Martin v. Funtime, Inc.
| Decision Date | 24 April 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-3595,91-3595 |
| Citation | 963 F.2d 110 |
| Parties | 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1425, 60 USLW 2764, 121 Lab.Cas. P 35,637, 35 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 725 Lynn MARTIN, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. FUNTIME, INC., a Corporation, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Ellen R. Edmond (argued and briefed), William J. Stone, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Office of the Sol., Washington, D.C., Benjamin T. Chinni, Office of Sol., U.S. Dept. of Labor, Cleveland, Ohio, for plaintiff-appellee.
James D. Kurek (argued and briefed), Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, Akron, Ohio, for defendant-appellant.
Before NELSON and NORRIS, Circuit Judges; and CONTIE, Senior Circuit Judge.
Appellant, Funtime, Inc., appeals a judgment for the plaintiff, the Secretary of Labor, finding violations of the wage and hour provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 212, 215(a)(4), governing child labor.
Appellant, Funtime, Inc., is an Ohio corporation with its principal place of business in Aurora, Ohio. Funtime owns and operates three amusement parks--Geauga Lake Park located in Aurora, Ohio; Wyandot Lake Park located in Powell, Ohio; and Darien Lake Park located in Darien Center, New York.
Funtime employed numerous 14 and 15 year-old children in various occupations throughout the parks during the 1989 and 1990 operating seasons. These children were regularly required to work more hours than the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") permitted.
In the summer of 1985, Funtime's operations at Wyandot Lake Park came under investigation by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor. A compliance officer found that the park was employing children in violation of the FLSA. On August 13, 1985 the compliance officer discussed her findings with Mr. Ed McHale, the park's general manager, providing him with written results of the inquiry. As a result of this 1985 investigation, Funtime was assessed a civil money penalty. Joint Appendix at 814.
Five years later, in March 1990, another Wage and Hour compliance officer began investigating Funtime's operations at Geauga Lake Park. During this investigation, the officer reviewed the park's employment records for the 1988 and 1989 seasons. He was given a list of the names of the 14 and 15 year-olds employed at the park. The officer transcribed the park's employment figures, compiling a summary of all the hours worked and the ages of the employees. In order to verify the ages, the compliance officer compared the dates of birth contained on the park's records with dates he obtained from the childrens' school records.
In May 1990, the compliance officer notified Geauga Lake Park that as a result of his investigation he had discovered that 135 children had been employed in violation of the FLSA's child labor provisions during the 1988 and 1989 seasons. In response, the park attempted various corrective measures to prevent further violations.
In September 1990, the same compliance officer revisited Geauga Lake for a follow-up investigation to determine whether Funtime had come into compliance with the FLSA. The compliance officer conducted a similar review of the park's employment records. In that investigation, the officer found 22 additional violations. The results of the investigation were transmitted to the park's director of human resources, who challenged the validity of the officer's computations. Nevertheless, the park agreed to take further preventive measures, including the installation of an automatic time keeping system, and the reduction in the total number of minors employed.
In July 1990, another Wage and Hour compliance officer began investigating Funtime's Darien Lake amusement park. The officer reviewed the park's employment records, and prepared a transcription of the information found on the personnel records which indicated that child labor violations had occurred. The ages of all minor employees were verified by comparing the dates of birth that appeared on the park's records with the dates that appeared on certain proof of age certificates issued by New York schools.
The investigation of Darien Park continued in November 1990. The investigating officer reviewed the park's employment records for the 1988 and 1989 seasons. The ages of the children were verified and the records were transcribed by the officer into a summary which revealed that 230 minors were employed in violation of the FLSA.
In response, the park took various steps to avoid future child labor violations, recognizing however the "problems the park had encountered with minors using various efforts to avoid the restrictions placed on them." Appellant's Brief at 11. Funtime alleges that the Wage and Hour investigators "never mentioned the investigation at Geauga Lake to the Darien Lake representatives, and the Darien Lake representatives never indicated that they were aware of the Geauga Lake investigation." Id. at 10. Presumably, Funtime believes that being unaware of these other investigations relieved them of the duty of seeking more severe corrective measures.
In September 1990 a Wage and Hour compliance officer continued the investigation of Funtime's Wyandot Lake Park, reviewing their employment records for the 1989 and 1990 seasons. The officer made photo copies of the park's payroll and time records, which revealed that 82 minors were employed in violation of the FLSA. The ages of the minor employees were verified using school records.
In October 1990 Funtime was notified of the violations which occurred at Wyandot Lake. However, Wyandot Lake's director of personnel, Keith M. Swider, who was also notified of these violations, claimed to be unaware of the violations which were earlier uncovered by the 1985 investigation. Swider was not employed at the park at that time. Swider testified that in the middle of the summer of 1990 he was informed by Wyandot Lake's general manager that Funtime's Geauga Lake Park had been investigated that spring; however, the compliance officer never mentioned this investigation to him at the time that his park was being investigated. Apparently, Funtime now argues that this lack of knowledge precludes a finding that the 1989 and 1990 violations were willful or intentional.
In response to the above incidents, the Secretary of Labor filed a complaint against Funtime in the United States District Court. The Department of Labor sought injunctive relief against Funtime's Geauga Lake, Wyandot Lake and Darien Center parks. On March 27 and 28, 1991 the district court conducted a bench trial in this case. On April 24, 1991 the district court issued its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, finding that during the 1990 season, each of the three parks owned by Funtime had employed minors in violation of the FLSA's child labor provisions, and that the violations had been substantial in number. Joint Appendix at 19. The court found that all of the violations had been properly investigated and verified. The district court also concluded that, because the violations continued long after the 1985 investigation of Wyandot Lake, Funtime's child labor violations were willful. Id. at 20. The court thus believed that this indicated that it was likely that the violations would continue to occur. It rejected Funtime's argument that its three parks were separate entities and thus that the officials at each park had no way of knowing that the other parks had been investigated. Id. at 23. 1 Accordingly, the district court held that the Secretary of Labor was "entitled to an injunction restraining [Funtime], its agents, and all other persons acting in concert with them" from violating the provisions of 29 U.S.C. §§ 212, 215(a)(4). Id.
Funtime filed a timely notice of appeal from the district court's judgment.
Funtime first argues that the district court abused its discretion in issuing an injunction against Funtime. For the following reasons, we believe that injunctive relief was proper in this case. Section 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, codified as amended at 29 U.S.C. § 217, authorizes a court to enjoin violations of certain of the Act's provisions. Among those is section 12(c), codified as amended at 29 U.S.C. § 212(c), which prohibits the employment of "oppressive child labor," which is defined to mean "a condition of employment under which ... any employee under the age of sixteen years is employed by an employer ... in any occupation." 29 U.S.C. § 203(l )(1). Section 203(l ) also authorizes the Secretary of Labor to promulgate regulations defining what shall constitute oppressive child labor of children between the ages of 14 and 16 years. As such, regulations adopted pursuant to this authority restrict the hours during which a child may work. See Child Labor Regulation No. 3, 29 C.F.R. §§ 570.31-.49 (1991). The district court concluded that the appellant committed numerous violations of the above provisions, and thus the primary question on appeal is whether the district court properly ordered injunctive relief.
"The issuance of an injunction under the Fair Labor Standards Act is addressed to the reasonable discretion of the trial judge." Wirtz v. Flame Coal Co., 321 F.2d 558, 560 (6th Cir.1963). The exercise of discretion is not unbridled, Dunlop v. Davis, 524 F.2d 1278, 1280 (5th Cir.1975), and "in exercising its discretion the court must give 'substantial weight to the fact that the Secretary seeks to vindicate a public, and not a private, right.' " Brock v. Big Bear Market No. 3, 825 F.2d 1381, 1383 (9th Cir.1987) (quoting Marshall v. Chala Enterprises, Inc., 645 F.2d 799, 804 (9th Cir.1981)).
The purpose of issuing an injunction against future violations is to effectuate general compliance with the Congressional policy of abolishing substandard labor conditions by preventing recurring future violations. Big...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Chao v. Virginia Dept. of Transp.
...the federal government, is not sufficient grounds for denying a prospective injunction. IBP, Inc., 127 F.3d at 964; Martin v. Funtime, Inc., 963 F.2d 110, 114 (6th Cir.1992); Big Bear Market No. 3, 825 F.2d at 1383. The number of FLSA violations and when they occurred in relation to a feder......
-
St Mary Honor Center v. Hicks
...records, and such records generally are admissible under Rule 803(6) of the Federal Rules of Evidence. See, e.g., Martin v. Funtime, Inc., 963 F.2d 110, 115-116 (CA6 1992); EEOC v. Alton Packaging Corp., 901 F.2d 920, 925-926 (CA11 1990). Even those employers who do not keep records of thei......
-
U.S. v. Jamieson
...into evidence, but we have placed no further restrictions on the admissibility of the underlying documents. See Martin v. Funtime, Inc., 963 F.2d 110, 116 (6th Cir.1992). Thus, if evidence is admissible under Rule 807, it should also be appropriate material for a Rule 1006 summary. Jamieson......
- Solis v. SCA Rest. Corp.
-
Demonstrative Evidence
...to the best evidence rule, which requires use of the original document to prove the contents of a writing. Martin v. Funtime, Inc ., 963 F.2d 110, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1425 (6th Cir. 1992). The materials being summarized must themselves be admissible. Id. It is the summary itself that ......