Blum v. Schuyler Packing Co., 74-1343
| Decision Date | 31 December 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 74-1343,74-1343 |
| Citation | 508 F.2d 881 |
| Parties | 22 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 78, 75 Lab.Cas. P 33,185 Robert BLUM et al., Appellants, v. SCHUYLER PACKING COMPANY and Spencer Foods, Inc., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Judith A. Lonnquist, Jacobs, Gore, Burns & Sugarman, Chicago, Ill., for appellants.
Soren Jensen, Omaha, Neb., for appellees.
Before VAN OOSTERHOUT, Senior Circuit Judge, HEANEY, Circuit Judge, and MEREDITH, Chief District Judge. 1
Plaintiffs appeal from a judgment rendered against them and in favor of defendants. The judgment was rendered after the case was submitted on a stipulation of the parties as to certain facts relating to the computation method used by defendants to determine the wages of the plaintiff-employees on the 'kill floor' at defendants' meat packing plant at Schuyler, Nebraska. Under the terms of the stipulation, the cause was submitted to the district court for a determination of one limited question. Paragraph 'A' of the stipulation is as follows:
This stipulation of facts, along with the briefs which will be submitted by the parties, is submitted to the Court for determination of the liability in one limited but overriding area, to-wit: The legality under the provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 of paying employees on a computed gang time basis rather than on the basis of the time on their individual time cards, where the time reflected on the time cards is greater than computed gang time.
The dispute centers around the defendants' use of the 'gang time' method for paying the employees on the kill floor. All other employees at the plant are paid according to their individual time cards. Time cards are kept for the kill floor employees, but the defendants state that these are used for recording attendance only, even though employees are carefully instructed in the use of the time clock and instructed not to punch in early or punch out late.
The stipulation indicates that the time cards are preserved by the employers, while the records of the data used to make the 'gang time' computations are scanty, at best. The plaintiffs argue that the employees should be paid according to their time cards because they are the most accurate records of the individual time worked by each employee, and the failure of the defendants to keep records of the data that goes into the 'gang time' computations is, in itself, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. 211(c)), entitling them to the relief requested. Defendants argue that the district court was correct in holding that the plaintiffs had not met their burden of proof, under the Act, because they did not show that the employees had performed compensable work for which they have not been paid. This Court does not agree.
The final paragraph of the stipulation states:
Because of their inability to reach agreement on certain factual details the parties have purposely left ambiguities in this Stipulation of Facts to enable each party to argue its version of those factual details in its brief. However, the parties will supply the Court with such additional information as it shall request.
The stipulation, by...
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...pace trimmers on a "gang time" basis is a violation of the FLSA. The Eight Circuit squarely addressed this issue in Blum v. Schuyler Packing Co., 508 F.2d 881 (8th Cir.1974). In deciding this issue, the Court found that the record in Blum was insufficient to grant the requested relief to pl......
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...377, 378, 347 F.2d 471, 472 (1965); Gould v. American-Hawaiian S.S. Co., 535 F.2d 761, 773 (3d Cir. 1976); Blum v. Schuyler Packing Co., 508 F.2d 881, 883 (8th Cir. 1974). Substantive decisionmaking is limited to questions of law, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), and resolution of factual disputes i......
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...and the government has the burden of proving such violations. The situation here presented is similar to that in Blum v. Schuyler Packing Co., 508 F.2d 881 (8th Cir.1974), where the parties submitted stipulated facts to the district court for determination of "[t]he legality under the provi......
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