Bloch v. Bell

63 F. Supp. 863, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1791
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Kentucky
DecidedApril 14, 1945
Docket759
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 63 F. Supp. 863 (Bloch v. Bell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bloch v. Bell, 63 F. Supp. 863, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1791 (W.D. Ky. 1945).

Opinion

MILLER, District Judge.

The complainant Abraham Bloch brought this action as an employee of the defendants W. H. Bell and J. L. Gerrard to recover unpaid wages in the amount of $1344.91, together with liquidated damages in the same amount and attorney’s fee, under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. The defendants claim that the complainant is exempt from the provisions of the Act and in any event the evidence is not sufficient to establish the claim.

*864 Findings of Fact

1. On January 20, 1941, Irvin Sotsky and the defendant J. L. Gerrard were partners trading and doing business as the Scot Woolen Company in Louisville, Kentucky. They were engaged in the manufacture of men’s suits and wearing apparel in accordance with orders received from customers in other states. After manufacturing the article the Company would ship it to the purchaser at his designated address in the other state. It is stipulated by the parties that the Company and the complainant herein, as one of its employees, were engaged in interstate commerce. On January 1, 1942, the partnership business was incorporated under the same name and the corporation took over the assets of the partnership and continued its business. Upon incorporation the defendant W. H. Bell became a stockholder along with Sotsky and Gerrard. On December 31, 1943, the corporation was dissolved and its business was taken over and thereafter operated by the defendants W. H. Bell and J. L. Gerrard.

2. The complainant Abraham Bloch was employed by the Scot Woolen Company on January 20, 1941, and continued in its employ until January 7, 1944. His original compensation was $30 per week, which was later increased to the amounts indicated at the following times:

$33 per week on May 1, 1941.

$35 per week on September 6, 1941.

$40 per week on October 4, 1941.

$42 per week on October 7, 1943.

$52 per week on December 2, 1943.

He was employed and paid on a weekly wage regardless of the number of hours he worked during any particular week. He was a tailor by occupation and was assigned the duties of shaping and basting coats, and at times also marked the places for buttonholes. The cloth used in the clothes was manufactured from its original shape to its final shape through a series of approximately 12 different operations, the work being passed along from one employee to another as each employee finished its particular work upon the garment. The complainant worked at a bench on the second floor and acted as the foreman of the employees in that part of the building. In addition to the manual work above referred to, he also supervised the passing of the work from one bench to another, had general supervision over the work in that particular part of the building, directed when and for how long certain employees should be laid off from work when the work available was not sufficient to use their services, and exercised his own judgment in giving some orders priority over other orders. Except for the temporary laying off of employees as above referred to he did not have authority to hire or fire employees generally or make such recommendations. His hours of work of the same nature as that performed by other employees exceeded 20% of the number of hours worked in the work-week by the employees under his direction.

3. The regular work-week of the Scot Woolen Company consisted of five days of eight hours each, starting at 8 a. m. and ending at 4:30 p. m., which included the lunch period. The power for operating the machines did not go on until 8 a. m. Employees including the plaintiff were supposed to punch the time-clock upon arrival and upon departure, but this requirement was not enforced with respect to the complainant, and in many instances his time of arrival or time of departure was not so recorded. He would often arrive and start work on matters in which the use of the machines was not necessary before 8 a. m., sometimes a half hour more or less, although he was not requested so to do. At other times he would punch in only a few minutes before 8:00 a. m., and on some occasions after 8:00 a. m. He usually checked out within a few minutes after 4:30 p. m., and in some instances before 4:30 p. m. The evidence does not show with any degree of certainty what additional time over forty hours per week the complainant worked during the regular five work days in the week. However, he received each week the regular weekly wage, without deductions for any time absent. The complainant, along with a few other employees, also worked on most of the Saturday mornings. This work would start at 8:00 a. m. and stop some time between 11:30 a. m. and 12:00 o’clock Noon. On some of the Saturdays, such as fell on holidays and for other reasons, the plant did not operate and the complainant did not work. These occasions occurred ten or twelve times per week. The complainant rarely, if ever, punched the time clock on Saturday.

4. At no time while the complainant was employed by the Scot Woolen Company did he make any claim for overtime *865 compensation. On several occasions he suggested a raise in his weekly compensation, and as set out above increases were put into effect. On January 19, 1944, after he had left the employ of the Company, he for the first time made claim for unpaid overtime compensation. On July 28, 1944, the Scot Woolen Company paid to the complainant by check the sum of $110.92 which was the amount which a labor inspector computed as being owed to the complainant as unpaid wages, following an audit of the Company’s records by this inspector. The Company objected to this finding, but on account of the small amount involved paid it to the plaintiff in order to dispose of the controversy.

Conclusions of Law

1. Sections 6 and 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Sections 206 and 207, 29 U.S.C.A., provide minimum wages and maximum hours for employees who are engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. In such instances and at the times referred to in the complaint, where an employee was employed for a work-week longer than 40 hours he was entitled to compensation at a rate of not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he was employed. However, these provisions do not apply to any employee “employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, professional, or local retailing capacity, or in the capacity of outside salesman (as such terms are defined and delimited by regulations of the Administrator.)” Section 13, Fair Labor Standards Act, Section 213, 29 U.S.C.A. The Administrator has issued regulations defining these terms. An executive employee is therein defined as one whose primary duty consists of the management of the establishment in which he is employed, or of a customarily recognized department thereof, who regularly directs the work of other employees therein, who has the authority to hire or fire other employees, or whose recommendations as to firing or hiring or as to promotion or any other change of status of other employees will be given particular weight, who customarily exercises discretionary powers, whose compensation is on a salary basis of not less than $30 per week, and whose hours of work of the same nature as that performed by non-exempt employees do not exceed 20% of the number of hours worked in the work-week by the nonexempt employees under his direction. See Shain v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 F. Supp. 863, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bloch-v-bell-kywd-1945.