Walling v. McCrady Const. Co.

60 F. Supp. 243, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2373
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 28, 1945
DocketNo. 2394
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 60 F. Supp. 243 (Walling v. McCrady Const. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walling v. McCrady Const. Co., 60 F. Supp. 243, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2373 (W.D. Pa. 1945).

Opinion

SCHOONMAKER, District Judge.

This is an action brought pursuant to Section 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, c. 676, 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S. C.A. § 201 et seq. (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”), to restrain defendant from violating Sec. 15(a) (2) of the Act, 29 U.S. C.A., § 215(a) (2).

[245]*245The case, which was heard on complaint, answer, and proofs, presents the question of whether certain employees of defendant, who were admittedly paid less than the minimum overtime rates, are within the meaning of the Act. If they are, then the plaintiff is entitled to an injunction to restrain violations of the Act as to such employees who are found to be within the coverage of the Act.

The evidence disclosed that under fifty-eight different contracts relating to the maintenance, repair, reconstruction, and construction of different transportation, communication and industrial facilities, defendant employed workmen who were not paid in accordance with the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

We shall discuss the work done under these contracts under six main categories, i. e.:

I. Public highways, roads and bridges

II. Motor carrier terminal facilities

III. Telephone facilities

IV. Railroad facilities

V. Industrial Plant facilities

VI. Loading iron ore and limestone

I.

Fourteen contracts involved in this case called for work in the maintenance, repair or construction of public highways, roads, and bridges in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The plaintiff contends: (1) that the highways, roads, and bridges on which defendant’s employees worked, are all instrumentalities of interstate commerce; that therefore all of defendant’s employees engaged in maintaining and repairing thereof, were “engaged in commerce” within the meaning of the Act; (2) that inasmuch as said highways, roads, and bridges are located in and about a large industrial area devoted to the production of goods for commerce — and were used in such production — the employees engaged in their maintenance and repair, were “employed * * * in a process or occupation necessary to the production of goods for commerce” within the meaning of the Act.

The defendant contends that the Act does not apply to any of its activities under the highway contracts involved in this suit, because: (a) Section 3(d) specifically states that the word “employer”, as used in the Act, “shall not include the United States or any State or political subdivision of a State”; (d) that the streets and highways involved in this suit are local in their character, and not instrumentalities of interstate commerce; and (c) that the Act applies only to repair and maintenance work, does not apply to new construction, and that in instances where new construction only is involved, is not applicable for that reason. These contentions are without merit.

As to the first contention, in carrying out these highway contracts for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or any of its political subdivisions, defendant is an independent contractor. The employees involved worked for the defendant, not for the United States, nor any-State or political subdivision thereof. There is no evidence showing any employer-employee relationship between defendant’s employees and the contracting States or political subdivisions thereof. We therefore hold that defendant’s employees are not within the scope of this exception of the Act. See Walling v. Craig, D.C., 53 F.Supp. 479, 483; Walling v. Patton-Tulley Transportation Co., 6 Cir., 134 F.2d 945, in which the court said on page 949: “ * * * The argument that it was the Congressional intention to make the Fair Labor Standards Act inapplicable to work under government contract, must be rejected. No reason appears why contractors for the government are to be permitted to maintain substandard labor conditions while private contractors are prohibited from so doing, and such view would thwart the clearly defined purpose of the Congress, particularly if applied at a time when all, or nearly all, major industries are operating upon government contract.”

Nor does the fact that the economic burden of complying with the Act might be carried on to the State, and to political subdivisions thereof, constitute a valid objection to complying with the Act. See Alabama v. King & Boozer, 314 U.S. 1, 62 S.Ct. 43, 86 L.Ed. 482, 140 A.L.R. 615; Curry v. United States, 314 U.S. 14, 62 S.Ct. 48, 86 L.Ed. 9; James v. Dravo Contracting Co., 302 U.S. 134, 160, 58 S.Ct. 208, 82 L.Ed. 115, 114 A.L.R. 318.

As to the second contention whether or not the highways involved in this case are instrumentalities of interstate commerce, the test to be applied in determining whether or not this Act applies, has been stated by the United States Supreme Court in Overstreet in North Shore [246]*246Corporation, 318 U.S. 125, at pages 129, 130, 63 S.Ct. 494, at page 497, 87 L.Ed. 656, as follows: “We think that practical test should govern here. Vehicular roads and bridges are as indispensable to the interstate movement of persons and goods as railroad tracks and bridges are to interstate transportation by rail. If they are used by persons and goods passing between the various States, they are instrumentalities of interstate commerce. Cf. Covington & Cincinnati Bridge Co. v. Kentucky, 154 U.S. 204, 218, 14 S.Ct. 1087, 1092, 38 L.Ed. 962. Those persons who are engaged in maintaining' and repairing such facilities should be considered as ‘engaged in commerce’ even as was the bolt carrying employee in the Pedersen case, supra. [Pedersen v. Del. Lack. & West. R. R. Company, 229 U.S. 146, 33 S.Ct. 648, 57 L.Ed. 1125, Ann.Cas.1914C, 153] because without their services these instrumentalities would not be open to the passage of goods and persons across state lines. And the same is true of operational employees whose work is just as closely related to the interstate movement. Of course, all this is subject to the qualification that the Act does not consider as an employer the United States or any State or political subdivision of a State, and hence does not apply to their employees. § 3(d).”

From the evidence in this case, we find that roads, highways and bridges involved herein are instrumentalities of interstate commerce, and that the persons engaged in maintaining and repairing them are engaged in such commerce. The factors that lead to this conclusion are these:

(1) Pittsburgh is the center of a large industrial area encompassing Allegheny, Beaver, and Westmoreland Counties. It is the greatest iron-and-steel producing area of the world. It is also a leading industrial center in other industries; i.

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Bluebook (online)
60 F. Supp. 243, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2373, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walling-v-mccrady-const-co-pawd-1945.