Brown v. Allen Parish Police Jury

526 So. 2d 1190, 29 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 229, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 450, 1988 WL 30799
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 6, 1988
DocketNo. 87-165
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 526 So. 2d 1190 (Brown v. Allen Parish Police Jury) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Allen Parish Police Jury, 526 So. 2d 1190, 29 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 229, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 450, 1988 WL 30799 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

DOMENGEAUX, Judge.

Plaintiff, Hazel R. Brown sued her employer, the defendant, Allen Parish Police Jury under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 206 et seq., for past due minimum wages and overtime compensation plus damages and attorney’s fees for her services as caretaker of the Allen Parish Airport. From a judgment awarding $3,750.00 to Mrs. Brown, the Allen Parish Police Jury has appealed, and Mrs. Brown has answered the appeal requesting additional quantum.

FACTS

On September 1, 1977, Mr. Clyde Johnson, an Allen Parish police juror, hired the plaintiff, Mrs. Hazel R. Brown, to be the caretaker of the Allen Parish Airport. Pri- or to the plaintiffs employment, her daughter, Mrs. Jonelliea Brown Buxton, had been the Airport’s caretaker. Mrs. Buxton informed the plaintiff of the caretaker’s required duties which included providing refueling assistance to incoming and outgoing planes, checking the runway for broken lights and/or debris, notifying the parish to cut the grass around the airstrip, periodically patrolling the hangers for trespassers and keeping a general watch over the premises. The uncontradicted testimony of the plaintiff and her daughter indicated that the caretaker, or a replacement, was required to be on the premises twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays because the time of incoming and outgoing planes was unpredictable. For living quarters the police jury provided a three-room house on the Airport grounds and paid the monthly electric and water utilities in addition to a monthly salary of $75.00. The caretaker was required to cut the grass surrounding the tenant quarters.

Mrs. Brown estimated that between thirty and forty planes would land every month, at all hours, day or night. She testified that she faithfully performed her [1192]*1192duties as the Airport’s caretaker and only left because of family illness and death for one month in 1982, two weeks in 1983, and eight months in 1984. According to her testimony, Mrs. Brown has continuously worked without a day off since July 8, 1984.

On September 23, 1985, Mrs. Brown filed suit against the Allen Parish Police Jury for unpaid minimum wages and overtime compensation owed as of September 23, 1984, plus an additional amount in damages and reasonable attorney’s fees. As of the date of the trial, Mrs. Brown was still the Airport’s caretaker. Therefore, the plaintiff has sued for wages and compensation from September 23, 1984, until the present, assuming she is still the caretaker, or until she terminated her employment with the parish.

With no accompanying reasons, the Trial Judge rendered a judgment in favor of Mrs. Brown for $3,750.00. This Court cannot ascertain from the judgment the basis or the method the Trial Judge used to determine that $3,750.00 was the proper amount to which the plaintiff was entitled. Therefore, in our review of the correctness of the Trial Court’s judgment, we find it necessary to outline the applicable law and remand this case for further proceedings and a judgment in conformity with the views expressed herein.

APPLICABLE LAW

Mrs. Brown sued for minimum wages and overtime compensation under 29 U.S.C.A. § 206 which provides:

(a) every employer shall pay to each of his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, wages at the following rates:
(1) ... and not less than $3.35 an hour after December 1, 1980, ... (emphasis added).
29 U.S.C.A. § 207 provides:
(a)(1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, no employer shall employ any of his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed, (emphasis added).
29 U.S.C.A. § 216(b) provides in part:
Any employer who violates the provisions of section 6 or section 7 of this Act [29 USCA §§ 206 or 207] shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages. ... The court in such action shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow a reasonable attorney’s fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action, (emphasis added).

In Halferty v. Pulse Drug Co. Inc., 821 F.2d 261 (5th Cir.1987), the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal discussed exceptions to the FSLA’s minimum wage requirement. These exceptions appear pertinent to the plaintiff’s employment situation. The Court initially discussed the jur-isprudentially developed “waiting to be engaged” exception. As stated by the Court in Halferty, “ ... when idle time is spent predominantly for the benefit of the employer, not the employee, the employee is engaged to be waiting, not waiting to be engaged, and is entitled to compensation. Conversely, if the time primarily benefits the employee, the employee can be considered to be waiting to be engaged and should only receive compensation for the actual work time ... the resolution of the waiting to be engaged issue involves scrutiny and construction of the agreements between the particular parties. Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 65 S.Ct. 161, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944)” at 821 F.2d 269. For additional discussion of this exception see [1193]*1193Brock v. El Paso Natural Gas Company, 826 F.2d 369 (5th Cir.1987); Rousseau v. Teledyne Movible Offshore, Inc., 805 F.2d 1245 (5th Cir.1986).

The Code of Federal Regulations has delineated examples of what employment situations would fall within this jurispruden-tially created exception. One such example is the “homeworkers” exception set forth in 29 CFR 785.23. This provides:

Employees residing on employer’s premises or working at home.
An employee who resides on his employer’s premises on a permanent basis or for extended periods of time is not considered as working at the time he is on the premises. Ordinarily, he may engage in normal private pursuits and thus have enough time for eating, sleeping, entertaining, and other periods of complete freedom from all duties when he may leave the premises for purposes of his own.

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Bluebook (online)
526 So. 2d 1190, 29 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 229, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 450, 1988 WL 30799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-allen-parish-police-jury-lactapp-1988.