Allman v. James Healing Company, Civ. A. 9925.

• Decision Date: 29 June 1956
• Docket Number: Civ. A. 9925.
• Citation: 142 F. Supp. 673
• Parties: Woodrow ALLMAN et al., Plaintiffs, v. JAMES HEALING COMPANY, a Corporation of the State of New Jersey, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

142 F. Supp. 673

Woodrow ALLMAN et al., Plaintiffs, v. JAMES HEALING COMPANY, a Corporation of the State of New Jersey, Defendant.

Civ. A. 9925.

United States District Court D. New Jersey.

June 29, 1956.

Samuel M. Cole, Jersey City, N. J., Nathan Baker, Hoboken, N. J., for plaintiffs.

Milton, McNulty & Augelli, by Joseph Keane, and William E. Bannon, Jersey City, N. J. George J. Rossi, Asst. U. S. Atty., Jersey City, N. J., Paul A. Crouch, New York City, of counsel, for defendant.

FORMAN, Chief Judge.

The plaintiffs remaining in this case are New York longshoremen who, during World War II and shortly thereafter, worked as ammunition loaders for the defendant James Healing Company, a New Jersey corporation engaged in the stevedoring business. They brought this suit on March 26, 1947 claiming back pay under a series of collective bargaining contracts entered into in 1941, 1943, and 1945 by the International Longshoremen's Association, their union and bargaining representative, and the New York Shipping Association, bargaining representative for the stevedoring firms in the New York area.¹

Under these three collective bargaining agreements the men were to be paid for time spent in traveling to the place of their labors when that site was removed from the ordinary place of employment. All parties agree that travel time pay was provided for in the contracts. The specific issue here concerns the rate of such pay. It is the contention of the plaintiffs that when men were traveling by any means whatever to a site where their work was to be the loading of explosives, they were to be paid for such traveling time at a higher rate of pay called the ammunition or explosives rate. These rates were under the 1941 contract $2.40 per hour for regular time and $3.60 per hour for overtime; under the 1943 contract $2.50 per hour for regular time and $3.75 per hour for overtime; and under the 1945 contract $3.00 per hour for regular time and $4.50 per hour for overtime. These rates were the rates paid to the men for time spent in the actual handling of explosives.

The contracts provided for premium rates for the handling of specific types of cargo, with loading of explosives compensated for at the highest rate. The lowest rate was called the general cargo rate. It was the basic general rate and higher rates for handling of specific material were exceptions to the general cargo rate. Under the 1941 contract the general cargo rate was $1.20 for regular time and $1.80 for overtime; under the 1943 contract it was $1.25 for regular time and $1.87½ for overtime; and under the 1945 contract it was $1.50 for regular time and $2.25 for overtime. It should be noted that the regular and over-time explosives rates were always double the corresponding general cargo rates. The following wage scale for explosives is taken from the 1941 contract. The provisions in the 1943 and 1945 contracts are identical except, of course, for the increase in rates:

"4. Wage Scale: The Wage Scale Shall be as Follows:

                  * * *                                  "Straight Time       Overtime
                                                              Hourly           Hourly
                                                              Rate             Rate
                  "(g) Explosives .............................$2.40           $3.60
                  "(i) When handled down the Bay, the time
                       shall start from the time men leave
                       the pier until the time they return
                       to pier
                 "(ii) When handled down the Bay, men
                       shall supply their own meals, but
                       $1.00 per meal shall be allowed by the
                       employer
                "(iii) When explosives, such as are customarily
                       handled down the Bay, are
                       handled at any pier, men shall be
                       paid at the explosives rate of pay
                "(iv) Any dispute as to what explosives
                      are, shall be settled by the Bureau of
                      Explosives whose decision shall be
                      final and shall be accepted by both
                      sides."
                

It is apparent that this provision of the contract contemplated that whenever men handled explosives they were to be paid at the explosives rate, no matter at what location such handling took place. Both plaintiffs and defendant understood this to be so and defendant paid according to this interpretation. It is also clear that when explosives were to be handled "down the Bay" the working time during which the men were to be paid at the explosives rate was to be computed from the time they left the pier until the hour they returned to the pier. Handling explosives "down the Bay" meant that the men would load a ship anchored in New York Bay with explosives obtained from barges towed to the ship. Such loading was not done at regular piers or docks but was done "down the Bay" as a safety precaution. In this event the men would meet or "shape" at a designated pier usually in Jersey City and would be transported from that pier to the ship which was to be loaded and when through would be brought back again. They were paid at the explosives rate from the moment they stepped aboard a launch or other water conveyance in order to be transported from the pier to the ship "down the Bay" to the moment they stepped off the launch and back onto the pier at the end of their day's work. If designated overtime hours were encompassed by this span of combined traveling and working time, those hours were paid for at the explosives overtime rate. It is conceded that the defendant paid according to this interpretation of clause 4(g) (i) above whenever explosives were handled "down the Bay".

There were, however, other locations at which explosives were loaded. If these locations were removed from normal working or "shaping" areas the men would be compensated for the time spent in traveling to the work location. In some cases the defendant would supply such transportation. At other times public conveyances would be used in which event the men would be given bus or train fare as well as payment for the time spent in riding to and from the work location.

The 1941 and 1943 contracts contained identical provisions concerning this travel time. Paragraph 17 of both contracts provided:

"17. When men are specifically ordered out from New York or Brooklyn to work on the North and East Rivers above 75th Street, or on piers at Weehawken, Communipaw or West New York, carfare in excess of that spent in traveling to their usual place of employment shall be allowed.

"Men specifically ordered out from New York or Brooklyn to work at Claremont, Edgewater or Astoria shall receive the equivalent of one hour's pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation, and at Yonkers, Bayonne, Carteret, Chrome, Port Newark, Greenville (Lehigh Valley Claremont Terminal) or Bayway shall receive the equivalent of two hours' pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation.

"Men specifically ordered out from Jersey City or Hoboken to work at Claremont, Edgewater, Bayonne, Port Newark, Greenville (Lehigh Valley Claremont Terminal) or Astoria shall receive the equivalent of one hour's pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation, and at Yonkers, Carteret, Chrome or Bayway shall receive the equivalent of two hours' pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation." (Italics supplied).

The 1945 contract contained substantially identical provisions concerning travel time:

"18. (a) When men are specifically ordered out from New York, Brooklyn, Hoboken or Jersey City, to work on the North and East River Piers above 75th Street, and when men are specifically ordered out from New York or Brooklyn to piers at Weehawken, Communipaw or West New York, carfare in excess of that spent in traveling to their usual place of employment shall be allowed.

"(b) Men specifically ordered out from New York or Brooklyn to work at Claremont, Edgewater or Astoria shall receive the equivalent of one hour's pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation, and at Yonkers, Bayonne, Carteret, Chrome, Port Newark, Greenville (Lehigh Valley Claremont Terminal) or Bayway shall receive the equivalent of two hours' pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation.

"(c) Men specifically ordered out from Jersey City or Hoboken to work at Claremont, Edgewater, Bayonne, Port Newark, Greenville (Lehigh Valley Claremont Terminal) or Astoria shall receive the equivalent of one hour's pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation, and at Yonkers, Carteret, Chrome or Bayway shall receive the equivalent of two hours' pay at the prevailing day rate, plus cost of transportation.

"(d) When men are specifically ordered out from New York, Brooklyn, Hoboken or Jersey City to Leonardo they shall receive the equivalent of three hours' pay at the prevailing day rate, plus the cost of transportation, unless transportation is provided by the employer." (Italics supplied).

There is no question that the plaintiffs were paid for their travel time. However, the plaintiffs contend that the contract properly construed required the defendant to pay them for travel time at the explosives rate of pay whenever they were to be compensated for time spent traveling to and from a location where explosives were handled. It will be seen from the above excerpts from the three contracts in suit that travel time was to be paid at the "prevailing day rate" of pay. It is plaintiffs' theory that those words...