Bright v. Hobbs, Civil Action No. 2191.

• Decision Date: 14 August 1944
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 2191.
• Parties: BRIGHT v. HOBBS et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

56 F. Supp. 723

BRIGHT v. HOBBS et al.

Civil Action No. 2191.

District Court, D. Maryland.

August 14, 1944.

Wm. Pepper Constable and John D. Alexander, both of Baltimore, Md., for plaintiff.

Layman J. Redden, of Denton, Md., and D. Heyward Hamilton Jr., of Baltimore, Md., for defendants.

COLEMAN, District Judge.

This is a suit to recover (1) unpaid minimum and overtime wages; (2) an additional equal amount as liquidated damages, and (3) an attorney's fee, under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 201-219.

The matter is now before this Court on defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint on the sole ground that the alleged cause of action is barred by limitations.

The material facts as set forth in the bill of complaint which must, for present purposes, be accepted as true, are as follows: Defendants, co-partners trading as Hobbs Manufacturing Company, were, between October 24, 1938, and June 7, 1940, engaged in the manufacture of crates and baskets, and in the canning and packing of tomatoes at Hobbs, Caroline County, Maryland. A substantial part of all crates and baskets, as well as all tomatoes canned and packed by the defendants during this period, were sold for shipment in interstate commerce. During this period the defendants employed the plaintiff as night watchwoman to guard the plant in which the crates and baskets were manufactured and the tomatoes canned and packed, as well as the separate buildings in which they were stored, awaiting transportation.

Plaintiff was so employed for the entire period above stated, or for a total period of 85 weeks, for 70 hours each week (7 days per week of 10 hours each), and was paid by the defendants at the rate of $4 per week, or approximately 5.71 cents per hour.

Since, pursuant to Sections 6 and 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, defendants were required, as plaintiff claims, to compensate her during the period from October 24, 1938, to October 21, 1939, or a period of 52 weeks, for each hour of work not in excess of 44 hours per work week at a rate not less than 25 cents per hour; and for each hour of work in excess of 44 hours at a rate not less than one and one-half times the minimum wage of 25 cents per hour, i. e. at the rate of 37½ cents for each such overtime hour, she, therefore, was entitled to minimum wages during this period of $572 and to overtime wages of $507, and since she has been paid only $208, there is a balance due her of $871.00 for this period.

Also, as plaintiff claims, since, pursuant to Sections 6 and 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, defendants were required to compensate plaintiff during the balance of the period here in question, namely, from October 21, 1939, to June 7, 1940, or a period of 33 weeks, for each hour of work not in excess of 42 hours per work week, at a rate not less than 30 cents per hour, and for each hour of work in excess of 42 hours, at a rate not less than one and one-half times the minimum wage of 30 cents per hour, i. e. at the rate of 45 cents for each such overtime hour, she was entitled to minimum wages in the amount of $415.80, and over-time wages in the same amount; and since she has been paid only $132, there is a balance due her of $699.60 for this period.

The Fair Labor Standards Act has been declared constitutional. United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100, 657, 61 S.Ct. 451, 85 L.Ed. 609, 132 A.L.R. 1430; Overnight Motor Transportation Co. v. Missel, 316 U.S. 572, 62 S.Ct. 1216, 86 L.Ed. 1682. But the Act prescribes no period of limitations within which a suit of this kind can be brought. Therefore, the question of limitations being a matter of procedure, it is to be governed by the law of Maryland. Under that law, if a suit is upon a simple contract, the period of limitations is three years, Annotated Code of Maryland, Edition of 1939, Article 57, Section 1; but if upon a specialty, the limitations period is twelve years, Article 57, Section 3. Thus the precise question here presented is whether the present suit is upon a simple contract or a specialty. Since the wage claims which form the basis of the suit all arose in the years of 1938, 1939 and 1940, they are barred by the three-year period, if the suit is upon a simple contract, but are not barred if it is to be treated as being upon a specialty, since the suit was instituted March 23, 1944.

The relevant text of Section 1 of Article 57 is as follows: "All actions of account, actions of assumpsit, or on the case, * * * actions of debt on simple contract, * * * shall be commenced, sued or issued within three years from the time the cause of action accrued; * * *."

The text of Section 3 of Article 57 of the Annotated Code of Maryland is as follows, in so far as it bears upon the present case: "no bill, testamentary, administration or other bond * * * judgment, recognizance, statute merchant, or of the staple or other specialty whatsoever * * * shall be good and pleadable, or admitted in evidence against any person in this State after the principal debtor and creditor have been both dead twelve years, or the debt or thing in action is above twelve years' standing * * *."

It is therefore appropriate to turn immediately to a consideration of the interpretation which the Court of Appeals has given to this statutory enactment, and since there are three comparatively recent decisions of that Court, construing the statute, it would seem superfluous to analyze any Maryland decisions prior to them.

The first of these three decisions is Mattare v. Cunningham, 148 Md. 309, 129 A. 654, decided in 1925. That case involved an action upon a monetary award of the State Industrial Accident Commission affirmed by the Baltimore City Court on appeal. The action was brought more than three years after the last payment became due under the award. It is apparent that the situation grew out of a contract relation, the employment of plaintiff by the defendant, which among other things fixed the compensation upon which the amount of the award was based under the State Workmen's Compensation Act. The Court of Appeals said, after quotations from Wood on Limitations (4th ed.), to the effect that liabilities imposed by statute are specialties (148 Md. at page 316, 129 A. at page 656): "The proceeding before the Commission was created by statute, had its foundation therein, and had for its purpose the compelling of payment by the employer to an injured employee, or his dependents, where the injury or death was accidental and arose out of and in the course of his employment, a sum of money as compensation for the injury or death. The suit upon the award, which is the approved and proper method of enforcing the award of the Commission, is simply compelling the full and complete performance by the employer of the obligation imposed by the statute. We think that reason and authority are conclusive upon the point that the award of the Industrial Accident Commission is a specialty within the meaning of section 3 of article 57 of the Code, and that an action or suit based upon the award is not barred by limitation if the suit thereon is instituted within twelve years from the date of the award." (Italics supplied).

In 1939 the Court of Appeals in Sterling v. Reecher, 176 Md. 567, 6 A.2d 237, had before it an action brought by the receiver of the Central Trust Company of Maryland against stockholders to recover their double liability under Annotated Code of Maryland, 1939, Section 97 of Article 11, which had been in force prior to 1937. Chief Judge Bond said in rendering the Court's Opinion (176 Md. at page 569, 6 A.2d at page 238): * * * "suits grounded on statutes have been held to be in debt on records of the highest rank, those of acts of Parliament, and hence specialties. * * * `All instruments under seal, of record, and liabilities imposed by statutes are specialties'. * * * And suits upon them are not within the original act providing the limitation on actions on simple contracts. * * * But the element of contract in a subscription to stock upon which the Maryland statute lays the double liability, has produced uncertainty in the classification of suits to recover it. Are they grounded on contract or on the statute? * * * `The liability is wholly statutory, and its definition must be found in the words of the statute creating it.' Robinson v. Hospelhorn, 169 Md. 117, 131, 179 A. 515, 521, 184 A. 903, 103 A.L.R. 740." The opinion continues on page 571 of 176 Md., on page 239 of 6 A.2d: "They Maryland decisions cited seem to the court to leave no doubt that the remedy for the liability is now purely statutory, and the only right of action that on a specialty. * * * The limitation of twelve years under section 3 of article 57 is found to apply for the reasons stated."

The latest decision of the Maryland Court of Appeals on the point, and the one relied upon by the defendants here, is ...