Mitchell v. Aetna Finance Co.

144 F. Supp. 528, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2798
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedSeptember 7, 1956
DocketC. A. No. 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 144 F. Supp. 528 (Mitchell v. Aetna Finance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mitchell v. Aetna Finance Co., 144 F. Supp. 528, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2798 (D.R.I. 1956).

Opinion

DAY, District Judge.

In this action the plaintiff seeks a judgment enjoining the defendant from further violating the provisions of Sections 15(a) (2) and 15(a) (5) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.

The complaint charges the defendant with employing employees in its office in Providence, Rhode Island, in the production of goods for interstate commerce and in interstate commerce as defined in said Act for a workweek in excess of forty hours without compensating them for their employment in excess of forty hours at a rate not less than one and one-half the regular rates at which they were employed.

In its answer the defendant admits that it has not complied with the provisions of Sections 7 and 11(e) of said Act with respect to the employees involved herein and asserts that none of said employees was or is engaged in the production of goods for interstate commerce or in interstate commerce within the meaning of said Act and further, that said office is a retail service establishment under the provisions of Section 13(a) (2) of said Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C.A. § 213(a) (2) and that therefore, said employees are exempt from coverage of the Act, as amended.

By stipulation the defendant has admitted non-compliance with the overtime and record keeping provisions of said Sections 7 and 11(c) of the Act and the parties have agreed upon the salient [530]*530and material facts as to the defendant’s operations.

These facts may be summarized as follows: The defendant operates a small loan business in eighty-three offices located in sixty-five cities in twenty states. Its home and main office is located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is licensed to do business in the State of Rhode Island under the so-called “Small Loan Law” of that state, Gen.Laws 1938, c. 149, § 1 et seq. It employs approximately seven hundred employees of whom six hundred fifty are local branch personnel. During the fiscal year ending September 30, 1955, defendant made 170,756 loans in the amount ■of $52,194,217.95. As of that date the total amount of assets employed in the business of the defendant was $35,937,-S65.85.

As of the filing of this complaint there were thirteen employees in the defendant’s Providence office. They were classified as follows, viz.: a manager, three assistant managers, three outside representatives, five female employees, classified as bookkeeper-cashiers, and a merchant representative.

At the commencement of the trial the parties stipulated orally on the record that the manager of the defendant's Providence office was exempt from the overtime requirements of the Act by virtue of Section 541.1 of the Regulations of the Wage and Hour Division, 29 C.F.R. § 541.1, and hence no injunctive relief as to him is now sought by the plaintiff. On August 1, 1955, there were outstanding 3,600 loans which had been made by the personnel in the Providence office, 168 of which were to residents of either Connecticut or Massachusetts.

The parties have also stipulated that the employees in the Providence office are paid semi-monthly by checks sent from the home office of the defendant. All forms, stationery, envelopes, supplies and pencils used there are sent to that office from the home office. Whenever the manager of the Providence office finds a need for funds either to make loans or to pay any other expenses, not paid directly by the home office, he requests and obtains such funds from the home- office. Whenever the balance to the credit of the defendant in its Providence banking depository exceeds $2,000 a check for such excess is drawn by the manager of the Providence office and sent to the home office of the defendant. During the two year period prior to the filing of this complaint there were ninety-four such remittances amounting in the aggregate to approximately $669,000.

Persons desiring loans from the defendant at its Providence office are interviewed by the local manager or one of his assistants. Thereupon one of the local employees attempts to verify the facts related in the application for a loan. In this process the manager, assistant manager and other employees regularly utilize the telephone, telegrams and the mails. In addition to the continuous remittances of money by the manager of the local office to the home office there is a continuous, regular flow of reports, records, documents and correspondence between the two offices. Each day the local office sends to the home office a detailed statement of its daily operations. This statement consists of (1) a cash report, (2) a payment register, (3) a daily cash balance sheet and (4) a daily bank deposit ticket. In addition, each week the loan register and the delinquency reduction report are sent to the home office. Numerous other reports are sent regularly although less frequently.

The defendant at its home office also maintains a constant audit of the operations at its office in Providence by examining all new loan applications approved in that office. In 1955, 952 such loan applications with the accompanying papers, such as list of household goods, car appraisal sheet and co-maker applications, were forwarded to the home office of the defendant.

The outside representatives employed in the local office interview seriously delinquent borrowers, including those who reside in Connecticut and Massachusetts, reporting to the Providence office by telephone, and investigate the credit standing of applicants for loans. In the [531]*531course of their duties they visit places outside Rhode Island about six times a month and regularly spend about 4.2 to 4.6% of their hours of employment outside that state.

Assistant managers use the telephone to contact delinquent borrowers who reside in Connecticut and Massachusetts, making approximately twenty such calls during each workweek. They also complete applications for loans and prepare information for the delinquency report. In addition, they verify credit information furnished by applicants by making telephone calls to individuals in Connecticut and Massachusetts as well as in. Rhode Island and dictate letters some of which are sent to points outside of Rhode Island.

The bookkeeper-cashiers type loan payment records and other information requisite for the completion of the loan register and loan journal, assist in the preparation of semi-monthly and monthly reports, make up and type local bank deposit slips, take and transcribe dictation, assist in the preparation of outgoing mail, check credit information by telephone, type notices to borrowers requesting payment of overdue accounts, address mail solicitation from the local office and stuff and mail advertising material, 4.2 to 4.6% of which is sent to prospects residing outside of Rhode Island. They also answer the telephone and open the mail which includes approximately 1,080 monthly remittances by borrowers. In the course of their duties all these employees regularly use the telephone, telegrams and mails.

The merchant contact representative calls on merchants to solicit business for the defendant from their customers and in doing so regularly visits Attleboro in-the Commonwealth of Massachusetts once or twice each month.

In addition to their stipulation as to the operations of the defendant and the duties of the defendant’s employees involved herein the parties have agreed that the testimony and exhibits in the case of ■ Mitchell v.

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Bluebook (online)
144 F. Supp. 528, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2798, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mitchell-v-aetna-finance-co-rid-1956.