Bayuk Cigars, Inc. v. Chesnut

54 Pa. D. & C. 109, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 77
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedJuly 9, 1945
Docketequity docket no. 1646, Commonwealth docket 1943, no. 73
StatusPublished

This text of 54 Pa. D. & C. 109 (Bayuk Cigars, Inc. v. Chesnut) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bayuk Cigars, Inc. v. Chesnut, 54 Pa. D. & C. 109, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 77 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1945).

Opinion

Hargest, P. J.,

This suit is brought to enjoin defendant from attempting to enforce contributions under the Unemployment Compensation Law of December 5, 1936, P. L. (1937) 2897, 43 PS § 751.

Abstract of bill

Plaintiff Bayuk Cigars, Inc., is a Maryland corporation, with its principal office in Philadelphia, and is engaged in the manufacture ánd sale of cigars and other tobacco products. The other plaintiffs, S. N. Mumma '& Company, A. H. Sondheimer, and N. W. Weaver, are residents of Lancaster County, engaged in the cultivation and packing of leaf tobacco for sale, and in purchasing and packing leaf tobacco as independent contractors. For many years prior to January 1, 1936, and since, Bayuk contracted annually with Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver, as independent contractors, to purchase, on account of Bayuk, a specified [111]*111number of acres of leaf tobacco, cultivated on farms of Lancaster County, and pack said tobacco, the contractors to be paid on a cost-plus basis. Each had the sole right to select his employes, fix their wages, terms of service, and to supervise, direct, and control them. No employe of any of them is engaged on the premises of Bayuk or in any manner subject to Bayuk’s protection or control.

The Federal Social' Security Act of August 14,1935, 49 Stat. at L. 620, provides that after January 1,1936, every employer, as defined in the act, shall pay an excise tax with respect to the employment of individuals during each calendar year, except individuals engaged in “agricultural labor”.

The Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Law established a system of unemployment compensation, and requires contributions to be paid, except for individuals engaged in agricultural labor, as defined in the act.

Bayuk is an employer within the meaning of both the Federal and Pennsylvania law, but none of the other plaintiffs is an employer.

Section 4(i) of the Pennsylvania statute provides when any employer has under him any contractor or subcontractor for any work which is part of his usual trade, unless the subcontractor is himself an employer, the original émployer shall be deemed to employ each individual in the employ of subcontractor.

Defendant is demanding from Bayuk the filing of reports and payment of contributions, based on the employes of Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver, and unless it complies Bayuk will be exposed to unconscionable interest requirements provided by section 306, and a multiplicity of prosecutions and penalties provided for in section 803 of the act. If Bayuk should comply, none of the plaintiffs would have an adequate remedy at law or in equity to determine the issue raised in this bill or to recover back contributions paid, together with [112]*112interest, if it is determined that no contributions are due from plaintiff under section 4. Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver have an interest common with Bayuk, since section 4 purports to authorize Bayuk to recover contributions from them, notwithstanding their employes are not subject to the provisions of the statutes. Most of the employes of Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver are farmers, and, after said employment, they return to farming and are not eligible to unemployment compensation. Certain of the tobacco purchased for the account of Bayuk is packed on the farms where the tobacco has been cultivated, and packing is done by the farmers and the helpers of the farmers who raise the tobacco, and certain of the tobacco is cultivated and packed by Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver on their own farms and with the aid of their own farm help. As applied both to Bayuk, and Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver, section 4 (i) and other provisions of the act hereinafter referred to are unconstitutional.

Plaintiffs pray that defendant be enjoined from enforcing the provisions of the act against any of the plaintiffs.

Answer of defendant

Defendant, admitting many of the averments, alleges that the business conducted by Bayuk includes purchasing, packing, curing, and processing of tobacco, and that the three plaintiffs have, “either as a contractor under contract with Bayuk or as an agent for Bayuk”, engaged in purchasing and packing tobacco for Bayuk, and employed individuals for such work.

Defendant denies that all' of the employes and all of the activities of Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver were “agricultural labor” within the meaning of the law, and have been engaged in purchasing and packing tobacco for Bayuk, but none of the plaintiffs has filed employer’s reports nor paid contributions upon such [113]*113individuals for the time which they were engaged as employes of Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver.

Defendant admits that it has demanded of Bayuk the filing of reports and the payment of contributions based upon each day’s work for each of the individuals employed by Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver in the purchasing or packing of tobacco which Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver were engaged in as contractors under contract with Bayuk, or as agent for Bayuk; and denies the allegations of unconstitutionality.

Facts

We have answered requests for findings of fact, and restate them as follows:

1. Bayuk Cigars, Inc., is a corporation of the State of Maryland, with its principal office in the City of Philadelphia. It is engaged in the manufacture of cigars and other tobacco products. It will be hereinafter designated as Bayuk.

Harvey B. Mumma and Stanley N. Mumma are citizens of Lancaster County, Pa., and partners trading as S. N. Mumma & Company, hereinafter designated as Mumma.

A. H. Sondheimer is a citizen of the City of Lancaster, Pa., and is hereinafter styled Sondheimer.

Noah W. Weaver is a citizen of New Holland, Lancaster County, Pa., and is hereinafter styled Weaver.

2. Defendant is the secretary and executive head of the Department of Labor and Industry, which is the agency designated to administer the Unemployment Compensation Law.

3. From prior to 1936, and until December 31, 1943 (in the case of Sondheimer until July 1,1941), Mumma and Weaver were engaged in the raising of leaf tobacco for sale on their respective farms, and also engaged by Bayuk by written contracts to purchase and pack Lancaster County leaf tobacco for it. Mumma and Weaver owned warehouses on their farms; Sondheimer rented a tobacco warehouse.

[114]*1144. After the leaf tobacco has been cultivated, the farmer dries or cures it in sheds on his farm, strips the leaves from the stalks, then grades it (the better grades called “wrappers”) according to the length of leaf. He ties 30 leaves of each grade into a “hand”. He bunches the lower grades, called “fillers”, and ties them into hands. After the tobacco has been sized, the farmer bales it into bales of approximately 70 pounds; and at this point the leaf tobacco is ready for sale by farmers to the three individual plaintiffs.

5. Although some farmers pack their own tobacco and sell it direct to a manufacturer, such as Bayuk, the greater portion of the Lancaster County leaf tobacco is sold to independent buyers, such as these individual plaintiffs who pack it for a manufacturer, such as Bayuk.

6. Each year Bayuk contracted separately with Mumma, Sondheimer, and Weaver to buy and pack tobacco for it, under written contracts, which were identical so far as the instant case is concerned.

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Bluebook (online)
54 Pa. D. & C. 109, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bayuk-cigars-inc-v-chesnut-pactcompldauphi-1945.