Redlands Foothill Groves v. Jacobs

• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
• Writing for the Court: YANKWICH
• Citation: Redlands Foothill Groves v. Jacobs, 30 F.Supp. 995 (S.D. Cal. 1940)
• Decision Date: 05 January 1940
• Docket Number: No. 662-Y.,662-Y.
• Parties: REDLANDS FOOTHILL GROVES et al. v. JACOBS et al.

30 F. Supp. 995

REDLANDS FOOTHILL GROVES et al. v. JACOBS et al.

No. 662-Y.

District Court, S. D. California, Central Division.

January 5, 1940.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Ivan G. McDaniel and George C. Lyon, both of Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs.

George A. McNulty, General Counsel, Irving G. Levy, Asst. General Counsel, and John J. Babe, Principal Attorney, all of Washington, D. C., Dorothy Williams, Regional Attorney, of San Francisco, Cal., and James L. Crawford, Asst. U. S. Attorney, of Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants.

YANKWICH, District Judge.

Back of this controversy is what may readily be conceded to be a radical departure in the realm of American Federal governmental activity, — control of working conditions, hours and wages, — by the Federal Government through the power to control interstate commerce, the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938," 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.

Not that this is alien to our civilization.

The integrated economies of the early settlers of the American continent found it imperative to control economic activity.

So we find that in the earliest American criminal code, — that of Sir Thomas Dale, governing the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, (1611) — conditions of trading were regulated. Sales at prices other than those set by the community, the Governor or the Council were punished severely, as was also unauthorized trading with the Indians.

In what was known as the "Cotton Code", which governed New Haven Colony until 1655, we find the following regulations:

"1 Firft it fhall be lawfull for the Governour with one or more of the Counfell, to appoint a reafonable rate of prizes upon all fuch commodities as are out of the Ships, to be bought and fould in the Countrey.

"2 In trucking or trading with the Indians no man fhall give them for any commodity of theirs, Silver or Gold or any weapons of war, either Guns or Gun powder, nor Sword, nor any other munition, which might come to be ufed againft our felves.

"3 To the intent that all oppreffion in buying and felling may be avoyded, it fhall be lawfull for the Iudges in every Towne, with the confent of the free Burgeffes to appoint certaine felect men, to fet reafonable rates upon all commodities, and proportionably to limmit the wages of workemen and labourers, and the rates agreed upon by them, and ratified by the Iudges, to bind all the Inhabitants of the Towne, The like courfe to be taken by the Governour and Affitants, for the rating of prizes throughout the Countrey, and all to be confirmed if need be by the Generall Court." Ch. V, Cl. 1, 2, and 3 of 1641 Ed., as reprinted in May 1938, Bulletin of the New Haven County Bar Association, p. 74.

But, on the whole, while, through tariffs and subsidies, business activity was encouraged in the United States, conditions of employment of labor, — except in dangerous employments, — were not made the subject of governmental interference.

Even when, at the end of the last century, state interference began, the Federal arm of the Government remained unused.

The wages and hour law, involved in this litigation, is a departure from this, — a departure which the Supreme Court condemned when it was first attempted in an effort to control child labor. Hammer v. Dagenhart, 1918, 247 U.S. 251, 38 S.Ct. 529, 62 L.Ed. 1101, 3 A.L.R. 649, Ann.Cas. 1918E, 724.

The departure is indicative of a new realistic approach to the problems of the day. Federal legislation is giving recognition to the relentlessness of facts.

Societies and economic systems do not change precipitately. At times, the change may be unnoticeable. And what may appear to later generations as a revolution may not even be perceptible to those living at the time, and in the midst of the change. But change is of the essence of social life.

What is happening today in human society?

For over a century, from the rise of the industrial system, Western society, including the United States, has been characterized by competition, more or less unrestrained.

The economic thought which dominated it was that of the Manchester school of laissez faire, which taught that economic forces should be allowed free interplay. Order in economic society was supposed to flow from this.

The political thought which dominated it was the doctrine of non-interference of political liberalism. The State (and the word is used here in the sense in which political science uses it, i. e., the coercive force of government) was to interfere as little as possible in the field of economics. Its role was to be that of a policeman, keeping, as it were, the avenues of trade, industry, and commerce open and clear, so that the traffic might flow freely.

The rapid development of industrialism resulted in the concentration of industrial and business activity, with the rapid disappearance of individual units. To the free, independent units, there succeeded a system of interdependence.

The high technological development in the last few decades hastened its full unfoldment.

The development of this social organism has led to the modification of the attitude of State non-interference.

The interest of the general good, the need to equalize opportunities, and to prevent oppression, have led to interference on the part of the State. The State has been called upon to perform broader and wider services. And more functions, heretofore performed by individuals or by private initiative, or not performed at all, have come to be performed by the State. Greater and greater socialization of functions is taking place. The State is becoming an instrument of social welfare, aiming, as a French jurist has put it, á diminuer dans le monde la somme des souffrances injustes. J. Charmont, Les Transformations du droit civil. Avant-propos; See Carroll H. Woody: The Growth of Governmental Function in Recent Social Trends (1933) Vol. II, p. 1274 et seq.; Lyon, Watkins and Abramson, Government and Economic Life, 1939, pp. 441-475; Yankwich, The Constitution and the Future, 1935, pp. 28-30.

This recognition of the need for a greater societal control is behind the statute here involved.

The declaration of policy says:

"(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 well-being 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 the Act chapter, 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." 29 U.S.C.A. § 202.

This is achieved by providing a maximum of hours and the minimum of wages for persons in industry engaged in interstate commerce. The administrative mechanism for carrying out the policy is this: There is created in the Department of Labor a wage and hour division under the direction of an Administrator. His principal office is in the District of Columbia. He and his duly authorized representatives may, however, exercise any of the powers conferred in any place. 29 U.S.C.A. § 204. It is made his duty to appoint a committee for each industry engaged in commerce or in production of goods for commerce. 29 U.S.C.A. § 205(a). Commerce is defined as "trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States or from any State to any place outside thereof." 29 U.S.C.A. § 203(b). The personnel of the Committee is divided equally between disinterested persons representing the public, a similar number of persons representing the employers and a like number of persons representing employees in the industry. 29 U.S.C.A. § 205 (b). To them the Administrator must submit data concerning matters brought before him, 29 U.S.C.A. § 205(d), and convene them, from time to time, for each industry so that they may recommend the minimum rate of wages to be paid. 29 U.S.C.A. § 208 (b). It is the duty of the Committee to recommend the highest wage and the classification necessary without curtailing employment. 29 U.S.C.A. § 208(c). Upon the filing of a report with the Administrator containing its recommendation, the Administrator must give due notice to interested persons giving them the opportunity to be heard. It is the duty of the Administrator to approve and carry into effect the recommendation, if he finds that it is made in accordance with law and is supported by evidence and will effect the purpose of the section. If he disapproves the recommendation, he must resubmit the matter to the Committee for further consideration. 29 U.S.C.A. § 208(d, e).

A person aggrieved by the order of the Administrator may review it in the Circuit Court of Appeals of his residence or the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 29 U.S.C.A. § 210. Except as to the Child Labor provisions of the law, 29 U.S.C.A. § 212, the Administrator has sole authority to bring actions to restrain violations of the chapter.

The minimum wages are made obligatory, 29 U.S.C.A. § 206, as are also the maximum hours. 29 U.S.C.A. § 207. They, however, apply only to employees "engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce". 29 U.S.C.A. § 207.

By Section 13 of the Act, there are exempt employees employed in agriculture, and those employed within the "area of production" engaged in...