Barrett v. Adams Fruit Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 15 March 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-3121,88-3121
• Citation: 867 F.2d 1305
• Parties: , 111 Lab.Cas. P 35,186 Ramsford BARRETT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ADAMS FRUIT COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1305

867 F.2d 1305

57 USLW 2553, 111 Lab.Cas. P 35,186

Ramsford BARRETT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ADAMS FRUIT COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 88-3121.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

March 15, 1989.

Nora Leto, Bartow, Fla., Mivoshi D. Smith, Lipman & Weisberg, Miami, Fla., Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc., West Palm Beach, Fla., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Bonita L. Kneeland, Fowler, White, Gillen, Boggs, Villareal & Banker, Tampa, Fla., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before VANCE and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges, and HENDERSON, Senior Circuit Judge.

VANCE, Circuit Judge:

This case requires us to determine whether the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, Pub.L. No. 97-470, 96 Stat. 2584 (1983) (codified at 29 U.S.C. Secs. 1801-1872), ("the Act") preempts the exclusive remedy provision of Florida's workers' compensation laws, Fla.Stat.Ann. Sec. 440.11 (West 1981). For the reasons set forth below we conclude that the private cause of action provision of the Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1854, preempts the Florida statute. Therefore, the receipt of workers' compensation benefits does not bar a private suit under the Act for actual or statutory damages.

I.

On May 8, 1985 plaintiffs, a group of farm workers, were injured in an accident while being transported in a van owned by their employer, Adams Fruit Company, Inc. ("Adams"). Plaintiffs received workers' compensation benefits pursuant to Florida law. They sued Adams under 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1854. In their complaint plaintiffs alleged that the accident occurred and that their injuries were aggravated because Adams violated the Act and its implementing regulations by transporting plaintiffs in an unsafe van loaded beyond its seating capacity, by failing to provide a seat belt for each passenger and by failing to secure water storage containers transported in the van. Pursuant to section 1854 plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief and damages "equal to the amount of actual damages they suffered as a result of defendant's violations of the [Act] or statutory damages of $500 per plaintiff per violation of the Act and its implementing regulations, whichever is greater."

Plaintiffs here appeal from the grant of summary judgment in favor of Adams as to its liability for actual or statutory damages due to violations of the Act's transportation safety requirements. The district court concluded that plaintiffs' claims for actual or statutory damages under the Act were barred by Fla.Stat. Sec. 440.11, which provides in part that "[t]he liability of an employer ... shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer ... to the employee ... and anyone otherwise entitled to recover damages from such employer at law or in admiralty...." The district court relied on a Department of Labor regulation which provides that "[w]here a State workers' compensation law is applicable and coverage is provided for a migrant or seasonal agricultural worker by the employer, the workers' compensation benefits are the exclusive remedy for loss under this Act in the case of bodily injury or death." 29 C.F.R. Sec. 500.122(b). The district court was also persuaded by the recent decision of the fourth circuit that the Act was not intended to preempt state workers' compensation laws. Roman v. Sunny Slope Farms, Inc., 817 F.2d 1116 (4th Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 163, 98 L.Ed.2d 117 (1987).

The parties settled their claims for statutory penalties for other violations of the Act. This appeal followed.

II.

There are several ways in which a state statute may be preempted by a federal law and thereby rendered invalid under the Supremacy Clause.

First, when acting within constitutional limits, Congress is empowered to pre-empt state law by so stating in express terms.... Second, congressional intent to pre-empt state law in a particular area may be inferred where the scheme of federal regulation is sufficiently comprehensive to make reasonable the inference that Congress "left no room" for supplementary state regulation....

As a third alternative, in those areas where Congress has not completely displaced state regulation, federal law may nonetheless pre-empt state law to the extent it actually conflicts with the federal law. Such a conflict occurs either because "compliance with both federal and state regulation is a physical impossibility," Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 142-143, 83 S.Ct. 1210, 1217, 10 L.Ed.2d 248 (1963), or because the state law stands "as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress." Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67, 61 S.Ct. 399, 404, 85 L.Ed. 581 (1941)....

California Fed. Sav. and Loan Ass'n v. Guerra, 479 U.S. 272, 280-81, 107 S.Ct. 683, 689, 93 L.Ed.2d 613 (1987) (citations omitted). Neither the first nor second basis of preemption is present here. In passing the Act, Congress expressly recognized and left room for state regulation. Section 1871 provides that "[t]his chapter is intended to supplement State law, and compliance with this chapter shall not excuse any person from compliance with appropriate State law and regulation." 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1871.

To determine whether the Florida statute is preempted under the third basis we must ascertain the purposes and objectives of the Act. ¹ This involves questions of statutory construction. Thus, the deference with which we would ordinarily treat administrative regulations is not appropriate. See Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 447-48, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 1221-22, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987) (" 'The judiciary is the final authority on issues of statutory construction and must reject administrative constructions which are contrary to clear congressional intent....' ") (quoting Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Counsel, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843 n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2782 n. 9, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984)).

A.

We begin by examining the background of the Act. The legislative history is complex, reflecting repeated Congressional attempts to strengthen enforcement and broaden protections to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The Act's predecessor, the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act, Pub.L. No. 88-582, 78 Stat. 920 (1963) ("FLCRA") (repealed in 1983 by the Act), was enacted in 1963 in response to problems of farmworker exploitation and abuse. See S.Rep. No. 202, 88th Cong., 2d Sess. reprinted in 1964 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, 3690, 3692. This act established a system of federal registration for interstate farm labor contractors and required them to keep detailed payroll records for each worker, to disclose truthfully to farmworkers information about the area of employment, crops, wage rates, housing and transportation to be provided, and to obtain insurance covering the transportation of these workers. The Secretary of Labor was responsible for enforcement. See Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act, Secs. 5, 6, 7, reprinted in 1964 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, 1048, 1050-52.

By 1974, testimony before Congress made clear that the FLCRA needed strengthening. ² As a result, Congress amended the FLCRA to broaden coverage and strengthen enforcement. In order for farm labor contractors to receive a certificate of registration from the Secretary of Labor, they were required to show proof of vehicle insurance and to demonstrate that their vehicles and property complied with federal and state health and safety standards. The 1974 amendments created a federal cause of action for damages by persons aggrieved by violations of the FLCRA or its regulations. The amendments raised the maximum criminal penalties and empowered the Secretary of Labor to seek injunctive relief and impose civil penalties. See Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act Amendments of 1974, Pub.L. No. 93-518, reprinted in 1974 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1899, 1903-1905. The amended act was silent as to the extent to which state workers' compensation insurance could be used to satisfy the minimum insurance requirements.

In 1978 ³ congressional hearings were held to examine a number of proposed amendments to the FLCRA and to discuss the manner in which the Department of Labor was administering the act. One proposed bill, H.R. 10631, would have amended section 5(a)(2) of the FLCRA to provide:

If such applicant has filed proof satisfactory to the Secretary [of Labor] of the existence of a policy of workmen's compensation insurance which insures the payment of workmen's compensation benefits under State law for personal injury or death to migrant workers by accident arising out of and in the course of their employment in connection with his business, activities, or operations as a farm labor contractor, the policy of vehicle liability insurance provided by him shall conform to the exclusive remedy provisions of the State workmen's compensation law.

H.R. 10631, 95th Congress, 2d Sess., reprinted in Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act: Hearings on H.R. 8232, H.R. 8233, H.R. 8234, H.R. 8249, H.R. 8894, H.R. 10053, H.R. 10631, H.R. 10810, H.R. 10922 Before the Subcomm. on Economic Opportunity of the Comm. on Educ. and Labor, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 4 (1978) [hereinafter "Hearings "]. Representative Ireland, the sponsor of this bill, explained that this provision was to prevent courts from allowing "double dipping" by agricultural workers. See Hearings at 34. Representatives from the Department of Labor opposed this amendment, ⁴ as did farmworker representatives. ⁵ Congress rejected this amendment. ⁶

Dissatisfaction with the FLCRA continued. In 1982 Congress repealed this act and passed the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The House Report accompanying this bill noted that under the FLCRA employers were treated in a "haphazard, burdensome,...