Stevenson v. Wesley St. Clair
| Decision Date | 16 January 1925 |
| Docket Number | 24,355 |
| Parties | ARTHUR L. STEVENSON v. WESLEY ST. CLAIR |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Action in the district court for Ramsey county to recover $306 wages. Defendant's motion for judgment on the pleadings in his favor was denied, Bechhoefer, J. The case was tried before Orr, J., who ordered judgment in favor of plaintiff for $240. From the judgment, defendant appealed. Affirmed.
Validity of Minimum Wage Law as to minors.
Granting that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 525, 67 L.Ed. 785, 24 A.L.R. 1238, in effect rules that chapter 547 L. 1913, Minimum Wage Law for Women and Minors, infringes the Federal Constitution so far as the act relates to adult women, nevertheless, since the court took pains to exclude from consideration the right of the legislature to fix a minimum wage for minors, the inference is that as to them such act is a valid exercise of the police power of the state.
O'Brien Horn & Stringer, for appellant.
Charles H. Winter, for respondent.
Clifford L. Hilton, Attorney General (and Ernest C. Carman, Assistant Attorney General) filed a brief as amicus curiae.
Plaintiff, a minor, recovered a judgment against defendant for the difference between the agreed wages the minor had been paid for his services and the amount fixed under the so-called Minimum Wage Act, chapter 547, p. 789, L. 1913, and defendant appeals.
The law is attacked as unconstitutional. It was sustained by this court in Williams v. Evans, 139 Minn. 32, 165 N.W. 495, 166 N.W. 504, L.R.A. 1918F, 542, where its applicability to women was involved. Later a similar act passed by congress for the District of Columbia was considered by the Supreme Court of the United States and held violative of the Federal Constitution insofar as it attempted to fix the minimum wage for adult women. Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 525, 43 S.Ct. 394, 67 L.Ed. 785, 24 A.L.R. 1238. However, the court took pains to exclude from the decision the question of the validity of the law as applied to minors.
We may assume, for the purpose of this decision, that the Adkins case renders the part of our act fixing a minimum wage for women repugnant to the Federal Constitution, hence it is useless to discuss the first proposition advanced by appellant. It may well be left as was done by the court in Folding Furniture Works v. Industrial Com. 300 F. 991.
That the provisions of our act relating to the minimum wages for minors are repugnant to the Federal Constitution, we cannot accept as settled. The prediction from Stettler v O'Hara, 243 U.S. 629, 37 S.Ct. 475, 61 L.Ed. 937, and the Adkins case would seem to be that as to minors the law would now be held by that court not to exceed the legitimate exercise of the police power of the state. That, in the opinion of this court, it in any manner transgresses the limits of the state Constitution cannot be urged with any hope of success, since ...
To continue reading
Request your trial