discharged; it certified that the federal constitutional question was presented and necessarily passed on. The supreme court entered judgment as directed. We granted a writ of certiorari. Morehead v. People of State of New York ex rel. Tipaldo, 297 U.S. 702, 56 S.Ct. 670, 80 L.Ed. 991.
The act extends to women and minors in any 'occupation' which 'shall mean an industry, trade or business or branch thereof or class of work therein in which women or minors are gainfully employed, but shall not include domestic service in the home of the employer or labor
on a farm.' Section 551(6). It is not an emergency law. It does not regulate hours or any conditions affecting safety or protection of employees. It relates only to wages of adult women and minors. As the record is barren of details in respect of investigation, findings, amounts being paid women workers in laundries or elsewhere prior to the order, or of things done to ascertain the minimum prescribed, we must take it as granted that, if the state is permitted as against emp oyers and their women employees to establish and enforce minimum wages, that power has been validly exerted. It is to be assumed that the rates have been fairly made in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the act and in full compliance with the defined standards. If, consistently with the due process clause, the state may not enter upon regulation of the sort undertaken by the challenged enactment, then plainly it cannot by diligence to insure the establishment of just minima create power to enter that field. Cf. St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. United States, 298 U.S. 38, 56 S.Ct. 720, 80 L.Ed. —-; Baltimore & Ohio R.R. v. United States, 298 U.S. 349, 56 S.Ct. 797, 80 L.Ed. —-.
The Adkins Case, unless distinguishable, requires affirmance of the judgment below. The petition for the writ sought review upon the ground that this case is distinguishable from that one. No application has been made for reconsideration of the constitutional question there decided.1 The validity of the principles upon which that decision rests is not challenged. This court confines itself to the ground upon which the writ was
asked or granted. Alice State Bank v. Houston Pasture Co., 247 U.S. 240, 242, 38 S.Ct. 496, 62 L.Ed. 1096; Clark v. Williard, 294 U.S. 211, 216, 55 S.Ct. 356, 79 L.Ed. 865, 98 A.L.R. 347. Here the review granted was no broader than that sought by the petitioner. Johnson v. Manhattan Ry. Co., 289 U.S. 479, 494, 53 S.Ct. 721, 77 L.Ed. 1331. He is not entitled and does not ask to be heard upon the question whether the Adkins Case should be overruled. He maintains that it may be distinguished on the ground that the statutes are vitally dissimilar.
The District of Columbia Act provided for a board to ascertain and declare 'standards of minimum wages' for women in any occupation and what wages were 'inadequate to supply the necessary cost of living to any such women workers to maintain them in good health and to protect their morals.' Section 9. Violations were punishable by fine and imprisonment. Section 18. The declared purposes were to protect women from conditions detrimental to their health and morals, resulting from wages inadequate to maintain decent standards of living. Section 23.
The New York act declares it to be against public policy for any employer to employ any woman at an oppressive and unreasonable wage (section 552) defined as one which is 'both less than the fair and reasonable value of the services rendered and less than sufficient to meet the minimum cost of living necessary for health.' Section 551(7). 'A fair wage' is one 'fairly and reasonably commensurate with the value of the service or class of service rendered.' Section 551(8). If the commissioner is of opinion that any substantial number of women in any occupation are receiving oppressive and unreasonable wages he shall appoint a wage board to report upon the establishment of minimum fair wage rates. Section 554. After investigation, the board shall submit a report including its recommendations as to minimum fair wage standards. Section 555.
And for administrative guidance, the act declares: 'In establishing a minimum fair wage for any service or class
of service under this article the commissioner and the wages board without being bound by any technical rules of evidence or procedure (1) may take into account all relevant circumstances affecting the value of the service or class of service rendered, and (2) may be guided by like considerations as would guide a court in a suit for the reasonable value of services rendere where services are rendered at the request of an employer without contract as to the amount of the wage to be paid, and (3) may consider the wages paid in the state for work of like or comparable character by employers who voluntarily maintain minimum fair wage standards.' Section 551(8).
If the commissioner accepts the report, he shall publish it and a public hearing must be held. Section 556. If after the hearing he approves the report, he 'shall make a directory order which shall define minimum fair wage rates.' Section 557. Upon hearing and finding of disobedience the commissioner may publish the name of an employer as having failed to observe the directory order. Section 559. If, after a directory order has been in effect for nine months, the commissioner is of opinion that persistent nonobservance is a threat to the maintenance of the prescribed standards, he may after hearing make the order mandatory. Section 560. Violation of a mandatory order is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment or both. Section 565(2).
Thus it appears: The minimum wage provided for in the District act was one not less than adequate 'to supply the necessary cost of living to any such women workers to maintain them in good health and to protect their morals.' Section 9. The New York act defines an oppressive and unreasonable wage as containing two elements. The one first mentioned is: 'less than the fair and reasonable value of the services rendered.' The other is: 'less than sufficient to meet the minimum cost of living necessary for health.' Section 551(7). The basis last mentioned is not to be distin-
guished from the living wage defined in the District act. The exertion of the granted power to prescribe minimum wages is by the state act conditioned upon a finding by the commissioner or other administrative agency that a substantial number of women in any occupation are receiving wages that are oppressive and unreasonable, i.e., less than value of the service and less than a living wage. That finding is essential to jurisdiction of the commissioner. In the state court there was controversy between the parties as to whether the 'minimum fair wage rates' are required to be established solely upon value of service or upon that value and the living wage. Against the contention of the attorney general, the Court of Appeals held that the minimum wage must be based on both elements.
Speaking through its chief judge, that court said (270 N.Y. 233, 200 N.E. 799, 800): ...
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