Pollard v. Herbert J. Siegel Org., Inc.

272 F. Supp. 821, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7919
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedSeptember 18, 1967
DocketCiv. A. No. 18386
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 272 F. Supp. 821 (Pollard v. Herbert J. Siegel Org., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pollard v. Herbert J. Siegel Org., Inc., 272 F. Supp. 821, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7919 (D. Md. 1967).

Opinion

NORTHROP, District Judge.

This action is brought to recover from defendants unpaid overtime compensation, an additional equal amount as liquidated damages, and reasonable counsel fees under the provisions of the Act of June, 1938, c. 676, 52 Stat. 1069, Title 29, United States Code, Secs. 201-219, known as the Fair Labor Standards Act. Jurisdiction is conferred on this court pursuant to Title 28, United States Code, Sec. 1337, which grants to the district courts original jurisdiction over proceedings arising under any act of Congress regulating commerce.

The facts which give rise to this action are not in dispute. Plaintiff Pollard was employed as a lobby man in an apartment building known as the Dell House, located in Baltimore, Maryland, from on or about March 17, 1965, to July 13, 1966. Originally he received a straight salary of $60.00 per week, and on or about May 19, 1965, began receiving $1.25 per hour, and as of December 2, 1965, received $1.40 per hour. His duties consisted of assisting people in and out of their automobiles and occasionally parking said automobiles; receiving packages which had moved through the United States mail and which were delivered to the building by United States postal personnel; and receiving telephone calls for tenants when said calls came over the building’s telephone switchboard. Plaintiff Huntley was employed as a night lobby man in the same building from on or about April 22, 1965, to July 27, 1966, at an hourly rate of $1.25 per hour. His duties were similar in nature to those of plaintiff Pollard’s. It is admitted that both defendants worked in excess of forty hours per week some weeks in the course of their employment.

The building wherein the plaintiffs were employed was a partially occupied apartment building used primarily for [824]*824residential purposes, but also contained the offices of a dentist, a psychiatrist, and a realtor. Until August, 1966, the building was owned by the defendant Doca, Inc., and managed by defendant Siegel Co. The precise employment relationship between the plaintiffs and the defendants has not been determined, both defendants denying that it is the employer of the complainants. Defendant Siegel Co., although denying that it is the employer, has filed a cross-claim against Doca, Inc., asking for indemnification in the event that it is found liable to the plaintiffs.

The determination of the relationship between the plaintiffs and the defendants and the possible liability for indemnification is unnecessary for the disposition of this case. This is so because defendant Doca’s motion to dismiss the complaint and the facts as to plaintiffs’ duties clearly demonstrate that the plaintiffs were not engaged in commerce within the meaning of the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Indeed, it appears that under any state of facts which may be proved in support of the asserted claim no basic right of action can exist. Cf. Stratton v. Farmers Produce Co., 134 F.2d 825 (8th Cir. 1943).

The coverage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act do not represent exercise by Congress of its full powers under the commerce clause, and therefore determination of coverage for particular employees involves a problem of statutory delineation, not constitutional powers. Hope v. Nicholas Di Menna and Sons, Inc., 27 Misc.2d 261, 208 N.Y.S.2d 237 (1960). Of the possible bases for coverage under the Act, only the following two are involved in this case: 1, whether the employees are in commerce because of the nature of the activities of the tenants of the building; and 2, whether the employees are in commerce by the very nature of the work done.

Building employees are by virtue of the nature of the work carried on in a building of this type engaged in commerce if a sufficiently large proportion of the space in the building is used for the physical production of goods for commerce, Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, 316 U.S. 517, 62 S.Ct. 1116, 86 L.Ed. 1638 (1942); or if a sufficiently large proportion of the space in the building is occupied by the offices of a concern which owns the building and which engages elsewhere in the production of goods for commerce, Borden Co. v. Borella, 325 U.S. 679, 65 S.Ct. 1223, 89 L.Ed. 1865 (1945). But building employees are not engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act where the building is occupied by a variety of tenants even though a substantial portion of these tenants are engaged elsewhere in the production of goods, 10 East 40th Street Co. v. Callus, 325 U.S. 578, 65 S.Ct. 1227, 89 L.Ed. 1806 (1945).

The Callus case is controlling here on the issue of whether these employees are in commerce by virtue of the activities of the tenants of the building. Not only was there no production of goods for commerce carried on in the building in question, but the commercial concerns occupying space therein did not engage in the production of goods for commerce at any other location and those concerns doing any interstate business did not occupy a significant portion of the space therein. In Callus, where the offices were leased to a wide variety of tenants, including manufacturing, construction, engineering and mining firms and the United States Employment Service, the court held:

“Renting office space in a building exclusively set aside for an unrestrictive variety of office work spontaneously satisfies the common understanding of what is a local business and makes employees of such a building engaged in a local business.
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“It is a distinction appropriate to the subject matter to hold that where occupations form a part of a distinctive enterprise, such as the enterprise of running an office building, they are properly to be treated as distinct from those necessary parts of the commer[825]*825cial process which alone, with due regard to local regulations, Congress dealt with in the Fair Labor Standards Act.” 325 U.S. at p. 583, 65 S.Ct. at p. 1229.

The second basis for coverage put forward by the plaintiffs is that they were engaged in commerce by the very nature of their activities. They correctly contend that “it is well settled that the nature of the employees’ specific duties, rather than the general character of the employer’s business, which determines whether employees are engaged in commerce within the Act.” See, e. g., Wallace v. Tennessee Airmotive, Inc., 238 F.Supp. 206 (D.C.Tenn.1965). Thus, although it has been often noted in the cases that the ownership and management of an apartment or office building is essentially a local business endeavor, this is not in itself determinative of whether or not the employees of such a business are covered by the Act.

The test for determining whether employees are engaged in commerce is whether their work is so directly and vitally related to interstate commerce as to be, in practical effect, a part of it, rather than isolated, local activity. Wirtz v. First State Abstract and Ins. Co., 362 F.2d 83 (C.A.Ark.1966).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
272 F. Supp. 821, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pollard-v-herbert-j-siegel-org-inc-mdd-1967.