McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co.

92 F. Supp. 491, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2550
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 28, 1950
DocketCiv. No. 209-J
StatusPublished

This text of 92 F. Supp. 491 (McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 92 F. Supp. 491, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2550 (S.D. Fla. 1950).

Opinion

DE VANE, District Judge.

This case is again before the court as the result of a mandate of the Supreme Court of the United States in McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Company, 336 U.S. 187, 69 S.Ct. 497, 93 L.Ed. 599. The litigation in this case has acquired an extensive history. The case has been to the Supreme Court twice — both times on certiorari secured by plaintiff. No District or Court of Appeals Judge — and there have been eight of us— has ever been able to successfully ferret out all the applicable law to the case and the Supreme Court has had to direct tis to it. I am here now called upon by the mandate of the Supreme Court to punish defendants in this civil contempt proceeding for violations of this law as announced by said court.

The complaint was originally filed on July 8, 1940, ■ seeking an injunction under Section 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq., against alleged violations of said Act. After trial the District Court on August 29, 1941 entered a final judgment (not reported) in which it found the operations of the defendants in the main office and warehouse in Jacksonville, Florida, and in the branches located in Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola, Florida, Mobile, Alabama, and Savannah, Georgia subject to the Act. It found and held that the employees of the defendants at the branches located at St. Petersburg, Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Miami, Florida, and Macon, Georgia, not subject to the Act. Both sides appealed’ and the Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, in Fleming, Administrator, v. Jacksonville Paper Company, and vice versa, 128 F.2d 395, reversed the lower court primarily on the ground that the judgment and injunctive order went beyond the relief sought by plaintiff and directed that a new judgment and injunctive order be entered restricting the injunction to violations alleged in the complaint. Certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court of the United States, Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 317 U.S. 615, 63 S.Ct. 72, 87 L.Ed. 499, and in its opinion the Supreme Court, [493]*493317 U.S. 564, 63 S.Ct. 332, 335, 87 L.Ed. 460 modified the holdings of the Court of Appeals and as modified affirmed the judgment of that court.

The Supreme Court held that that part of the decision of the Court of Appeals which held that “any pause at the warehouse is sufficient to deprive the remainder of the journey of its interstate status”, was too restrictive. The Supreme Court held that a temporary pause in the warehouse does not mean that goods are no longer “in Commerce” within the meaning of the Act; if the halt in the movement of the goods is a convenient and natural step in the process of getting them to their final destination, they remain in Commerce until they reach such destination.

The Supreme Court held, however, that the administrator had not sustained the burden of proof which was on him to show that the goods continued “in Commerce” when they passed through defendants’ warehouses at its branches. This question was left for decision by the District Court after further evidence thereon.

Following receipt of the opinion and mandate of the Supreme Court, the District Court on June 3, 1943, without further hearing entered an amended judgment which did little more than extend the in-junctive provisions of the former judgment to the branch offices excluded by the former judgment. Prior to the entry of this judgment the administrator sought no adjudication by the court as to what classes of employees of defendants, at its branch offices, were in fact subject to the Act.

On April 16, 1946, the administrator filed in this case an application seeking an adjudication in civil contempt of the defendants, based on alleged violations of the terms of the judgment of this Court entered August 29, 1941, and the amended judgment entered June 3, 1943. In this application the administrator raised several questions, summarized by the court in its Memorandum Opinion reported in Walling, Administrator v. Jacksonville Paper Company, D.C., 69 F.Supp. 599. All these questions were resolved by the court in favor of the administrator. All of said questions, save one, were raised at the first trial of this case but the court at that time refused to adjudicate any of them and there had never been an adjudication upon any of these questions prior to the judgment of this court entered January 23, 1947. In his application for adjudication in civil contempt the administrator raised the further question as to his authority under the Fair Labor Standards Act to enforce the payment of unpaid statutory wages to employees who were under the Act. The administrator relied upon Porter, Administrator v. Warner Holding Company, 328 U.S. 395, 66 S.Ct. 1086, 90 L.Ed. 1332, for his authority to enforce such payments.

This court upon the record before it declined to adjudge defendants in civil contempt and visit punishment upon them for the alleged violation of the prior injunctive orders of the court and held that the plaintiff did not have the authority under the act except by way of punishment for civil contempt, to enforce the payment of unpaid statutory wages to defendants’ employees. The court further held there was no evidence in the record of contumacy that would justify the infliction of a penalty upon the defendants measured by the amount of unpaid statutory wages and refused to order the payment of such wages. See Walling, Administrator v. Jacksonville Paper Company, D.C., 69 F.Supp. 599. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 5 Cir., 167 F.2d 448, but the Supreme Court reversed on the two questions enumerated last above, McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 336 U.S. 187, 69 S.Ct. 497, 93 L.Ed. 599. The case is again before the court with directions to adjudicate and punish the defendants in civil contempt and as a part of said punishment to determine the amount of unpaid statutory wages due by the defendants to their employees and order payment thereof.

In punishing defendants for civil contempt this court shall keep in mind that all the questions raised by the petition for adjudication, save one, were raised on the first hearing of this case, were never reached and decided by the District Court, the Court of Appeals, or the Supreme Court prior to filing application for adjudication of defendants in civil contempt and that the [494]*494burden of proving the matters complained about were violations of the Act rested upon the administrator. There is not a scintilla of evidence in the record that defendants did anything to circumvent any prohibition of either former judgment. They strictly obeyed the mandate of these judgments insofar as they were specific in their commands. The one question not before the court originally was the adoption by defendants of a bonus plan and this plan was adopted and put into effect between the entry of the first and second judgments in this case. The evidence shows that the administrator was aware of its adoption when the second judgment was entered and it was not condemned by this judgment.

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Related

Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co.
317 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1943)
Porter v. Warner Holding Co.
328 U.S. 395 (Supreme Court, 1946)
McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co.
336 U.S. 187 (Supreme Court, 1949)
Moore Et Ux. v. United States
182 F.2d 332 (Fifth Circuit, 1950)
Co-Efficient Foundation, Inc. v. Woods
171 F.2d 691 (Fifth Circuit, 1948)
Creedon v. Randolph
165 F.2d 918 (Fifth Circuit, 1948)
Fleming v. Jacksonville Paper Co.
128 F.2d 395 (Fifth Circuit, 1942)
Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co.
69 F. Supp. 599 (S.D. Florida, 1947)
Jacksonville Paper Co. v. McComb
167 F.2d 448 (Fifth Circuit, 1948)
Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co.
317 U.S. 615 (Supreme Court, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
92 F. Supp. 491, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccomb-v-jacksonville-paper-co-flsd-1950.