Cooper v. Rust Engineering Co.

84 F. Supp. 149, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2616
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Kentucky
DecidedApril 18, 1949
DocketNos. 326, 374
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 84 F. Supp. 149 (Cooper v. Rust Engineering Co.) 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
Cooper v. Rust Engineering Co., 84 F. Supp. 149, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2616 (W.D. Ky. 1949).

Opinion

SWINFORD, District Judge.

The plaintiffs brought these actions under the Act of Congress known as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, which is Sections 201 to 219, Title 29 U.S.C.A.

The defendant, a construction company by which all the plaintiffs were employed, was engaged near Paducah, Kentucky, in the construction of a defense plant to be [150]*150used for the manufacture of explosives for use by the United States Government in the prosecution of World War II. All of the work of the plaintiffs was during the war period while the war was in active progress. The plant was constructed on approximately 16,000 acres of land and as the work progressed to the point where a part of the plant was in operation, the manufactured product in various forms was shipped from Kentucky to other states and foreign countries. The number of defendant’s ’ employees at one time was near 13,000.

In connection with the work of construction a part’ of the various materials used were received from other states of the Union and were used by the defendant in the construction work. The defendant ordered, received, checked and in some instances where materials were defective or not up to specifications reshipped these materials. The plaintiffs served in various capacities, alleged and proved, as nurses, telephone operators, clerks receiving and checking material and supplies, clerical, stenographic and office workers and a small group classified in the record as clerks' connected with the maintenance of architects’ and engineering records of the construction work, including blueprints of buildings and other facilities.

All of the plaintiffs were paid by the defendant a monthly salary or wage. They were not paid by the hour and were not paid overtime or time and a half for all hours worked over forty hours per week.

The defendant was engaged solely in the construction of the plant and had nothing to do with the handling of the products of the plant and the work of ithe employees was, of course, limited to local intra-state building activities.

The construction was on a contract with the United States Government on what is known as a cost-plus-a-fixed-fee basis.

Plaintiffs’ right to recovery, if any, must be based solely on law. Their claims are entirely without equity. They held good jobs with good hours and excellent monthly pay for what they did. They were given deferment from military service and every possible benefit which a benevolent government fighting for its life could give them. In this time of national stress where America’s future very existence hung in the balance ithey accepted their pay envelopes with no complaint of mistreatment under law ¡and now in a calmer time seek to gouge for what might be termed a premium payment that came as an afterthought. Consequently, any recovery must be found to be solely as a legal and in no sense a just obligation of the United States, the ultimate payor.

The purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act were justified and its adoption made imperative by substandard labor conditions in this country. The merits of the law must now surely convince its most severe critics of the necessity for just such legislation. Its application in given cases has established a well defined line of authorities that cover certain employees even remotely connected with “commerce” and the “production of goods for commerce”, as provided in section 7, 29 U.S.C.A. § 207.

It has been held by the United States Supreme Court that numerous occupations not hitherto generally thought of as related to interstate commerce, such as elevator operators, .watchmen, firemen and porters engaged in buildings in which goods were produced for commerce and performing work in relation to such production, were so closely connected with the process of production for commerce, exitending beyond the boundaries of the state, as to be essentially a part of it. Kirschbaum Co., v. Walling, etc., 316 U.S. 517, 62 S.Ct. 1116, 86 L.Ed. 1638; Warren-Bradshaw Drilling Co. v. Hall, Agent, et al., 317 U.S. 88, 63 S.Ct. 125, 87 L.Ed. 83.

I find nothing, however, that brings such construction employees within the purview or scope of the Act within the intention of Congress as it has been defined by the courts.

Counsel for the plaintiffs has ably presented their claims and filed well prepared briefs with copious citation of authorities. I have carefully examined the authorities on which he relies, with the exception of certain of them not available to me. I do not believe they are sufficient for the Court to find a judgment in favor of any of the plaintiffs.

In the case of Walling, Adm’r., etc. v. Craig et al., D.C., 53 F.Supp. 479, 480, [151]*151cited by plaintiffs’ counsel, the Court found as a fact that: “Defendants * * * employed several hundred persons in the repair, maintenance and reconstruction of public roads in the States of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska and Washington, and in their principal place of business, general offices, warehouse and machine shop located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.” (Italics mine.) Construction of a new plant, as in the instant case, is a state of fact which distinguishes this record from that before the court which found that the contractors were engaged in the ■“repair, maintenance and reconstruction” of public roads.

It might be pointed out that the Court held as a matter of law in that case.that: “Defendants’ employees employed off the road and described generally as ‘off-the-road employees’ who1 produce and prepare local materials as sand, gravel, rock or earth, or who operate stationary off-the-road bituminous plants, are not engaged in the production of goods for commerce or in commerce, or in work so closely related thereto as to be practically a part thereof .and are not within the coverage prescribed by the Act.”

The holding of the Court in the case of Reliance Storage & Inspection Co., Inc., v. Hubbard, D.C., 50 F.Supp. 1012, 1013, •wherein the company brought an action against the employee Hubbard for a declaratory judgment to determine whether the employee who was engaged as a watchman in a tobacco storage warehouse used for storing tobacco being aged by manufacturers was within the coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 201-219, is not in conflict with the ruling here. In that case the employee was declared to be within the coverage of the Act and the Court said: “I am satisfied -that the employee here was engaged in ‘commerce’ and also ‘in the production of goods for commerce’, as these terms are used m Sections 206 and 207 of the Act. The Supreme Court has held that leaf tobacco ‘enters the stream o:f commerce’, at ‘the marketing warehouse’, which is described as the ‘throat’. Mulford v. Smith, 307 U.S. 38, 47, 59 S.Ct. 648, 652, 83 L.Ed. 1092.”

The facts before the Supreme Court in the case of Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, Adm’r, etc., 316 U.S. 517, 62 S.Ct. 1116, 1118, 86 L.Ed. 1638, cited by plaintiffs as sustaining their position in this case, are entirely distinguishable from the facts in the instant case. In the Kirschbaum case the court said: “The farts in the two cases differ only in minor detail. In No.

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Related

Aubuchon v. Frazier
99 F. Supp. 985 (E.D. Missouri, 1951)
Hartmaier v. Long
238 S.W.2d 332 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1951)
Cooper v. Rust Engineering Co.
181 F.2d 107 (Sixth Circuit, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
84 F. Supp. 149, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2616, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-v-rust-engineering-co-kywd-1949.