Wirtz v. Caddell Transit Corp.

253 F. Supp. 378
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedApril 18, 1966
DocketCiv. No. 65-96
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 253 F. Supp. 378 (Wirtz v. Caddell Transit Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wirtz v. Caddell Transit Corp., 253 F. Supp. 378 (W.D. Okla. 1966).

Opinion

DAUGHERTY, District Judge.

In this case the plaintiff seeks to enjoin defendants from violating the provisions of Section 15(a)(2) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, Title 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(2) and restrain the withholding of overtime compensation claimed to be due certain employees of the defendant under said Act. Plaintiff claims that the defendants employ drivers in and about their terminal at Enid, Oklahoma, to haul asphalt and related products used in road and street construction and maintenance; that such products were used in building and repairing roads and highways which regularly carried persons and goods moving in interstate commerce and by reason thereof these employees of the defendants are regularly engaged in interstate commerce as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiff further claims that during the period March 3, 1963, to March 19, 1965, certain of these employees worked in excess of 40 hours per work week but were not paid one and one-half times the regular rate for such overtime but instead were paid for overtime at the regular rate.

The defendants first deny that M. N. Caddell, the individual defendant, is in any way involved in this matter as an individual, which the Court finds to be so under the evidence presented, and the Complaint is dismissed as to M. N. Cad-dell, an individual, for that reason. The Caddell Transit Corporation, by way of defense, denies that it is subject to the above provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act by reason of being exempt therefrom under the provisions of Section 13(b)(1) of said Act, Title 29, United States Code, § 213(b)(1) which provides that provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act shall not apply with respect to:

“any employee with respect to whom the Interstate Commerce Commission has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service pursuant to the provisions of Section 304 of Title 49.”

[379]*379The defendant raises other defenses which will not be considered in view of the findings, conclusions and decision reached by the Court on the above exemption issue.

At the trial before the Court, the evidence indicates that the defendant was and is engaged in hauling asphalt and related products as a common carrier under an Interstate Commerce Commission permit to haul such products from Oklahoma into Texas and New Mexico. The defendant has its headquarters at Law-ton, Oklahoma, has a terminal at Ardmore, Oklahoma, a terminal at Cyril, Oklahoma, and a terminal at Enid, Oklahoma. It appears that the defendant has trucks at all three terminals and does maintenance work at all three terminals. It has no trucks or maintenance facilities at Lawton. All vehicles are licensed to operate in Texas and about a fourth are licensed to operate in New Mexico. All drivers are approved for employment at Lawton, after an investigation is made, but applications for employment may be received at any of the three terminals as well as at Lawton. It further appears that the defendant operates on an integrated basis and interchanges equipment and drivers between its three terminals on occasion as necessary. However, for the most part, drivers live at or near, and work out of one of the three terminals. Orders received are handled by the nearest terminal based upon the location of the nearest terminal to the location of the shipment. It seems that around the end of 1961 and continuing during the period March, 1963, to March, 1965, the defendant received no orders from customers and hauled no asphalt to points outside of Oklahoma using drivers or equipment working out of the Enid terminal even though such drivers and equipment were qualified and ready under Interstate Commerce Commission requirements at all times to make such hauls upon being requested by a shipper. Out of state shipments were regularly and frequently made by drivers and equipment based at or working out of the other two terminals. It further appears from the evidence and the Court finds that the defendant did not in any way attempt to funnel its interstate shipments away from the Enid terminal or to the Cyril and Ardmore terminals, nor did it attempt to funnel intrastate shipments into the Enid terminal and away from its Ardmore and Cyril terminals. It appears that certain asphalt shippers in the vicinity of the Enid terminal have been and are soliciting orders in New Mexico, but recently have not been successful; that if they had received any such orders they would have been shipped from the Enid terminal and transported into New Mexico by the defendant but they have not been the low bidders and have not been successful recently in their bidding and solicitation of orders in New Mexico. It appears that the Interstate Commerce Commission has at all times supervised and regulated the entire operation of the defendant including all of its terminals, all of its drivers and mechanics and all of its rolling stock.

At the trial of the case, the plaintiff, in effect, requested an order separating the Enid terminal operation from the balance of the defendant’s operation and requiring defendant to pay time and one-half for overtime to all of the Enid drivers and maintenance personnel. Plaintiff’s counsel stated that it was agreeable that if the Enid terminal ever started driving out-of-state again such order may be considered as then being terminated.

The plaintiff urges that the case of Goldberg v. Faber Industries, Inc. (7th Cir. 1961), 291 F.2d 232, gives approval to such an arrangement and order. In the Faber case, a private carrier collecting meat scraps for its rendering plants had five permanent routes and drivers operating across a state line and 15 permanent routes and drivers operating wholly upon highways of a single state. By stipulation there was no “instance where a scrap driver who is regularly assigned to an intrastate route, ever handled an interstate route.” Faber operated as a private carrier and was not required to receive and haul ship[380]*380ments as a common carrier in interstate commerce. Faber established all of its routes which were permanent and assigned its drivers to the same. The Interstate Commerce Commission filed an amicus curiae brief and agreed it had no power or jurisdiction over the 15 drivers operating on routes wholly located within a single state. The Court of Appeals held that the five interstate drivers came under the Interstate Commerce Commission and the 15 intrastate drivers were subject to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This opinion distinguished its facts and result from the case of Morris v. McComb, 332 U.S. 422, 68 S.Ct. 131, 92 L.Ed. 44, by pointing out that in Morris a common carrier was involved operating from a central garage where the employees formed a single pool of drivers; that any one of these drivers was likely to be called upon to handle an interstate trip and that even those drivers who had never handled an interstate shipment were subject at any time to be assigned an interstate trip; that the Company did not discriminate between its drivers regarding interstate trips.

Plaintiff cites Walling v. Comet Carriers (2nd Cir. 1945), 151 F.2d 107. This case was decided two years before Morris v.

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253 F. Supp. 378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wirtz-v-caddell-transit-corp-okwd-1966.