Walling v. Home Loose Leaf Tobacco Warehouse Co.

• Decision Date: 18 September 1943
• Docket Number: No. 6.,6.
• Citation: 51 F. Supp. 914
• Parties: WALLING, Adm'r of Wage and Hour Division, v. HOME LOOSE LEAF TOBACCO WAREHOUSE CO., Inc., et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Kentucky

51 F. Supp. 914

WALLING, Adm'r of Wage and Hour Division, v. HOME LOOSE LEAF TOBACCO WAREHOUSE CO., Inc., et al.

No. 6.

District Court, E. D. Kentucky.

September 18, 1943.

Douglas B. Maggs, Sol., and Irving J. Levy, Associate Sol., and Jeter S. Ray, Regional Atty., and Glenn M. Elliott, Atty., U. S. Dept. of Labor, both of Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiff.

J. J. Greenleaf, of Richmond, Ky., for defendants.

FORD, District Judge.

I have heretofore indicated my views upon all questions involved in this case except that presented by the contention of the defendants that, due to the exemption provisions of Section 13(a) (10) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 213(a) (10), sections 6 and 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 206, 207, do not apply to their employees.

Congress imposed upon the Administrator the difficult task of working out a practical solution of the many intricate problems involved in the administration of the Act in harmony with its declared policy and expressed purpose. It expressly delegated to him authority to define many of its terms including the phrase "area of production", as used in the exemption provision here relied upon. In the performance of his duty, the Administrator has obviously considered it incumbent upon him to define this phrase, not as an abstract concept, but as it is employed in this particular statute, in the light of the mischief to be corrected and the end to be attained. Warner v. Goltra, 293 U.S. 155, 158, 55 S.Ct. 46, 79 L.Ed. 254. By a regulation duly promulgated he has provided that an individual shall be regarded as employed in handling agricultural commodities for market, in the "area of production", within the meaning of section 13(a) (10), "if he performs those operations on materials all of which come from farms in the general vicinity of the establishment where he is employed and the number of employees engaged in those operations in that establishment does not exceed ten". See Wage and Hour Regulations, April 1941, section 536.2. The defendants challenge the validity of this regulation only in so far as it narrows the application of the exemption by limiting it to employees engaged in an establishment having not more than ten employees. No question is raised as to the validity of that portion of the regulation which limits the scope of the exemption to employees performing any of the enumerated operations "on materials all of which come from farms in the general vicinity of the establishment."

The Supreme Court has frequently emphasized the general rule that exemption provisions of a remedial statute "should be strictly construed; that is, should be so interpreted as not to destroy the remedial processes intended to be accomplished by the enactment", Spokane & I. E. R. Co. v. United States, 241 U.S. 344, 350, 36 S.Ct. 668, 671, 60 L.Ed. 1031, "should be narrowed and limited to effect the remedy intended", Piedmont & N. R. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 286 U.S. 299, 311, 52 S.Ct. 541, 545, 76 L. Ed. 1115, and should be read in harmony with the purpose of the measure and held to extend only to those plainly within its terms, McDonald v. Thompson, 305 U.S. 263, 266, 59 S.Ct. 176, 83 L.Ed. 164, Gregg Cartage & Storage Co. v. United States, 316 U.S. 74, 83, 62 S.Ct. 932, 86 L.Ed. 1283. That the Fair Labor Standards Act is highly remedial, and that provisions which create exemptions from its operation should be construed and interpreted in accordance with these rules, is not open to doubt. Helena Glendale Ferry Co. v. Walling, 8 Cir. 132...