Williams v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 9754.
| Decision Date | 04 March 1941 |
| Docket Number | No. 9754.,9754. |
| Parties | WILLIAMS et al. v. JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL CO. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Frank F. L'Engle, of Jacksonville, Fla., for appellants.
Julian Hartridge, of Jacksonville, Fla., and John Dickinson, of Philadelphia, Pa., for appellee.
Irving J. Levy, Asst. Sol. in Charge of Litigation, Dept. of Labor, of Washington, D.C., and John E. Skilling, Atty., Dept. of Labor, of Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae.
Before FOSTER, SIBLEY, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.
This suit was brought under Section 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201-219, in behalf of the station porters, called red caps, who worked at the Jacksonville Terminal between Oct. 24, 1938, the date the Act went into effect, and July 1, 1940, when a new wage arrangement was put into effect, to recover unpaid wages and an equal amount as liquidated damages. The main facts were admitted or stipulated, and on motions for summary judgment made by each side the decision was against recovery, and the red caps appeal.
Prior to October, 1938, these red caps, like others at many larger railroad terminals throughout the United States, were selected on their applications, by Jacksonville Terminal Company, furnished with uniforms which included red caps, and permitted to offer their services especially as porters of hand baggage to the passengers taking or leaving trains; they to look wholly to the passengers for their pay, but not to demand or argue about it but to take what was offered. The Terminal Company regarded the red caps not as employees, but as licensees permitted to do their own business on its premises on the conditions it laid down. On September 29, 1938, the Interstate Commerce Commission made a decision, Ex parte No. 72, 229 I.C.C. 410, that the red caps were employees for the purposes of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S. C.A. § 151 et seq., and entitled to organize as such. If employees, they would on October 24, become entitled to wages not less than twenty-five cents per hour for one year, and thirty cents per hour thereafter, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Sect. 6, 29 U.S.C.A. § 206. In recognition of this the Jacksonville Terminal Company, (as did other terminal companies), gave each red cap a written notice which referred to the Act and stated that in consideration of engaging in the handling of hand baggage and assisting passengers otherwise, the red cap must report daily to the Terminal Company "the amounts received by you as tips or remuneration for such services"; and that the Terminal Company guaranteed to each person continuing such service after October 24, 1938, compensation which, including the sums above referred to, would not be less than the minimum provided by law; that tips or remuneration in excess of the minimum wage and taxes might be retained by the recipient; and the right to make rules and regulations for the service and the accounting was asserted by the Terminal Company. The red caps claimed to be already organized for collective bargaining and their representative did not wish this "accounting and guaranty" plan of payment to be entered upon independently of a collective agreement with the red caps. No collective agreement was reached for about a year, and then it did not cover wages, there being an understanding that the validity of the accounting and guaranty plan under the law should be determined by the courts. In the meanwhile the red caps continued to serve and did account for their tips as required, until on July 1, 1940, another plan was put into effect whereby the Terminal Company directly paid fixed wages, and required the red caps to collect from passengers and turn in ten cents per parcel handled, under a system of baggage checks. Some of the red caps had received between October 24, 1938, and July 1, 1940, more than minimum wages in tips and were paid nothing besides. All others had their deficits made up by the Terminal Company. In the aggregate, the Company had supplemented tips by an amount of $8,321; and tips amounting to $3,019 in excess of minimum wages had been retained by the recipients. Each red cap had received money equal to the minimum wage, or more. But the red caps say they never did agree expressly to this plan of payment, and outside of the $8,321 they have been paid nothing by the Company, the tips being their own money. They claim a sum of $59,923. The Terminal Company contends that the tips, especially after the notice, were the income of its own business, that the red caps have been fully paid with the Company's money, and that to require triple payment would be "legal brigandage". We think the vital question is, Whose money were the tips?
We will not stick upon the general meaning of the word "tip". Webster's International Dictionary makes the tip to be a gift, a fee; and defines a fee as a compensation for service rendered. The Standard Dictionary says a tip is money given, as to a servant, to secure better or more prompt service. It would seem that a tip may range from a pure gift out of benevolence or friendship, to a compensation for a service measured by its supposed value but not fixed by an agreement. Most often the term is applied to what is paid a servant in addition to the regular compensation for his service, to secure better service or in recognition of it. But the Fair Labor Standards Act makes no reference to "tips", and the notice given the red caps refers to "tips or remuneration". We are not concerned with the proper meaning of the word, but with the legal status of what the passengers paid these red caps, by whatever name called. Along with dictionary definitions, we put aside a number of decisions cited about the ownership of tips, somewhat conflicting, because each dealt with its own kind of tip and none from an appellate court dealt with money paid a red cap by a passenger.
This record makes no effort to prove or agree on the actual intention of passenger, red cap, or Terminal Company, when at any time a porter service was rendered and remunerated. It is left to common knowledge and reasonable inference. Railroad travel is so general and red cap service so familiar that it may well be considered, as it touches the passenger, a matter of common knowledge. We so deal with it. Before the day of red caps the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Walling v. Peavy-Wilson Lumber Co.
...121 F.2d 207, 214. Circuit Judge Sibley, in his opinion in the Jacksonville Terminal case, supra, when it was in the Circuit Court (5 Cir., 118 F.2d 324, 327) shows that the provision of 6(a), though apparently dictating the payment of wages in cash, has its exceptions, through the provisio......
-
Roberts v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
...The dictionaries give this, among the definitions of the word. We find a summary of these definitions in Williams v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 5 Cir., 1942, 118 F.2d 324, 325, affirmed in Williams v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 1942, 315 U.S. 386, 62 S.Ct. 659, 86 L.Ed. 914: "Webster's Inte......
-
Williams v. Jacksonville Terminal Co Pickett v. Union Terminal Co
...of the exhibits, depositions, and stipulated facts the trial judge granted the motion, and the circuit court of appeals affirmed. 5 Cir., 118 F.2d 324. Because of the importance of the question whether the tips could be treated as payment of the statutory wage, the petition of the red caps'......
-
Railroad Yardmasters of America v. St. Louis, SF & T. Ry. Co.
...take judicial notice of its general features." 31 C.J.S., Evidence, § 29d(2) (a), p. 564, citing as authority Williams v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 5 Cir., 1941, 118 F.2d 324, 326, affirmed 315 U.S. 386, 62 S.Ct. 659, 86 L.Ed. 914, and Old Colony Bondholders v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co.,......