Chas. Wolff Packing Co. v. Court of Indus. Relations of Kansas, s. 207

• Decision Date: 13 April 1925
• Docket Number: Nos. 207,299,s. 207
• Citation: 267 U.S. 552,69 L.Ed. 785,45 S.Ct. 441
• Parties: CHAS. WOLFF PACKING CO. v. (two cases)
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

267 U.S. 552

45 S.Ct. 441

69 L.Ed. 785

CHAS. WOLFF PACKING CO.

v COURT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS OF KANSAS (two cases).

Nos. 207, 299.

Argued Nov. 20, 1924.

Decided April 13, 1925.

Mr. D. R. Hite, of Topeka, Kan., for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 553 intentionally omitted] Messrs. John G. Egan, of Topeka, Kan., and Chester I. Long, of Wichita, Kan., for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 554-558 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice VAN DEVANTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This was an original proceeding in mandamus in the Supreme Court of Kansas to compel the Wolff Packing Company to put into effect an order of a state agency, called the Court of Industrial Relations, determining a dispute respecting wages, hours labor and working conditions in a slaughtering and packing plant owned and operated by the company. The order was made in a compulsory proceeding under a Kansas statute, called the Industrial Relations Act, Laws Special Session 1920, c. 29, and consisted of 19 distinct paragraphs—some fixing wages, some fixing hours of labor and pay for overtime, and others prescribing working conditions. After a hearing the Supreme Court eliminated the paragraphs relating to working conditions, because made without the required notice, and awarded a peremptory writ of mandamus commanding obedience to the other paragraphs. Court of Industrial Relations v. Charles Wolff Packing Co., 109 Kan. 629, 201 P. 418; Id., 111 Kan. 501, 207 P. 806. That judgment was brought to this court for review and was reversed, with a direction that the case be remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with the opinion rendered at the time. 262 U. S. 522, 43 S. Ct. 630, 67 L. Ed. 1103, 27 A. L. R. 1280. After receiving the mandate, the state court vacated its original judgment, eliminated the paragraphs relating to working conditions and those fixing wages, also eliminated from the paragraphs fixing hours of labor the clauses relating to pay for overtime, and awarded a peremptory writ of mandamus commanding obedience to what remained of the last paragraphs. Court of Industrial Relations v. Charles Wolff Packing Co., 114 Kan. 304, 219 P. 259. On a rehearing, the court modified that judgment by awarding a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel obedience to the paragraphs fixing hours of labor, including the clauses relating to pay for overtime. 114 Kan. 487, 227 P. 249. The paragraphs to which obedience was thus finally commanded are as follows:

'(3) A basic working day of 8 hours shall be observed in this industry; but a 9-hour day may be observed not to exceed 2 days in any 1 week without penalty: Provided, however, that if the working hours of the week shall exceed 48 in number, all over 48 shall be paid for at the rate of time and one-half; furthermore, in case a day in excess of the 8-hour day shall be observed more than 2 days in any 1 week, all over 8 hours, except for said 2 days in said week, shall be paid for at the rate of time and one-half, even though the working hours of the week may be 48 hours or fewer.'

'(14) Workers paid by the week or day, if employed within the plant and not within the office or sales department, shall be subject to hours of work and overtime as other employees under the terms of finding No. 3 hereof.'

'(19) In departments operating 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, each employee therein shall be entitled to 1 day off each week. In other departments work performed on Sunday and legal holidays shall be paid for at the rate of time and one-half.'

The order, according to its terms, was to remain in force until changed by the Court of Industrial Relations or by agreement of the parties with the approval of that agency.

The company has brought the case here again—this time on two writs of error. One covers the judgment first entered after receipt of the mandate of this court, and the other covers the judgment entered on the rehearing. The first of these writs can serve no purpose and must be dismissed. The rehearing was seasonably requested and the judgment entered thereon became the final judgment, the other being superseded by it.

Throughout the mandamus proceedings the company insisted that the Industrial Relations Act, on which the order was based, was in conflict with the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that no state shall deprive any person of liberty or property without due process of law. This insistence was wholly rejected when the original judgment, heretofore reversed, was rendered, and was largely rejected when the judgment on the rehearing was given.

When the case was first before this court the discussion at the bar and in the briefs chiefly related to the validity of the parts of the act permitting the fixing of wages, and the opinion then delivered particularly dealt with that question, the ultimate conclusion, as expressed therein, being:

'We think the Industrial Court Act, in so far as it permits the fixing of wages in plaintiff in error's packing house, is in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment, and deprives it of its property and liberty of contract without due process of law.'

That conclusion, without more, required a reversal of the judgment of the state court. The parts of the act permitting the fixing of hours of labor were not specially dealt with, and were not affected by the decision, save as the reasons on which it proceeded might be applicable to them. The reversal was with a direction that the case be remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this court's decision, and therefore the mandate operated particularly to require that the parts of the act permitting the fixing of wages be regarded as invalid.

In the proceedings which followed the receipt of the mandate, the state court held that the other parts of the act were separable from those permitting the fixing of wages, and also pronounced them constitutional. As the question of separability was a state question, the decision of that court thereon is conclusive here. Dorchy v. Kansas, 264 U. S. 286, 44 S. Ct. 323, 68 L. Ed. 686; Hallanan v. Eureka Pipe Line Co., 261 U. S. 393, 397, 43 S. Ct. 414, 67 L. Ed. 715. The decision on the constitutional question is all that we can review.

Both parties rely on our decision when the case was first here. One insists that by reversing the original judgment of the state court, and not merely a part of it, we adjudged the invalidity of the entire act, and the other that by particularly declaring the provisions permitting the fixing of wages invalid and saying nothing about the provisions permitting the fixing of hours of labor we impliedly held the latter valid. Both contentions are wrong.

'A judgment of reversal is not necessarily an adjudication by the appellate court of any other than the questions in terms discussed and decided.' Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Hill, 193 U. S. 551, 553, 24 S. Ct. 538, 539 (48 L. Ed. 788).

The company next contends that the decision, even though not in terms determining the question of the validity of the provisions permitting the fixing of hours of labor, recognized and gave effect to principles which are applicable to that question and if applied will solve it. A survey of the act and of the decision will show that this contention is well taken.

The declared and adjudged purpose of the act is to insure continuity of operation and production in certain businesses which it calls 'essential industries.' To that end it provides for the compulsory settlement by a state agency of all labor controversies in such businesses which endanger the intended continuity. It proceeds on the assumption that the public has a paramount interest in the subject which justifies the compulsion. The businesses named include, among others, that of manufacturing or preparing food products for sale and human consumption. The controversies to be settled include, among others, those arising between employer and employees over either wages or hours of labor. The state agency charged with the duty of making the settlement is the Court of Industrial Relations. Although called a court, it is an administrative board. It is to summon the disputants before it, to give them a hearing, to settle the matter in controversy—as by fixing wages or hours of labor, where they are what is in dispute—to embody its findings and determination in an order, and, if need be, to institute mandamus proceedings in the Supreme Court of the state to compel compliance with its order. The order is to continue in effect for such reasonable time as the agency may fix, or until changed by agreement of the parties with its approval. The employer may discontinue the business (a) where it can be conducted conformably to the order only at a loss; or (b) where for good cause shown the agency approves; and individual employees may quit the service in the exercise of a personal privilege, but may not induce others to quit or combine with them to do so. With these qualifications, both employer and employees are required to continue the business on the terms fixed in the order; violations and evasions being penalized. The authority given to the agency to fix wages or hours of labor is not general, nor is it to be exerted independently of the system of compulsory settlement. On the contrary, it is but a feature of that system, and correspondingly limited in purpose and field of application. No distinction is made between wages and hours of labor; both are put on the same plane. In the fixing of wages regard is to be had for what is fair between employer and employees, and in the fixing of hours of labor regard is to be had for what are healthful periods; but neither is to be fixed save in the...