Pearson v. Walling

138 F.2d 655, 1943 U.S. App. LEXIS 2623
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided November 10, 1943·No. No. 12584·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

JOHNSEN, Circuit Judge.

The Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division brought suit in the district [657] court, under § 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. § 217, to enjoin appellants from violating the provisions of 29 U.S.C.A. § 215(a) (1) and (2). The violations alleged were based upon appellants’ failure to comply with the provisions of a wage order for the Lumber and Timber Products Industry, issued by the Administrator on October 17, 1941, under 29 U.S.C.A. § 208, and effective November 3, 1941, which established a minimum wage of 35 cents per hour for all employees in such industry, covered by the Act.1

Appellants, as partners, operate a manufacturing plant in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which produces, sells and distributes bows, arrows, targets and other miscellaneous items of archery equipment, in interstate commerce. They admit that their business is subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. They raise no question as to the validity of the Administrator’s wage order in relation to the Lumber and Timber Products Industry, but their contention is that they are not reasonably within the definition of the Lumber and Timber Products Industry2 contained in the Administrator’s order and so cannot properly be subjected to its prescription.

The district court held that those of appellants’ employees who were engaged in the production and shipping of bows and arrows were under the Administrator’s wage order for the Lumber and Timber Products Industry, and that appellants should be enjoined from thereafter paying to such employees wages at rates less than those prescribed by the Administrator’s order for the Lumber and Timber Products Industry. There are other provisions in the decree which are consequents of this holding and which do not require mention here.

Appellants’ general position can perhaps most easily be stated in the language of their reply brief: “The appellants have never contended that the Administrator could not have included them in a wage order made applicable to the Lumber and Timber Products Industry. They concede now that had they been included in the definition, their remedy would have been limited to an application to the Industry Committee to be excluded or to receive special classification and then judicial review as provided by section 10(a) of the Act.3 The appellants only contend that they are not within the definition and that the Administrator, by his ex parte interpretation, is trying to deprive them of the right to be notified and the privilege to be heard, both of which were granted by the Congress4 as a protection against an overenthusiastic exercise of delegated powers.”

As appellants properly concede, if an industry has been sufficiently clearly defined by the Administrator, and notice and opportunity for hearing have appropriately been given in accordance with the requirement of the Act, the question whether a particular product should have been included in such industry or in another, or in some special classification thereunder, is primarily a matter of administrative convenience and judgment;5 and, in any event, where there has been a sufficiently clear definition by the Administrator and notice and opportunity for hearing have been duly given, any question of unreasonableness or arbitrariness in connection with the issuance of a wage order is reachable [658] judicially only by petition for review in the proper circuit court of appeals.6

Does the Administrator’s definition of the Lumber and Timber Products Industry sufficiently clearly, by express language or reasonable implication, include the manufacturing of bows and arrows? More concretely, is the definition sufficiently specific, so that the notice based thereon, of the hearing before the Industry Committee,7 and of the hearing before the Administrator on the Industry Committee’s recommendations, and of the final promulgation of the wage order, could fairly and reasonably be expected to advise appellants and other manufacturers of bows and arrows8 that they were in all reasonable certainty within the compass of the proceedings being had and of the final order made ?9

We think the Administrator’s definition, by its inclusion of “the manufacture of specialized timber products”, was reasonably sufficient for this purpose; that appellants were thus legally advised by the published notices that, unless an express exclusion was subsequently made, their bow-and-arrow manufacturing operations were properly within the scope of the proceedings had; that they were accordingly afforded a fair legal opportunity to appear in the proceedings and to seek to have their product excluded or specially classified, if they were properly entitled thereto; that they were similarly duly put in a position to require them to have attacked the final wage order on petition for review; if any sound ground existed therefor; and that, in thereafter seeking to enforce the wage order against appellants’ bow-and-arrow manufacturing operations, the Administrator cannot fairly be said to have failed to make an adequate definition under the Act, to have been guilty of arbitrariness or fundamental injustice in administration, or to have violated due process.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Pearson v. Walling, 138 F.2d 655, 1943 U.S. App. LEXIS 2623 (8th Cir. 1943).

138 F.2d 655 (Pearson v. Walling) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Ideal Farms, Inc. v. Benson
181 F. Supp. 62 (D. New Jersey, 1960)
Douglass v. Hurwitz Co.
145 F. Supp. 29 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1956)
Sierra Berdecía v. Llamas
73 P.R. 847 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1952)
Walling v. Brooklyn Braid Co., Inc.
152 F.2d 938 (Second Circuit, 1945)
Marlene Linens v. Bowles
144 F.2d 874 (Emergency Court of Appeals, 1944)
Walling v. Cohen
140 F.2d 453 (Third Circuit, 1944)