Brooks Packing Co. v. Willis

• Decision Date: 11 May 1943
• Docket Number: 30660.
• Citation: 137 P.2d 923,192 Okla. 538,1943 OK 170
• Parties: BROOKS PACKING CO. v. WILLIS.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

137 P.2d 923

192 Okla. 538, 1943 OK 170

BROOKS PACKING CO. v. WILLIS.

No. 30660.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

May 11, 1943

Rehearing Denied May 25, 1943.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. is by its terms limited to employees engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce and does not extend to employment that merely affects interstate commerce.

2. The application of the Fair Labor Standards Act, supra, depends upon the character of the employee's activities; and the burden is upon said employee to prove that, in the course of performing services for the employer and without regard to the nature of said employer's business, he was, as such employee, engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce within the meaning of the Act.

3. Defendant, operator of a wholesale establishment, purchased certain commodities outside of the state for sale to retail trade within the state. In an action by plaintiff, employee of defendant, to recover the minimum wages fixed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, supra, it was shown that plaintiff's duties consisted of packing said commodities and shipping the same to the retail trade, but there was no showing that said goods had not acquired a fixed situs within the state and were not held for local disposition or use. Held that plaintiff failed to sustain the burden of proof that he was engaged in interstate commerce within the meaning of the Act, or in the production of goods for interstate commerce.

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

Action by Cecil Willis against the Brooks Packing Company to recover minimum wages allegedly due under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, §§ 1-19, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 201-219. Trial by the court upon written and oral stipulations resulted in a judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Judgment reversed and cause remanded for a new trial.

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

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

OSBORN Justice.

This action was commenced in the Court of Common Pleas of Tulsa County by Cecil Willis, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff against Brooks Packing Company, hereinafter referred to as defendant, wherein the plaintiff, as an employee of the defendant, sought recovery of a sum of money alleged to be due him as wages while employed by defendant. The cause of action was predicated upon the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 201-219, 52 Stat. 1060. The facts with reference to the payment of wages, the period of employment and the nature of the duties and activities of plaintiff as such employee, were stipulated. The cause came on for trial; a jury was waived; no evidence was introduced by either party, and the cause was submitted to the court upon written and oral stipulations. Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff, from which the defendant appealed.

Defendant owns and operates a meat packing industry near the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Plaintiff was employed by defendant from on or about July 6, 1939, to May 16, 1940. The portions of the stipulations which relate to the plaintiff's duties and activities are as follows:

"*** (2) It is further agreed and stipulated that in the discharge of his duties, the plaintiff herein worked the hours as set forth in the schedule attached to his petition herein and that he was paid for said work the sums of money as set forth in said petition and schedule attached and that in the discharge of his duties he packed, prepared and shipped out to retail merchants within the confines of the State of Oklahoma certain cheese, lunch meat and salt pork part of which had been purchased by the defendant herein outside of the State of Oklahoma. ***

(4) It is further stipulated and agreed that the plaintiff herein in the performance of his employment for the defendant herein had left over from the products he had prepared for shipment to the retail trade within the State of Oklahoma a small quantity of scraps and bones, some of which were later placed in the cooking vats where they were processed into the tankage which was later shipped out of the State of Oklahoma.

(5) It is further stipulated and agreed that the defendant herein is engaged entirely in the wholesale business in the sale of all of its edible products and was engaged in the wholesale business in so far as the products handled by the plaintiff herein were concerned. ***

(8) Mr. Linker: It is further stipulated and agreed by and between the parties in this case that during the time that plaintiff herein was employed by the defendant herein that the defendant herein in another department prepared, processed, shipped out and sold to customers outside the State of Oklahoma certain inedible products.

(9) It is further stipulated and agreed that the department in which the plaintiff herein was employed

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