Goldberg v. Strickland Transportation Co.

203 F. Supp. 417, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4117
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Arkansas
DecidedMarch 13, 1962
DocketNo. LR 61 C 118
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 203 F. Supp. 417 (Goldberg v. Strickland Transportation Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goldberg v. Strickland Transportation Co., 203 F. Supp. 417, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4117 (E.D. Ark. 1962).

Opinion

YOUNG, District Judge.

Plaintiff brings this action to enjoin the defendant from alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (52 Stat. 1060, as amended; 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.). The specific acts complained of are that the defendant is alleged to have employed certain persons in its Little Rock terminal in the capacity of “dispatchers” without compensating them for their employment in excess of forty hours per week at one and one-half times the regular rate of compensation. The defense is that the “dispatchers” are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act under § 13 thereof (29 U.S.C.A. § 213) which provides as follows:

“The provisions of sections 206 and 207 of this title shall not apply with respect to (1) any employee employed in a bona fide executive (or), administrative, * * * capacity * * * (as such terms are defined and delimited by regulations of the Administrator).”

The applicable regulations are as f ollows:

Section 541.1 — Executive.
“The term ‘employee employed in a bona fide executive * * * capacity’ in section 13(a) (1) of the act shall mean any employee:
“ (a) Whose primary duty consists of the management of the enterprise in which he is employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof; and
“(b) Who customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees therein; and
“(c) Who has the authority to hire or fire other employees or whose suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring or firing and as to the advancement and promotion or any other change of status of other employees will be given particular weight; and
“(d) Who customarily and regularly exercises discretionary powers; and
“(e) Who does not devote more than 20 percent of his hours worked in the workweek to activities which are not directly and closely related to [419]*419the performance of the work described in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section: Provided, That this paragraph shall not apply in the case of an employee who is in sole charge of an independent establishment * * * or who owns at least a 20-percent interest in the enterprise in which he is employed; and i
“(f) Who is compensated for his services on a salary basis at a • rate of not less than $80 per week (or $55 per week if employed in , Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands) i exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities: * * 29 C.F.R. § 541.1, 29 U.S.C.A. Appendix.

Section 541.99 — Introductory Statement.

“(e) Finally, it is a well-established principle that the burden of proving exemption under 13(a) (1), as well as any other exemption provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, rests on the employer.” 29 C.F. R. § 541.99.

It is to be noted that the six requirements set out above are in the conjunctive, and all must be present in order to invoke the exemption. Also, not only is the burden on the employer to prove the exemption, but the exemption provisions are to be narrowly construed against the employer seeking to assert them. Mitchell v. Kentucky Finance Company, 359 U.S. 290, 295, 79 S.Ct. 756, 3 L.Ed.2d 815; Phillips Co. v. Walling, 324 U.S. 490, 493, 65 S.Ct. 807, 89 L.Ed. 1095.

In determining whether a particular employee comes under the executive exemption, the primary question is whether his duties, responsibilities and salary meet all the requirements of the pertinent section of the regulations. The employee’s title or class specification is of no significance. 29 C.F.R. § 541.99(c).

We are here essentially concerned with three employees: Kumpuris, Hatcher and Patton. There appear to be two other dispatchers, but one of them is just “breaking in” and the other spends part of his time at other work. Kumpuris is the day man and seems to carry the heavier burden of work and responsibility. If he is exempt, it does not necessarily follow that the others are also, but if he is not exempt, then the others are certainly not. Kumpuris works from 6 a. m. to 6 p. m. The first thing he does when he comes to work is make a check list of the equipment he has available for hauls and gather information concerning the runs that have been made the previous night. Soon afterwards he is called by “central dispatch” which is a division or department of the employer located in Dallas, Texas. This is usually a conference call with other terminals of the employer’s business on the line. Kumpuris gives “central dispatch” certain information, and they “in most cases” tell him what freight to move. From the discussion with “central dispatch” Kumpuris prepares a line-up of the hauls to be made. He next calls the drivers that are needed for the immediate runs on the telephone, and he testified that he spent approximately 30% of his time on this procedure prior to the institution of “sleeper runs” by the employer. He did not testify as to what difference has been made by the installation of “sleeper runs,” but there is other testimony to the effect that it now takes longer to call all the drivers, and this is the logical conclusion since there are now two drivers per run and there are no pre-sched-uled runs now as there were before. Telephoning drivers is done on a “first-in first-out” basis, except where the driver has noted on a blackboard that he does not want to be called out for some reason or other. There are also “bid runs” for which the drivers are called by seniority.

Kumpuris occasionally hands out sheets and pillows to the drivers and occasionally picks up the dirty ones. He keeps an inventory of the sheets. He checks with the dock foreman twice a day to see what trailers he is loading and the destined points to which they will be going, and this information is given to “central dispatch” on one of the several calls that [420]*420they make to Kumpuris during the day. The conversations with “central dispatch” take up approximately three to three and one-half hours of his time per day.

It is my opinion that the record in this case clearly reflects that the employer has not complied with the burden of proof requiring it to show that these employees come within the exemption provided for executive employees. The record is particularly weak concerning paragraphs (d) and (e) of regulation 541.1, which are the requirements that the employee customarily and regularly exercise discretionary power and devote not more than 20% of his time to activities which are not directly and closely related to the other work described in paragraphs (a) through (d) of the regulation.

There is evidence that the dispatchers have discretionary powers and use discretion in regard to directing drivers over alternate routes in bad weather and in directing drivers as to what procedure to take when they have been involved in accidents, e. g., to stay with the equipment and wait for other trailers to pick up the freight or to bring the equipment on in.

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Bluebook (online)
203 F. Supp. 417, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goldberg-v-strickland-transportation-co-ared-1962.