Cederblade v. Parmelee Transp. Co., 46 C 55.

• Decision Date: 23 July 1947
• Docket Number: No. 46 C 55.,46 C 55.
• Citation: 94 F. Supp. 965
• Parties: CEDERBLADE et al. v. PARMELEE TRANSP. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

94 F. Supp. 965

CEDERBLADE et al. v. PARMELEE TRANSP. CO.

No. 46 C 55.

United States District Court N.D. Illinois, E.D.

July 23, 1947.

Frank P. Kronenberg, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Ringer, Reinwald & Sostrin, Chicago, Ill., for defendant.

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

This is an action for unpaid overtime compensation and liquidated damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq., brought by a number of plaintiffs who were employed by the defendant as chauffeurs and custodians in the operation of the automobile trucks and coaches used in the defendant's transportation business. The defendant pleaded certain legal defenses in its answer, which are now before the court on briefs filed by the parties pursuant to an order entered on January 21, 1947. The defendant has argued the second defense, relating to the alleged intrastate aspects of certain of its operations, and the ninth, tenth, and eleventh defenses, relating respectively to the motor carrier exemption, the rail carrier exemption, and the service establishment exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to the operations which are conceded or determined to be in Interstate Commerce.

In their answering brief the plaintiffs assert that the second defense is not a legal defense, that its determination requires the taking of evidence concerning the defendant's operations, and that statements by defendant's counsel in briefs cannot be substituted for evidence; and they accordingly move that all argument in support of the second defense and the unsupported statements of fact appearing in the defendant's brief be stricken. In view of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Yellow Cab Company, 332 U.S. 218, 67 S.Ct. 1560, 1567, 91 L.Ed. 2010, I think it is unnecessary to reserve ruling on the question of interstate commerce for the trial.

The Second Defense

The defendant states that its operations are of three types. First, the operation of buses between downtown Chicago and the Chicago Municipal Airport, transporting passengers and baggage in both directions. The passengers pay the defendant direct for this service. These airport buses are used by the defendant solely for this purpose. Second, the operation of trucks for the transportation of trunks and other baggage between residences, hotels, railroad stations, and bus terminals in Chicago and its Illinois suburbs. This service is paid for direct to the defendant by the owner of the baggage. Third, the operation of a transportation service between railroad depots or between railroad and boat depots in Chicago, carrying passengers and their baggage from one carrier to another in Chicago. This service is paid for by the carrier which receives the passenger for further transportation and is represented by a Parmelee transfer coupon issued with the through railroad ticket to the passenger. The defendant is paid by the carrier for this service upon presentation of this coupon.

The defendant concedes for the purpose of this motion that those plaintiffs who are engaged in inter-station transfer operations are engaged in interstate commerce, but argues that those engaged in operating airport buses and in general baggage transfer are engaged in intrastate commerce because such operations are begun and completed prior or subsequent to the movement of persons and baggage in interstate commerce. It contends that the latter operations are purely a local matter and are not an integral part of the movement of persons and baggage in interstate commerce. In this connection the defendant stresses the fact that in the latter operations the contract is between the defendant and the person being transported and shipping the baggage, and not, as in the interstation transfer operations, between the defendant and an interstate carrier.

In the recent anti-trust action against the Yellow Cab Company and others, including the defendant herein, the Supreme Court had occasion to pass upon the types of transportation service involved in the instant case. In this connection, the Court said: "* * * what may fairly be said to be the limits of an interstate shipment of goods and chattels may not necessarily be the commonly accepted limits of an individual's interstate journey." Hence it is unnecessary, for the purposes of this case, to analyze the great number of cases arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act which involve the shipment of goods in interstate commerce.

With respect to the movement of passengers and their luggage by means of transportation services of the type furnished by the defendant herein, the Supreme Court declared:

(1) The transportation, pursuant to Parmelee's exclusive contracts with railroads and railroad terminal associations, of passengers and their luggage, moving in an interstate journey, between stations in Chicago "is clearly a part of the stream of interstate commerce." The defendant herein has conceded this point.

(2) The transportation between railroad stations and residences and hotels prior or subsequent to the interstate railroad journey "is not a constituent part of the interstate movement."

A slight difference in facts exists at this point between the instant case and the Yellow Cab case. The Supreme Court in the latter case was considering the transportation of passengers and their baggage, and said that the commonly accepted limits of the interstate movement of an individual may not necessarily be the same as the limits of an interstate shipment of goods and chattels. In the instant case, the defendant's transportation service between railroad stations and bus terminals, and residences and hotels does not involve the movement of passengers, but pertains only to trunks and other baggage. I do not think that the absence of passenger service by the defendant in this category of its operations should place its general baggage transfer under the rules which mark the limits of the interstate movement of goods and chattels. Whether baggage is moving in intrastate or interstate commerce should be determined by the same rules which apply to the movement of the passenger whom the baggage is accompanying, whether or not the passenger and his baggage move to or from the station or terminal in the same vehicle. At least this should be the rule in the absence of some special arrangement, such as an agreement whereby the interstate carrier supplies vehicles for the transportation of passengers or baggage between the station or terminal and residences, hotels, or some designated central point. But when the passenger arranges for his own transportation and that of his luggage to or from a station or terminal prior or subsequent to an interstate journey. I think it is clearly immaterial whether the luggage accompanies the traveler, as in a taxicab, or whether it moves in special vehicle devoted solely to baggage. In other words, it is immaterial, insofar as the limits on the interstate movement of luggage are concerned, whether the luggage is small and can be carried by the passenger in the taxicab with him, or is so large that it must be handled by those specialized in such business and is therefore moved in a separate vehicle. Finally, I think that when the Supreme Court in the Yellow Cab case referred to different limits of an interstate shipment of goods and chattels, it was not considering the movement of luggage unaccompanied by the passenger, but was referring to the general movement of raw materials and finished goods in commerce, restraints on which are prohibited by the Sherman Act and the production of which comes within the Fair Labor Standards Act.

One additional difficulty is presented by certain language of the Court in the Yellow Cab case. In certain paragraphs of part III of its opinion, the Court refers to the fact that the transportation of persons and their luggage to and from Chicago railroad stations is intermingled "with the admittedly local operations of the Chicago taxicabs"; that a taxicab does not limit its service to railroad passengers but is required to serve every person in Chicago; that, when a taxicab driver serves a passenger either embarking upon or just finishing an interstate journey, it is, like any other haul within the city, "just another local fare." From these statements it might be concluded that a distinction should be drawn between ordinary taxicab operations and Parmelee's operations involving general baggage transfer and airport buses, since both of these operations of the defendant are restricted to incoming and outgoing passengers, most of whom undoubtedly move across state...