Case ID: pr_29/html/0053-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Wole", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

People, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Hernández, Defendant and Appellant.
    Appeal from the District Court of Aguadilla in a Prosecution for Violation of the Minimum Wages Act.
    No. 1525
    Decided January 27, 1921.
    Minimum Wages — Piecework—Evidence.—The mere statement of an inspector in a prosecution for violation of the Minimum Wages Act that a woman working hy the piece earned less than a dollar a day during the week specified in the information is not sufficient evidence to support a judgment of conviction.
    The facts are stated in the opinion.
    
      Mr'. J. B. Garcia for the appellant.
    
      Mr. José E. Figueras, Fiscal, for the appellee.
   Mr. Justice Wole

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a prosecution under the Minimum Wage Law of June 9, 1919. The complaint charged that the defendant employed a woman working by the piece 'for forty hours and only paid her $3.97. The proof, however, as pointed out by the fiscal, fails to show that she was working at all in the week which is mentioned in the complaint. The statement of the inspector that he did not recall how much she made, bnt that she was making less than a dollar a day in that week, was insufficient. Hence it was impossible to know how much she earned that week or how much she would have earned.

The judgment must be

Reversed.

Chief Justice Hernández and Justices Del Toro, Aldrey and Hutchison concurred.