Dunning v. Q. O. Ordnance Corp.

233 F.2d 902, 30 Lab. Cas. (CCH) 70,018
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 6, 1956
DocketNo. 15187
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 233 F.2d 902 (Dunning v. Q. O. Ordnance Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunning v. Q. O. Ordnance Corp., 233 F.2d 902, 30 Lab. Cas. (CCH) 70,018 (8th Cir. 1956).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

After the decisions by the Supreme Court in the cases of Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U.S. 247, 76 S.Ct. 330, and Mitchell v. King Packing Co., 350 U.S. 260, 76 S.Ct. 337, this Court granted the petition of the appellants for a rehearing of this case, for the sole purpose of considering whether the rulings of the Supreme Court in those cases required this Court to hold clearly erroneous the determination of the District Court to the effect [903]*903that the clothes-changing and showering activities of the powder line workers at the Q. O. Ordnance plant at Grand Island, Nebraska, were not compensable under the amended Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., as amended by the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, 61 Stat. 84, 29 U.S.C. § 251 et seq. The opinion of the District Court is reported in 119 F.Supp. 793.

This Court, in the opinion in this case written by the late Judge Collet, 228 F.2d 929, at pages 931-932 pointed out that—■

“The powder line workers who engaged in melting, pouring and processing explosives were required to change their clothes and take a shower after their shift. They were required to change their clothes as a safety precaution against explosions which might be caused from sparks from metallic objects on or in conventional clothing. They were required to take a shower as a safety measure for the employee’s own health to avoid after effects of powder remaining on the person of the employee.
“These plaintiffs [powder line workers] contend that because they were required for those reasons to devote this period of time to those purposes, that the time so devoted was time spent in a necessary part of their principal duties. The argument is made to the effect that since it was undisputed that they were required to do these things, they were necessarily an integral part of their principal duties and the trial court’s finding that these activities were preliminary and postliminary must be held to be clearly erroneous as contrary to the undisputed evidence or as based on a misconception of the law. Steiner v. Mitchell, 6 Cir., 215 F.2d 171, is relied upon to support that position.”

We thought that Steiner v. Mitchell, 6 Cir., 215 F.2d 171, did not compel a conclusion that the clothes-changing and showering activities of the powder line workers were compensable as an integral part of their principal activities. We cited with approval a statement from Mitchell v. King Packing Co., 9 Cir., 216 F.2d 618, 621. We concluded that the question whether the activities of the powder line workers in changing clothes before and after work and in showering were such integral and indispensable part of their principal activities and were therefore compensable was a question of fact for the trial court and not a question of law for this Court. There was, and is, no contention or proof that any contract or custom or practice required the appellee to pay for clothes-changing or showering time.

It must be kept in mind that the clothes-changing and showering activities for which compensation is sought by the powder line workers in this case were all rendered prior to May 14, 1947, the date of the enactment of the Portal-to-Portal Act, and that the Section of that Act with which we are concerned is Section 2, and not Section 41 which was [904]*904applicable to the Steiner and King Packing Co. cases. Section 2, in part, provides :

“Sec. 2. Relief From Certain Existing Claims Under The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as Amended, * * *.
“(a) No employer shall be subject to any liability or punishment under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, the Walsh-Healey Act, or the Bacon-Davis Act (in any action or proceeding commenced prior to or on or after the date of the enactment of this Act [May 14, 1947]), on account of the failure of such employer to pay an employee minimum wages, or to pay an employee overtime compensation, for or on account of any activity of an employee engaged in prior to the date of the enactment of this Act, except an activity which was compensa ble by either—
“(1) an express provision of a written or nonwritten contract in effect, at the time of such activity, between such employee, his agent, or collective-bargaining representative and his employer; or
“(2) a custom or practice in effect, at the time of such activity, at the establishment or other place where such employee was employed, covering such activity, not inconsistent with a written or nonwritten contract, in effect at the time of such activity, between such employee, his agent, or collective-bargaining representative and his employer. [Italics supplied.]” 61 Stat. 85, 29 U.S. C. § 252.

The Supreme Court in the Steiner case, 350 U.S. 247, 76 S.Ct. 330, made it clear that that case did not involve a question of back pay for time spent in any activities performed prior to May 14, 1947, and that Section 2 of the Portal-to-Portal Act was inapplicable.

In its opinion in the Steiner case the Supreme Court made the following statements :

“There is no question of back pay involved here because the Court limited its judgment to prospective relief. Nor is the question of changing clothes and showering under normal conditions involved because the Government concedes that these activities ordinarily constitute ‘preliminary’ or ‘postliminary’ activities excluded from compensable work time as contemplated in the Act. It contends, however, that such activities in the circumstances of this case are an integral and indispensable part of the production of batteries, the ‘principal activity’ in which these employees were engaged, and are, therefore, compensable under the relevant provisions of the Act.” At page 249 of 350 U.S., at page 332 of 76 S.Ct.
“The Portal-to-Portal Act was designed primarily to meet an ‘existing emergency’ resulting from claims which, if allowed in accordance with Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680, 66 S.Ct. 1187, 90 L.Ed. 1515, would have created ‘wholly unexpected liabilities, immense in amount and retroactive in operation.’ This purpose was fulfilled by the enactment of [905]*905Section 2. The trial court specifically limited the effect of this judgment to services rendered after the judgment becomes final.

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Related

Donovan v. Crisostomo
689 F.2d 869 (Ninth Circuit, 1982)
Cherup v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company
350 F. Supp. 386 (N.D. West Virginia, 1972)
Dunning v. Ordnance Corporation
233 F.2d 902 (Eighth Circuit, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
233 F.2d 902, 30 Lab. Cas. (CCH) 70,018, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunning-v-q-o-ordnance-corp-ca8-1956.