Shultz v. Louisiana Trailer Sales, Inc., No. 27956.
Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
Writing for the Court | JOHN R. BROWN, , AINSWORTH and GODBOLD, Circuit |
Citation | 428 F.2d 61 |
Parties | George P. SHULTZ, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LOUISIANA TRAILER SALES, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
Docket Number | No. 27956. |
Decision Date | 16 July 1970 |
428 F.2d 61 (1970)
George P. SHULTZ, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
LOUISIANA TRAILER SALES, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
No. 27956.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
June 22, 1970.
Rehearing Denied July 16, 1970.
Harold C. Nystrom, Acting Solicitor of Labor, U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., Beverley R. Worrell, U. S. Dept. of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Birmingham, Ala. Bessie Margolin, Carin Ann Clauss, Washington, D. C., for appellant.
Louis A. DiRosa, New Orleans, La., for appellee.
David J. Humphreys, Washington, D. C., amicus curiae for Mobile Housing Assoc. of America.
Before JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge, AINSWORTH and GODBOLD, Circuit Judges.
AINSWORTH, Circuit Judge:
The sole question for determination in this matter involving a statutory interpretation is whether the overtime exemption provisions of Section 13(b) (10) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 213(b) (10) (1966), are applicable to five employees of appellee Louisiana Trailer Sales, Inc., known as "servicemen" and "service-mechanics." The District Court found the employees to be within the overtime exemption provisions of the Act. We disagree for reasons which follow.
Section 13(b) (10) of the Act exempts from overtime coverage
"any salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles, trailers, trucks, farm implements, or aircraft if employed by a nonmanufacturing establishment primarily engaged in the business of selling such vehicles to ultimate purchasers."
The pertinent facts have been stipulated. Appellee, a nonmanufacturing concern, is engaged in the sale of new and used house trailers or mobile homes. The parties further stipulated that the word "trailer" as used in the Act includes mobile homes. The hybrid nature of a mobile home, however — as a vehicle when moving from place to place, and as a residence when permanently mounted on a stationary base — has engendered much of this controversy in determining the intent of the Legislature in excluding trailers from the Act's coverage. In order to come within the exemption provisions of the Act, the servicemen must meet three essential requirements. They must be (1) mechanics, (2) who are primarily engaged in (3) servicing trailers. It is not disputed that the term "primarily engaged" as used in the Act contemplates in excess of fifty per cent of the employees' hours of work.1 The duties of the servicemen in question are detailed in the stipulation to include:
"A. Checking the interior and exterior of mobile homes and trailers received from manufacturers for any defects in workmanship or damages and repairing same.
"B. Checking, servicing, repairing and replacing parts in appliances, the plumbing, electrical air conditioning, structural and butane gas systems in mobile homes and trailers both before and after delivery to customers.
"C. Connecting up the plumbing, air conditioning, electrical, sewer and gas
"D. Delivering mobile homes and trailers from defendant's establishment to the customer's site.
"E. Constructing concrete block foundations for installation of mobile homes and trailers at customer's site.
"F. Placing and servicing mobile homes and trailers on foundations at customer's sites.
"G. Performing carpentry work inside mobile homes and trailers, e. g., freeing up or replacing wooden doors, door frames, window frames, flooring, paneling or partitions.
"H. Repairing any leaks resulting from openings in the hulls of mobile homes and trailers, or leaks in roof during warranty period, to-wit, one year after delivery.
"I. Painting the interior and exterior of mobile homes and trailers (primarily used trailers).
"J. Repairing or replacing tile in the bathrooms, kitchens or showers of mobile homes and trailers.
"K. Repairing and/or replacing exterior aluminum panels or other portions of mobile homes and trailers or appliances which may be damaged in transit or during installation at the customer's site.
"L. When circumstances required it, these employees checked, serviced or repaired the running mechanisms of the mobile homes and trailers such as wheels, axles, brakes and signal lights but these functions were occasional and did not require any substantial amount of employee time."
The Secretary contends that the term "mechanic" should be restricted to employees performing those services which are ordinarily performed in the automotive industry; for example, checking wheels, axles, brakes and signal lights, and in transporting these homes for delivery.2 The Secretary readily admits that the servicemen perform these functions but argues that the bulk of their duties consists of converting the mobile homes into permanent residences and in servicing and maintaining them thereafter and that they are not therefore "mechanics" servicing "trailers" within the intendment of the exemption.
The question admittedly is a close one because of ambiguities in the Act which are not resolved by statutory definition. The statute defines neither "mechanic" nor "trailer" and our resort to dictionaries produces only further ambiguities because of the various shades of meaning ascribed to both terms. The only light shed on the term "mechanic" is contained in the following language of House Report No. 1366, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 1966, pp. 42-43:
"The term `mechanic\' is intended to include all employees doing mechanical work, such as get-ready mechanics, automobile, truck, farm implement, or aircraft mechanics, body or fender mechanics, used car reconditioning mechanics and wrecker mechanics."
The definition, containing as it does a variant of the term defined, is not too helpful. However, the illustrative grouping
As previously noted, the term "trailer" is not defined in the statute. The Act includes the term with the same series of words — automobiles, trucks and farm implements — contained in the House Report definition of "mechanic." The Act specifically refers back to the series as "such vehicles."5 The only sense in which the word "vehicle" could reasonably have been intended is that connoting a moving conveyance or means of transportation.6
A statute susceptible of more than one meaning must be read in the manner which effectuates rather than frustrates the major purpose of the legislative draftsmen. Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1, 31, 68 S.Ct. 1375, 1391, 92 L.Ed. 1787 (1948). To construe the word "mechanic" in conjunction with the word "trailer" as including the various house-repair, truck driver, and construction duties7 performed by these servicemen, is to frustrate the legislative intention
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