Mitchell v. Faber Industries, Inc.

188 F. Supp. 370, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3692
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedOctober 25, 1960
DocketCiv. A. No. P-2091
StatusPublished

This text of 188 F. Supp. 370 (Mitchell v. Faber Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mitchell v. Faber Industries, Inc., 188 F. Supp. 370, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3692 (S.D. Ill. 1960).

Opinion

MERCER, Chief Judge.

This action which was instituted by the Secretary of Labor involves a rather narrow legal question. By his complaint, plaintiff prays that the defendant, Faber Industries, Inc., be enjoined from violating the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C.A. § 207.1 Defendant, by its answer, claims that it is exempt from the operation of that statute with respect to the employees involved in this litigation under the provisions of Section 13 (b) (1) of the Act. 29 U.S.C.A. § 213(b) (1). The facts are stipulated and the only question presented for decision is one of law.

The following summary of material stipulated facts will serve as findings of fact and to place the legal issue in focus. Defendant is engaged in the business of purchasing, collecting and rendering meat scraps and dead animals for the production of grease, cracklings, animal feeds, and cured hides in interstate commerce. Its central office, and the nerve center of its total business activity is located in Peoria, Illinois. It operates its business through ten separate plants, nine of which are located in the State of Illinois. It operates six plants, all in the State of Illinois, which are engaged in the rendering and processing of meat scraps and dead animals for the production of grease and cracklings. The grease produced is sold on the open market. The cracklings produced are used, in part, by defendant for the production of feed. The balance is sold on the open market. Defendant also operates two plants for the production of animal feed, one of which is located in Illinois, and the other in Missouri, and two hide plants for the curing and processing of hides, both of which are located in Illinois. It is agreed by the parties that each of these plants is engaged in the production of goods for interstate commerce, as that term is used in the Act.

A total of 210 employees are employed by defendant at its various plants, many of whom work in excess of 40 hours per week. Employees engaged in production and office clerical work receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. Management employees are exempt from the overtime pay provisions of the Act. There is no issue presented with respect to any of such employees.

The issue presented involves employees engaged by defendant as scrap drivers. A total of 20 persons are employed in that classification, each of whom customarily operates a truck on a specifically assigned route, gathering meat scraps from butchers, slaughter houses and meat markets for delivery to one of defendant’s six rendering plants, or, in some instances, to a collection point designated for one of the six plants. All scrap delivery points are located in Illinois.

Thirteen of the scrap drivers drive trucks owned by defendant which they must service and park at service facilities and points designated by defendant. [372]*372Seven operate their own trucks and control the servicing, maintenance and parking of their respective vehicles without direction from defendant. Drivers who drive a defendant-owned truck are paid a weekly salary plus a commission on poundage of scrap collected. Those who operate their own truck are paid on a mileage basis, plus a like commission. All are employed for work weeks in excess of 40 hours, but receive no additional compensation for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.

The point of contention is narrowed down to IS employees by the circumstance that five of the scrap drivers regularly operate routes which cross state lines. Plaintiff concedes that these five men are engaged in transportation in interstate commerce, are subject to control by the Interstate Commerce Commission as to qualifications and maximum hours of service and are exempt from the operation of the provisions of Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Each of the remaining fifteen scrap drivers regularly operates a scrap collection route which is wholly within the State of Illinois, collecting scrap for delivery at points within that State.

The nature of defendant’s base product, meat scraps, requires that the scraps be collected frequently and regularly from the customer. That necessity, in turn, requires that provisions be made to operate each route regularly during employee vacations and in emergencies. Such situations are handled by temporary assignment of plant or managerial personnel to the affected route, or another scrap driver from the same plant or delivery point may double-up and handle two routes temporarily. Defendant’s plants are quite widely dispersed in Illinois and it is impractical and extremely rare for a temporary transfer of a scrap driver outside the area normally served by his plant or delivery point. There have been occasions, however, when drivers have been temporarily transferred from one plant or delivery point which serves an area wholly within Illinois to another plant or delivery point which likewise serves an intrastate area.

The Interstate Commerce Commission has notified defendant that it asserts jurisdiction over defendant’s scrap driver employees under the provisions of Section 204(a) (3) of the Motor Carrier Act of 1935, as amended, 49 U.S.C.A. § 304(a) (3).2 There has been, however, no definitive interpretation by the Commission of the extent of the jurisdiction asserted, i. e., whether such jurisdiction extends to all employees in the classification of scrap drivers or only to those drivers who are actually engaged in interstate transportation of scrap.

Defendant is a private carrier of property by motor vehicle within the definition of Section 203(a) (17) of the Motor Carrier Act with respect to its scrap collection operations, at least, to the extent that the operation involves interstate transportation of the scrap. 49 U.S.C.A. § 303(a) (17).3 See Beggs v. Kroger Co., 8 Cir., 167 F.2d 700; I. C. C. v. Tank Car Oil Corp., 5 Cir., 151 F.2d 834.

As stipulated by the parties, the only issue presented for decision is whether defendant’s scrap drivers are exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act under the provi[373]*373sions of Section 13(b) (1) 4 of that Act, with reference to Section 204(a) (3) of the Motor Carrier Act.

Within the context of the relevant facts as hereinabove found and summarized, I think the issue must be stated more narrowly and precisely. Must a “private carrier of property by motor vehicle,” as that phrase is defined in Section 203(a) (17) of the Motor Carrier Act, who is exempt from the operation of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act under the provisions of Section 13(b) (1) of that Act, with reference to Section 204(a) (3) of the Motor Carrier Act, as to employment of a part of its employees who are engaged in a general work classification requiring the operation of a motor truck, comply with the overtime provisions of the Act with respect to its employment of other employees engaged in the same general work classification whose customary duties do not entail the interstate transportation of property ?

Plaintiff takes the position that the jurisdiction of the Commerce Commission, as it reaches defendant’s scrap collection operations, must be determined on an individual employee basis.

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Bluebook (online)
188 F. Supp. 370, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3692, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mitchell-v-faber-industries-inc-ilsd-1960.