Anderson v. Federal Cartridge Corporation, 13312.

CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
Citation156 F.2d 681
Docket NumberNo. 13312.,13312.
PartiesANDERSON et al. v. FEDERAL CARTRIDGE CORPORATION.
Decision Date03 September 1946

156 F.2d 681 (1946)

ANDERSON et al.
v.
FEDERAL CARTRIDGE CORPORATION.

No. 13312.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

July 17, 1946.

Rehearing Denied September 3, 1946.


156 F.2d 682

Harrison E. Fryberger, of Minneapolis, Minn., for appellants.

Linus J. Hammond, Asst. U. S. Atty., of St. Paul, Minn. (Victor E. Anderson, U. S. Atty., of St. Paul, Minn., on the brief), for appellee.

Before GARDNER, and THOMAS, Circuit Judges, and DUNCAN, District Judge.

GARDNER, Circuit Judge.

This was an action to recover overtime compensation, liquidated damages, and attorney fees alleged to be due by reason of the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A., §§ 201-219. By its answer defendant pleaded that plaintiffs qualified as exempt employees and for that reason were not within the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The parties will be referred to as they were designated in the trial court. There were a great number of individuals named as plaintiffs, but on the suggestion of the court twelve representative cases were selected for trial and the remaining cases held in abeyance until the determination of this action.

The action was tried to the court without a jury, resulting in findings and conclusions of law to the effect that the duties, responsibility and work performed by nine of the plaintiffs were such that they qualified as exempt executive and administrative employees within the meaning of the Act, but that the remaining three did not so qualify. Pursuant to these findings the court entered judgment for the defendant in the cases of Joseph Klug, Harry F. Brown, Walter W. King, Frode Anderson, Walter Hakanson, John B. Elliott, George R. Johnson, John F. Carlson and Leo A. Day, and judgment for plaintiffs in the cases of Donald W. Stewart, George F. Owen and Joseph L. Graen. From the judgments entered an appeal was perfected on behalf of all plaintiffs, including those recovering judgments against defendant. Plaintiffs Donald W. Stewart and George F. Owens filed motions to dismiss the appeals as to them, each asserting that he was satisfied with the judgments recovered and that the appeal as to him was unauthorized. We accordingly dismissed the appeals as to said plaintiffs without prejudice to the appeals of any of the other plaintiffs.

On this appeal appellants seek reversal on substantially the following classes of alleged errors: (1) Error in adopting a fluctuating hour week formula in calculating or measuring the amount due plaintiffs; (2) error in various rulings as to the admissibility of evidence; (3) error in unduly restricting the cross-examination of defendant's witnesses; (4) error in making findings in favor of defendant; (5)

156 F.2d 683
error in expunging certain assignments of error set forth by plaintiffs in their notice of motion for a new trial

Preliminary to a consideration of the issues sought to be presented we shall refer to the condition of the record. Rule 11 of this court which refers to the contents of briefs and records, provides that a brief shall contain, among other things:

"Fourth. — A separate and particular statement of each assignment of error (in criminal cases), or of each point relied upon (in civil cases), intended to be urged, with the record page thereof. If an error assigned or point relied upon relates to the admission or exclusion of evidence, the statement shall quote the evidence referred to and the pertinent objections or exceptions taken, together with the rulings of the court thereon, giving the pages of the printed record on which the quotations appear. * * *."

In the points relied upon as printed in appellants' brief, counsel do not point to any concrete action of the court or specific ruling which is challenged as erroneous, but the points go to the entire case or the theory upon which the court decided the issues. For instance, Point 1 reads as follows:

"The record discloses that the trial court possessed an entire misconception of the law of this case, and each and all his rulings, findings and decisions were controlled or influenced by his misconception of the law. This misconception was evidenced by his rulings as to the formula to be selected, the relief to be granted, by his failure to observe the doctrine of judicial notice, as to burden of proof, by his commission of some 815 reversible errors of law involving substantial rights of the plaintiffs or one or more of them; that the proceedings at the trial may well be the most erroneous of those adopted in any case in the annals of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. These misconceptions are also further outlined in succeeding points * * *."

The foregoing may be said to be typical but one or two more will be given.

Point IV is as follows:

"The trial court erred in its assumption that the case of Snyder v. Wessner, D.C., 55 F.Supp. 971, a case concerning the personnel of a tailor shop, is controlling in this suit, although the case at bar involves a war plant controlled by the United States Army * * *."

Point V is as follows:

"The refusal or failure of the trial court to take judicial notice of the decision of McCandless v. United States, 298 U.S. 342-347, 56 S.Ct. 764, 80 L.Ed. 1205, must be regarded as a very extreme error from whatever angle the same is viewed * * *."

Point VIII is as follows:

"The trial court erred in its violation of the rule laid down by the United States Supreme Court in Manning v. Insurance Co., 100 U.S. 693-698, 25 L.Ed. 761, to the effect there must be some open and visible connection between the principal or evidentiary matter and the deductions to be made therefrom, and does not permit a decision to be made upon remote inferences. (Reference is hereby made to Point VIII as found in record, pages 1066-1067, and especially to the items a, b, c, d, e and f in our argument of Point X, R. 1067-1068) * * *."

These points challenge no specific action or ruling of the court. The purpose of the rule requiring that appellant's brief shall contain a separate and particular statement of each point relied upon is to point out to the appellate court and to opposing counsel the specific ruling or action which is challenged as erroneous without going beyond the assignment itself, and to limit the presentation in the appellate court to the matters in the points or specifications as stated in the brief. Cohen v. United States, 8 Cir., 142 F.2d 861; E. R. Squibb & Sons v. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, 8 Cir., 69 F.2d 685; Hard...

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