Hearst Publications, Inc. v. United States

70 F. Supp. 666, 35 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1128, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1795
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedDecember 31, 1946
Docket25228-25231
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 70 F. Supp. 666 (Hearst Publications, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hearst Publications, Inc. v. United States, 70 F. Supp. 666, 35 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1128, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1795 (N.D. Cal. 1946).

Opinion

GOODMAN, District Judge.

By these four actions, consolidated for trial, plaintiff newspaper publishers seek refund of insurance contributions and unemployment taxes collected from them, for taxable periods within the years 1937-1940, upon the compensation received by vendors of their publications on the streets of the City of San Francisco who, it is claimed by plaintiffs, were not their employees. The single issue to be here determined is the status of these vendors during that period. If their relationship to plaintiffs was one of employment within the purport of the applicable statutes, Social Security Act, Title VIII and Title IX, 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1001-1110; Federal Insurance Contributions Act, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, §§ 1400-1432; Federal Unemployment Tax Act, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, §§ 1600-1611, the taxes were properly imposed; otherwise not.

The Facts.

Plaintiffs are owners and publishers of daily newspapers circulated primarily in San Francisco; a substantial portion of this circulation is effected through street sales by the news vendors whose status is here in issue. During all of the period here involved, (1937-1940) except from April, 1937 to August, 1937, plaintiff publishers and their vendors were governed in their relationship .by successive written contracts between the San Francisco Newspaper Publishers’ Association, as the publishers’ representatives, 'and the Newspaper and Periodical Vendors’ and Distributors’ Union No. 468 representing the vendors. (The latter is a labor union chartered by the American Federation of Labor.) Three such written contracts were negotiated during the pertinent taxable period, in 1937, 1939 and 1940. However all the contracts are admittedly similar in such of their terms as are here material. And al *668 though there was no written agreement between publishers and vendors from April 1937 to August 1937, their relationship was akin to that established by the succeeding written contracts, except for the exercise of a greater degree of control by the publishers over activities of the vendors in matters which were thereafter settled by the terms of the negotiated contracts.

The facts bearing on the relationship between publishers and vendors as fixed by contract and as appearing from their actual operations during the period here involved are these:

The vendors were engaged by the publishers to sell newspapers at particular street locations. Prior to 1939, such vendors would apply directly to the publishers for assignment to any vacant street comer. After 1939, the union contracts required that vendors be selected by the publishers from a list of available vendors furnished them on request by the vendors’ union. The street sales locations were situated at corners characterized as full time corners, part time corners, special wrapped edition corners and special event corners. (There were also roving vendors called bootjackers who sell papers at large.) Such locations were designated, limited, changed, discontinued or re-established entirely at the publishers’ discretion and in order to coincide with changing public demand. Prior to the first contract of August 1937, the services of a vendor were terminable at the will of the publisher. Thereafter, a vendor once engaged to sell at a particular location, was entitled by each of the successive contracts, to man that location so long as it was maintained by the publisher, unless there should arise just cause for the discontinuance of further deliveries of papers to him (e. g. drunkenness, failure to appear for work, etc.) or for his transfer from one location to another, in which event the publisher was entitled to effect such discontinuance or transfer. If a vendor felt that his contract to sell at a particular location had been unjustly discontinued by the publisher, —that is, without cause, — he could have the matter submitted to and determined by arbitration.

The publishers fixed the so-called “retail” price at which the papers were to be sold publicly as well as the so-calledi “wholesale” price, which was the amount charged the vendors for papers delivered them for sale. Once fixed, these prices remained constant for the duration of the union contract then in force. The differ- ■ ence between the “wholesale” and “retail”' price established by the publishers was the vendor’s profit. But in addition thereto,, he was guaranteed by contract a minimum' weekly profit. The papers which he did 1 not sell, he was privileged to return to the-publisher and received credit therefor.

Within certain limits prescribed by contract, the publisher fixed for the various types of corner, the days and hours of sale,, which were established to coincide -with-news releases, the public’s reading habits- and its concentration at particular locations-at particular periods.

As each edition left the press, the papers were delivered to the vendors at their corners by employees of' the publishers called' “wholesalers.” The quantity delivered did not rest in the vendor’s discretion, but depended on what it was estimated the vendor, during the selling period, could dispose of at his location. Any disagreement as to-the number of papers the vendor should: take appeared to be a matter for settlement between the publisher and the union.

Prior to August 1937, the wholesaler gave orders to the vendors in matters connected with the performance of their duties and disciplined them for failure to comply. But after August 1937, the wholesalers exercised little direct control over the vendors,, although they did make suggestions, observed the conduct of the vendors and reported misfeasances to the publisher. Their chief function was to deliver papers to the vendors at each edition time, survey their particular district between editions to see if more papers were needed at a particular sales location, or if surplus papers should be transferred from one to another such location. However, in case a wholesaler observed conduct of a vendor warranting dismissal, the evidence shows that the-wholesaler would check-in the vendor before the end of the day’s selling period. But any disciplining of news vendors, short of discontinuance of sales to them, was effected by union representatives.

*669 In their sales to the public, the vendors were required to sell complete newspapers only, with sections in such order as was designated by the publishers. They were free to offer the papers for sale as they saw fit, except that they were expected to be at their corners at press release time, to stay there during the sales period, to be able to sell papers and to take an interest in selling papers.

The vendors had no expenses to bear and assumed no business risks except the risk of loss of papers delivered to them for sale and charged against them. They provided their own transportation to and from their sales locations. Some employed substitutes. They were not prohibited from selling non-competitive publications and other articles along with their newspaper sales, and some so did. (In 1937-1940 about Ye of the approximate 650 vendors were selling other articles and non-competitive publications.)

The vendors were not required to submit any form of report. There were no conferences or sales meetings which they were obliged to attend, nor was it necessary that they report to the publishers’ premises for any purpose.

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Bluebook (online)
70 F. Supp. 666, 35 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1128, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1795, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hearst-publications-inc-v-united-states-cand-1946.