Brooks Packing Co. v. Henry

• Decision Date: 11 May 1943
• Docket Number: Case Number: 30566
• Citation: 1943 OK 168,192 Okla. 533,137 P.2d 918
• Parties: BROOKS PACKING CO. v. HENRY
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1943 OK 168

137 P.2d 918

192 Okla. 533

BROOKS PACKING CO. v. HENRY

Case Number: 30566

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: May 11, 1943

Syllabus

¶0 1. MASTER AND SERVANT--Employee covered by Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 if substantial part of his activities relates to production of goods for interstate commerce.

The application of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.) depends upon the character of the employee's activities. If a substantial part of said activities relates to production of goods for interstate commerce, such employee is covered by the act.

2. SAME--Act held to cover night watchman in packing plant whose duties included tending fires, vats, etc., used in processing products for interstate commerce.

A night watchman in a meat packing industry, whose duties include the tending of fires, vats and other utensils used in processing grease, tankage and desiccate blood, which products are produced for interstate commerce, is engaged in an "occupation necessary to the production" of goods, within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act, supra, regulating the hours of service and wages of employees engaged in the "production!' of goods in interstate commerce.

3. SAME--Defendant employer held not entitled to deductions provided by certain statutory provisions relating to seasonal employment.

Record examined, and held: That the defendant employer was not entitled to the deductions provided by Title 29, U.S. C.A. § 207, subsections (a) and (c), relating to seasonal employment.

Appeal from Court of Common Pleas, Tulsa County; William N. Randolph, Judge.

Action by William Wesley Henry against the Brooks Packing Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

R. R. Linker and F. E. Riddle, of Tulsa, for plaintiff in error.

Elmore A. Page, Paul L. Olney, and W. L. Shirey, all of Tulsa, for defendant in error,

OSBORN, J.

¶1 William Wesley Henry, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, instituted this action in the court of common pleas of Tulsa county against Brooks Packing Company, hereinafter referred to as defendant, wherein plaintiff sought recovery of a sum of money alleged to be due him as wages while employed by defendant. Plaintiff's action was predicated upon the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, Title 29, U. S. C. A. §§ 201-219, 52 Stat. 1060. Issues were joined and the cause proceeded to trial before a jury. During the course of the trial the facts with reference to the period of employment and the payment of wages were stipulated, and it was agreed that, if plaintiff's employment was within the regulatory provisions of the act, he would be entitled to recover. After the introduction of evidence, the trial court ruled that the employment was within the act and directed a verdict in favor of plaintiff. From a judgment thereon, the defendant has appealed.

¶2 Defendant owns and operates a meat packing industry near Tulsa, Okla. Plaintiff entered the employ of defendant on July 9, 1939. His primary duties were those of night watchman, but, in addition thereto, he performed other duties, to which reference will be made later in this opinion. All of the animals slaughtered at the plant are purchased within this state, and all of the meat processed and prepared for market by defendant is sold within this state. It appears that in connection with the slaughter and processing, certain byproducts are produced; that about ten per cent of an animal is inedible; that the inedible portions of the carcasses are placed in a tank and cooked and thereafter placed under hydraulic pressure which removes the grease from the tankage; that said grease is known as B-White grease, which grease is used for the manufacture of soaps; that the remaining meat scraps are placed in bags for marketing; that the blood is cooked in the same tank and the dried blood is thereafter marketed for use in the manufacture of ammonia.

¶3 C. W. Brooks, the general manager and vice president of defendant company, was called as a witness by plaintiff and testified that during the past three years he had sold tankage, blood, and grease in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas; that probably half of said products were sold in Missouri and the remainder was divided between the States of Oklahoma and Kansas. Certain bills of lading were identified and placed in evidence, showing that from November 3, 1938, to January 25, 1940, a number of shipments of said products were made from defendant company to St. Louis, Mo.

¶4 As heretofore stated, plaintiff was employed as a night watchman, but in connection with his duties as such, it was also shown that he tended the fires, vats, and other utensils used in processing the B-White grease, tankage, and desiccate blood.

¶5 The sole question presented herein is whether or not, under the facts as stated, employment of plaintiff was within the regulatory provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Title 29, U. S. C. A. § 206, in part, provides:

"(a) Every employer shall pay to each of his employees who is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce wages at the following rates-

"(1) during the first year from the effective date of this section, not less than 25 cents an hour,

"(2) during the next six years from the effective date, not less than 30 cents an hour,

"(3) after the expiration of seven years from such date, not less than 40 cents an hour, or the rate (not less than 30 cents an hour) prescribed in the applicable order of the Administrator issued under section 208 of this title, whichever is lower, and

"(4) at any time after the effective date of this section, not less than the rate (not in excess of 40 cents an hour) prescribed in the applicable order of the Administrator issued under section 208 of this title,..."

¶6 Title 29, U. S. C. A. § 203, in part, provides:

"...(b) 'Commerce' means trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several states or from any state to any place outside thereof....

"(j) 'Produced' means produced, manufactured, mined, handled, or in any other manner worked on in any state; and for the purposes of this chapter an employee shall be deemed to have been engaged in the production of goods if such employee was employed in producing, manufacturing, mining, handling, transporting, or in any other manner working on such goods, or in any process or occupation necessary to the production thereof, in any state...."

¶7 The congressional finding and declaration of the policy of the act is found in Title 29, U. S. C. A. §202, and is stated as follows:

"(a) The Congress hereby finds that the existence, in industries engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, of labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general wellbeing of workers (1) causes commerce and the channels and instrumentalities of commerce to be used to spread and perpetuate such labor conditions among the workers of the several states; (2) burdens commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; (3) constitutes an unfair method of competition in commerce; (4) leads to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; and (5) interferes with the orderly and fair marketing of goods in commerce.

"(b) It is hereby declared to be the policy of sections 201-219 of this title, through the exercise by Congress of its power to regulate commerce among the several states, to correct and as rapidly as practicable to eliminate the conditions above referred to in such industries without substantially curtailing employment or earning power. June 25, 1938, c. 676, sec. 2, 52 Stat. 1060."

¶8 The motive and purpose of the act is to make effective the conception that interstate commerce should not be made the instrument of competition in the distribution of goods produced under substandard labor conditions, which competition is injurious to the commerce and to the states from and to which the commerce flows. United States v. Darby, 312 U. S. 110, 85 L. Ed. 395, 61 S. Ct. 451, 132 A. L. R. 1430; and Over-night Motor Transp. Co. v. Missel, 316 U. S. 572, 86 L. Ed. 1682. The purpose of the act is to fix wages, not for particular individuals and companies, but industry-wide, on a basis which the industry can stand and under conditions which, if classification is required in the industry, will not give one section of it a competitive advantage over another. Columbus & G. Ry. Co. v. Adm'r of Wage & Hour Division (C.C.A. 5th), 126 F. (2d) 136.

¶9 The Fair Labor Standards Act was held to be constitutional in the cases of United States v. Darby, supra, and Opp Cotton Mills, Inc., v. Adm'r of Wage & Hour Division of the Dept. of Labor, 312 U. S. 126, 61 S. Ct. 524, 85 L. Ed. 624.

¶10 In the case of Walling, Adm'r v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 87 L. Ed. 393, it was said:

"The fact that all of respondent's business is not shown to have an interstate character is not important. The applicability of the act is dependent on the

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