Mitchell v. Lublin Gaughy Associates, No. 37

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: WARREN
• Citation: 358 U.S. 207,79 S.Ct. 260,3 L.Ed.2d 243
• Parties: James P. MITCHELL, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Petitioner, v. LUBLIN, McGAUGHY & ASSOCIATES et al
• Docket Number: No. 37
• Decision Date: 12 January 1959

358 U.S. 207 79 S.Ct. 260 3 L.Ed.2d 243 James P. MITCHELL, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Petitioner,

v.

LUBLIN, McGAUGHY & ASSOCIATES et al.

No. 37. Argued Oct. 21, 1958. Decided Jan. 12, 1959.

Page 208

Miss Bessie Margolin, Washington, D.C., for the petitioner.

Mr. Alan J. Hofheimer, Norfolk, Va., for the respondents.

Mr. Chief Justice WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, the Secretary of Labor, brought this action under § 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 217, 29 U.S.C.A. § 217,¹ to restrain respondent² from violating the record-keeping and overtime provisions of the Act. 29 U.S.C. §§ 206, 207, 211, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 206, 207, 211. The complaint was dismissed basically on the lower court's conclusion that the activities of respondent, an architectural and consulting engineering firm, were local in nature and not within the Act's coverage. 250 F.2d 253. We granted certiorari 356 U.S. 917, 78 S.Ct. 704, 2 L.Ed.2d 713, to resolve an apparent conflict with a decision of another Court of Appeals in a similar case.³

Respondent is hired to design public, industrial and residential projects and to prepare plans and specifica-

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tions necessary for their construction. It has offices in both Norfolk, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and it employs some sixty-five or seventy persons. Respondent does considerable work for the armed services. The District Court estimated that approximately 60% of the work in the Norfolk office has been done for the Army Engineers or the Navy Department while 85% of the work in Washington has been performed for similar agencies or for subdivisions of local governments in the District and nearby States. Many of respondent's projects and clients are located outside Virginia and the District of Columbia. A typical project undertaken in the past was the design of a standard mobile Army warehouse with the attendant preparation of detailed plans and specifications. In addition, respondent has designed various construction projects including the widening of streets at a naval operating base, the extension and paving of airplane taxiways and parking aprons at a naval air station, a local sewerage system in Maryland, the alteration of various hangar facilities at military air bases, the relocation of radio and television facilities, the improvement of state roads and turnpikes, and the repair of government buildings at shipyards. The balance of respondent's activity has consisted of preparing plans and specifications for the construction of private projects such as homes, commercial buildings, bus terminals, shopping centers and the like. Respondent has performed certain supervisory functions in connection with the construction of some of the private projects but almost none where governmental agencies were involved.

The government contracts required respondent to produce plans and specifications, copies of which were sent by the sovernmental agencies to prospective bidders, many of whom were located outside Virginia and the District of Columbia. These plans consisted of drawings and designs and were supplemented by explanatory specifi-

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cations which contained the information necessary for estimating cost and guiding contractors in bidding and construction. They were prepared under the supervision of respondent's professional members and associates by draftsmen employed by respondent. In many cases, the information necessary to prepare the plans and specifications was gathered on the site of the projects by fieldmen employed by respondent. These fieldmen included surveyors, transitmen and chainmen who often traveled across state lines to get to the projects. On one project, fieldmen from the Washington office went daily to nearby Maryland to gather data for a sewerage project. In addition to the draftsmen and fieldmen, various clerks and stenographers employed by respondent participated in the mechanical preparation of these plans and specifications.

The parties are agreed that respondent's professional employees—architects and engineers—are exempted from the coverage of the Act by § 13(a)(1), 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(1), 29 U.S.C.A. § 213(a)(1).⁴ Therefore, the Secretary's injunction action is directed at some fifty employees mentioned above: draftsmen, fieldmen, clerks and stenographers. The stenographers, in addition to their connection with the plans and specifications, manned respondent's private phone wire connecting the Norfolk and Washington offices, prepared and typed substantial numbers of letters concerning the described projects which were mailed to persons in places other than Virginia and the District of Columbia, and prepared payrolls in the Virginia office for employees at the Washington and Norfolk locations.

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The question at issue is whether these non-professional employees are 'engaged in commerce' as that term is used in §§ 6 and 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 206, 207, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 206, 207.⁵ To determine the answer to this question, we focus on the activities of the employees and not on the business of the employer. Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, 316 U.S. 517, 62 S.Ct. 1116, 86 L.Ed. 1638; Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 317 U.S. 564, 63 S.Ct. 332, 87 L.Ed. 460; Mitchell v. C. W. Vollmer & Co., 349 U.S. 427, 75 S.Ct. 860, 99 L.Ed. 1196. We start with the premise that Congress, by excluding from the Act's coverage employees whose activities merely 'affect commerce,' indicated its intent not to make the scope of the Act coextensive with its power to regulate commerce.⁶ Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, supra; McLeod v. Threlkeld, 319 U.S. 491, 63 S.Ct. 1248, 87 L.Ed. 1538. However, within the tests of coverage fashioned by Congress, the Act has been construed liberally to apply to the furthest reaches consistent with congressional direction. Thus the Court stated in Overstreet v. North Shore Corp., 318 U.S. 125, 128, 63 S.Ct. 494, 496, 87 L.Ed. 656, '* * * the policy of Congressional abnegation with respect to occupations affecting commerce is no reason for narrowly circumscribing the phrase 'engaged in commerce."⁷

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Where employees' activities have related to interstate instrumentalities or facilities, such as bridges, canals and roads, we have used a practical test to determine whether they are 'engaged in commerce.' The test is 'whether the work is so directly and vitally related to the functioning of an instrumentality or facility of interstate commerce as to be, in practical effect, a part of it, rather than isolated local activity.' Mitchell v. C. W. Vollmer & Co., supra, 349 U.S. at page 429, 75 S.Ct. at page 862.⁸ Coverage in the instant case must be...