Lesser v. Sertner's, Inc.

76 F. Supp. 144, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3021
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJune 10, 1947
DocketCiv. 30-90
StatusPublished

This text of 76 F. Supp. 144 (Lesser v. Sertner's, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lesser v. Sertner's, Inc., 76 F. Supp. 144, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3021 (S.D.N.Y. 1947).

Opinion

LEIBELL, District Judge.

This is a suit for overtime compensation under § 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 207. The defendant is engaged in the business of cleaning, processing, renovating and repairing upholstered furniture, draperies, curtains, rugs and carpets and did a gross business of between $120,000 and $130,000 a year in 1941 to 1943 inclusive. Plaintiff was a receiving and shipping clerk. He physically handled sorted, routed, recorded, wrapped and labeled the merchandise and assisted in loading and unloading trucks. For a time he [146]*146also helped clean furniture both at defendant’s loft and at the place of business of customers. Defendant had about twenty employees.

The Findings of Fact, which are being filed herewith, describe in detail the nature and extent of defendant’s business and the type of work performed by plaintiff as an employee. The Conclusions of Law dismiss the special defenses of the defendant, claiming exemption under § 13(a) (2) of the Act 29 U.S.C-A. § 213(a) (2), and award judgment to the plaintiff for overtime compensation, plus liquidated damages and a reasonable attorney’s fee. § 7.

The calculation of the overtime compensation due to the plaintiff under § 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 207, is made in Finding of Fact Nos. 34 to 58. Since the evidence clearly established lack of good faith on the part of the defendant, a deliberate violation of the Act, an allowance of 100% liquidated damages is proper. § 16(b), as amended May 14, 1947, by the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 216(b). The attorney’s fee allowed is about 20% of the recovery, in a case involving numerous issues.

The applicability of the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to minimum wages and maximum hours set forth in §§ 6 and 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 206, 207, rests upon the character of the work performed by the employee. If he is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce he is covered by the Act. Overstreet v. North Shore Corp., 318 U.S. 125, 63 S.Ct. 494, 87 L.Ed. 656. If only part of an employer’s business is in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, the character and relation of the employee’s work as to that part of the employer’s business is considered in deciding whether the employee is entitled to be benefits of §§ 6 and 7 of the Act. That is the clear import of the language in Skidmore v. John J. Casale Co., 2 Cir., 1947, 160 F.2d 527, 530, where the court said: “ * * * it would appear that while a minimal amount of production for shipment interstate will suffice for the purpose of classifying the employer, nevertheless it must be shown that the work of the individual employee which relates to that minimal amount forms a substantial amount of all the work done by that employee.”

Although the cleaning of rugs, draperies and furniture for an ultimate consumer who is a householder using them in his home, would not be classed as the production of goods for commerce, in view of Phillips v. Star Overall Dry Cleaning Laundry Co., 2 Cir., 149 F.2d 416, and Roland Electrical Co. v. Walling, 326 U.S. 657, 66 S.Ct. 413, 90 L.Ed. 383, nevertheless such services when performed for furniture dealers and trade shops, who resell the cleaned merchandise in interstate commerce, would be classed as the production of goods for commerce. About Yz% of defendant’s business was work done for furniture dealers and about %% was for trade shops. About 8% of defendant’s business is performed for decorators who are billed directly and who sell the article cleaned to others or use it for display. All of that work passed through plaintiff’s hands as the receiving and shipping clerk.

Window cleaners and painters employed to work in a loft building have been held to be engaged in the production of goods for commerce, where the tenants of the loft building are so engaged. Kirschbaum v. Walling, 316 U.S. 517, 62 S.Ct. 1116, 86 L. Ed. 1638. (Martino v. Michigan Window Cleaning Co., 327 U.S. 173, 66 S.Ct. 379, 90 L.Ed. 603). There would seem to be the same basis for a ruling that those who clean and renovate the furnishings of department stores or commercial concerns engaged in handling and selling goods in interstate commerce should be similarly classified. The fact that an outside company, such as the defendant, and not the department store or the commercial business hires the employees rendering such services, would not prevent the application of the rule. Fleming v. Arsenal Building Corp., 2 Cir., 125 F.2d 278 and Roland Electrical Co. v. Walling, 326 U.S. 657, 66 S.Ct. 413, 90 L.Ed. 383. About Yz% °f defendant’s business was done on the furnishings and equipment of department stores; and about 7% for commercial consumers such as hotels, banks, restaurants and others.

[147]*147In the Roland Electrical Co. case Mr. Justice Burton discussed the definition of “commerce”, “goods” and “produced” as contained in § 3 of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 203, and stated, 326 U.S. at pages 663 and 664, 66 S.Ct. at page 416, 90 L.Ed. 383: “This does not require the employee to be directly ‘engaged in commerce’ among the several states. This does nop require the employee tobe employed even in the production of an article which itself becomes the subject of commerce or transportation among the several states. It is enough that the employee be employed, for example, in an occupation which is necessary to the production of a part of any other ‘articles or subjects of commerce of any character’ which are produced for trade, commerce or transportation among the several states. This does not require an employee to be employed exclusively in the specified occupation. This does not require that the occupation in which he is employed be indispensable to the production under consideration. It is enough that his occupation be'necessary to the production.’ There may be alternative occupations that could be substituted for it but it is enough that the one at issue is needed in such production and would, if omitted, handicap the production.”

The plaintiff herein, as one of the defendant’s employees, was engaged in performing services that were so closely related to the movement of commerce as to be a part thereof. Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 317 U.S. 564, 63 S.Ct. 332, 87 L.Ed. 460. His duties in relation to the shipping of rugs in interstate commerce required several hours of his working time each day, a substantial part of all the work performed by the plaintiff. All of the rugs which defendant received at its place of business for cleaning were in turn picked up by the Lincoln Rug Co. of Newark, New Jersey, and transported to Newark, where the actual work of cleaning was performed by the Lincoln Co., as a subcontractor of the defendant.

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Related

A. B. Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling
316 U.S. 517 (Supreme Court, 1942)
Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co.
317 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1943)
Overstreet v. North Shore Corp.
318 U.S. 125 (Supreme Court, 1943)
A. H. Phillips, Inc. v. Walling
324 U.S. 490 (Supreme Court, 1945)
Roland Electrical Co. v. Walling
326 U.S. 657 (Supreme Court, 1946)
Martino v. Michigan Window Cleaning Co.
327 U.S. 173 (Supreme Court, 1946)
Fleming v. Arsenal Bldg. Corporation
125 F.2d 278 (Second Circuit, 1941)
Phillips v. Star Overall Dry Cleaning Laundry Co.
149 F.2d 416 (Second Circuit, 1945)
Skidmore v. John J. Casale, Inc.
160 F.2d 527 (Second Circuit, 1947)
Brown v. Minngas Co.
51 F. Supp. 363 (D. Minnesota, 1943)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 F. Supp. 144, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3021, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lesser-v-sertners-inc-nysd-1947.