Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Hill Country Farms, Inc.

899 F. Supp. 2d 827, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147403
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa
DecidedSeptember 18, 2012
DocketNo. 3-11-CV-41-CRW-TJS
StatusPublished

This text of 899 F. Supp. 2d 827 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Hill Country Farms, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Hill Country Farms, Inc., 899 F. Supp. 2d 827, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147403 (S.D. Iowa 2012).

Opinion

Ruling Granting Plaintiffs Motion for Partial Summary Judgment

CHARLES R. WOLLE, District Judge.

Plaintiff Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued defendant Hill Country Farms, Inc. d/b/a Henry’s Turkey Services (Hill Country Farms), alleging it discriminated against James Keith Brown and other intellectually disabled individuals in their employment by subjecting them to unlawful harassment, discriminatory terms and conditions of employment, and discriminatory wages in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended. 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a). Jurisdiction is based on that federal statute. EEOC on June 25, 2012 filed its motion for partial summary judgment on the wage claims only. Hill Country Farms has filed no resistance or other document resisting the motion. During a telephone status conference that the court held with counsel for the parties on September 13, defendant’s attorney conceded no resistance had been filed.

The court grants the EEOC motion for partial summary judgment.

Summary Judgment Standards. “The court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed R. Civ. P. 56(a). “In applying this standard “[t]he evidence of the non-movant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in the [non-movant’s] favor.” Cross Medical Prod., Inc. v. Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc., 424 F.3d 1293, 1302 (Fed.Cir.2005) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)).” See also Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986) (on motion for summary judgment, the court views the evi[829]*829denee and any disputed factual issues in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion). The court may not weigh the evidence nor make credibility determinations when evidence is in conflict. The court only determines whether there are any disputed issues, and, if so, whether those issues are both genuine and material. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505. But summary judgment is improper “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” See id. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

EEOC has filed a Statement of Undisputed Facts (Docket # 21-3, filed 6/25/12) that is not resisted; therefore that Statement establishes a factual basis on which the court now resolves the wage issue only. These fifty-five numbered paragraphs of facts fully support the court’s conclusion that EEOC is entitled to partial summary judgment against defendant Hill Country Farms establishing liability of defendant on all wage and damage issues before it.

The court now summarizes these dispositive facts, then the governing principles of law.

Facts from Summary Judgment Record. 1. On February 24, 2009, James Keith Brown, through his sister and legal representative, Sherri Brown, filed a charge with the EEOC’s Dallas District Office alleging disability discrimination by Hill Country Farms, Inc., in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

2. In the mid-1960’s, Hill Country Farms, a for-profit corporation, with its principal place of business located in Goldthwaite, Texas, began working with disabled men in a variety of agricultural activities.

3. Kenneth Henry, the owner of Henry’s Turkey Service, Inc., and T.H. Johnson jointly incorporated as Hill Country Farms, Inc. d/b/a Henry’s Turkey Service. Defendant uses the names “Hill Country Farms” and “Henry’s Turkey Service” interchangeably(hereinafter “HCF/HTS”).

4. By the late 1970’s, HCF/HTS began contracting with a turkey processing plant located in West Liberty, Iowa to provide the disabled men as workers on the plant’s turkey processing line.

5. From at least 2006 until February 7, 2009, the HCF/HTS disabled employees worked on the processing line, commingled with the plant’s non-disabled employees.

6. During the entire period they worked at the plant, the HCF/HTS employees were housed in a converted school house, known as “the Bunkhouse”, in Atalissa, Iowa, a few miles down the road from the plant where they worked in West Liberty, Iowa, until it was shut down in February of 2009 by the State of Iowa and the men were removed.

7. For more than thirty (30) years during which the disabled men were employed in Iowa, all of them were always paid in the same manner, using the same method of calculation, a cash payment of $65.00 per month.

8. HCF/HTS alleges that the disabled men were paid enough to constitute a legal minimum wage when the $65.00 per month was combined with provided “room and board” and “in kind care,” which the Defendant urges should be credited toward the wages.

9. All of the employees for whom the EEOC is seeking back wages received monthly deposits of Social Security and/or Supplemental Security Income (“SS” and “SSI”) into their individual bank accounts located at Mills County State Bank in Goldthwaite, Texas.

10. The defendant corporation, through its officer Jane Ann Johnson, was listed as the Designated Representative Payee on these accounts, with total control over the money in the accounts.

[830]*83011. According to HCF/HTS, these Social Security funds were represented by HCF/HTS to have been used to “reimburse” the company for expenses the Defendant claims to have incurred by providing “board, lodging and other facilities” to the disabled employees.

12. HCF/HTS’s business activities in Iowa had been investigated previously by the United States Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“DOL/WHD”), including an investigation which concluded in 2003.

13. The DOL/WHD determined that HCF/HTS had violated the FLSA and instructed HCF/HTS regarding minimum wages, overtime, Section 3(m) credits and record keeping; however, despite the knowledge of these -violations, and an agreement to comply with the wage laws, HCF/HTS never changed its pay practices.

14. At all times relevant hereto, HCF has been an enterprise engaged in commerce.

15. HCF/HTS is a for-profit corporation with its principal place of business located in Goldthwaite, Texas, and conducted business within the State of Iowa.

16. Beginning in the late 1970’s, Henry and T.H. Johnson negotiated with Louis Rich Foods to supply workers to work at the Louis Rich turkey processing plant in West Liberty, Iowa.

17. Over the years, the plant changed ownership several times, but HCF/HTS continued to provide workers throughout each change of ownership.

18. In 1996, HCF/HTS entered into a Contract with WLF, and per the Contract, HCF/HTS provided an adequate number of “Contractor’s employees” to perform services.

19. As part of their day-to-day operations, HCF/HTS determined which of the workers would be assigned to the facility for work.

20.

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Related

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
477 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Hilda L. Solis v. Hill Country Farms, Inc.
469 F. App'x 498 (Eighth Circuit, 2012)
Solis v. Hill Country Farms, Inc.
808 F. Supp. 2d 1105 (S.D. Iowa, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
899 F. Supp. 2d 827, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-v-hill-country-farms-inc-iasd-2012.