Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/318/125/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 10:39:28+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 318 › Overstreet v. North Shore Corp.
1. The Fair Labor Standards Act is applicable to employees who are engaged in interstate commerce, but not to those whose activities merely affect interstate commerce. P. 318 U. S. 128.
2. The Fair Labor Standards Act is applicable to employees (of a private corporation) who are engaged in the operation and maintenance of a drawbridge which is part of a toll road used extensively by persons and vehicles traveling in interstate commerce, and which spans an intercoastal waterway used in interstate commerce. P. 318 U. S. 130.
So held as to one employee who attended to the raising and lowering of the bridge; another who was engaged in the maintenance and repair of the bridge, and a third who collected tolls from users of the road and bridge.
3. The applicability of the Fair Labor Standards Act does not depend upon the nature of the employer's business, but upon the character of the employees' activities. P. 318 U. S. 132.
4. That a corporation which owns and operates a toll road and drawbridge is subject to state taxation does not imply that it is free from federal regulation, or that its road and drawbridge are not instrumentalities of interstate commerce. P. 318 U. S. 132.
Certiorari, 317 U.S. 606, to review the affirmance of a judgment (43 F.Supp. 445) dismissing, as to the petitioners here, a complaint in an action for wages, overtime, and damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
granted by the district court, leave to amend being given to the other complainants who are not before us. 43 F.Supp. 445. Petitioners appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the order of dismissal. 128 F.2d 450. The important question raised as to the coverage of the Act caused us to grant certiorari. 317 U.S. 606.
minimum wages nor the overtime compensation prescribed by §§ 6 and 7 of the Act.
We think these allegations bring petitioners within the coverage of the Act, and entitle them to recover if proved.
"It is clear that the purpose of the Act was to extend federal control in this field throughout the farthest reaches of the channels of interstate commerce."
And, in determining what constitutes "commerce" or "engaged in commerce," we are guided by practical considerations. Jacksonville Paper Co. case, supra, and see also Shanks v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 239 U. S. 556, 239 U. S. 558, dealing with what will shortly be pointed out as a similar question in the coverage of the Federal Employers' Liability Act.
"that the work of keeping such instrumentalities in a proper state of repair while thus used is so closely related to such commerce as to be in practice and in legal contemplation a part of it."
Id. at p. 229 U. S. 151. See also Philadelphia, B. & W. R. Co. v. Smith, 250 U. S. 101; Southern Ry. Co. v. Puckett, 244 U. S. 571; New York Cent. R. Co. v. Porter, 249 U. S. 168; Kinzell v. Chicago M. & St. P. R. Co., 250 U. S. 130; Southern Pacific Co. v. Industrial Accident Comm'n, 251 U. S. 259; Philadelphia & Reading Ry. Co. v. Di Dinato, 256 U. S. 327; Rader v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 108 F.2d 980. Compare Shanks v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 239 U. S. 556; Chicago & North Western Ry. Co. v. Bolle, 284 U. S. 74; Chicago & Eastern Illinois R. Co. v. Commission, 284 U. S. 296.
commerce. Cf. Convington & Cincinnati Bridge Co. v. Kentucky, 154 U. S. 204, 154 U. S. 218. 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, 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).
The allegations of petitioners' complaint satisfy this practical test. The road and bridge allegedly afford passage to an extensive movement of goods and persons between Florida and other states, and moreover the drawbridge presents an obstacle to interstate traffic by water over the Intercoastal Waterway if not properly operated. The operational and maintenance activities of petitioners are vital to the proper functioning of these structures as instrumentalities of interstate commerce. The services of Overstreet are necessary to prevent the drawbridge from being either a barrier to interstate navigation or else a gap in the vehicular way. Without the services of Brazle, the facilities would fall into disrepair, and both operation and maintenance would seem to depend upon Garvin's collecting the toll from users of the structures. The work of each petitioner in providing a means of interstate transportation and communication is so intimately related to interstate commerce "as to be in practice and in legal contemplation a part of it" (Pedersen's case, supra), and justifies regarding petitioners as "engaged in commerce" within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Respondent resists the application of the test of the Pedersen and related cases, cited above, pointing out that there may be pitfalls in translating implications from the special aspects of one statute to another (see Federal Trade Comm'n v. Bunte Bros., 312 U. S. 349, 312 U. S. 353), and claiming that significant differences exist between the Federal Employers' Liability Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. The outstanding difference asserted is that a railroad company is actually engaged in commerce as a carrier of goods and persons, and, since it is difficult to consider the business other than as a whole and to separate maintenance from transportation employees, there is good reason for treating maintenance employees as engaged in commerce. (Compare the Pedersen case, supra, at pp. 229 U. S. 151-152.) As regards itself, respondent says that it is not engaged in commerce, but only in providing facilities which those carrying on commerce may use, and therefore there is no sound basis for treating its maintenance and operational employees as engaged in commerce; rather, they only affect commerce. Reliance is placed upon Henderson Bridge Company v. Kentucky, 166 U. S. 150, and Detroit International Bridge Co. v. Corporation Tax Appeal Board, 294 U. S. 83, where, in sustaining the power of the States of Kentucky and Michigan, respectively, to tax the franchise of domestic corporations operating bridges between Kentucky and Indiana and between Michigan and Canada, it was said that the respective bridge companies were not engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. We do not regard these objections as well taken.
The Henderson and Detroit bridge cases, supra, do not affect our conclusion. We have pointed out that decisions such as those, dealing with various assertions of state or federal power in the commerce field, are not particularly helpful in determining the scope of the Act. Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, supra, pp. 316 U. S. 520-521; Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co., supra. But even if we accept the premise of the Bridge cases and regard respondent as not engaged in commerce, the result is not changed. The nature of the employer's business is not determinative, because, as we have repeatedly said, the application of the Act depends upon the character of the employees' activities. Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, supra, p. 316 U. S. 524; Warren-Bradshaw Drilling Co. v. Hall, 317 U. S. 88; Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co., supra. The fact that respondent may be subject to state taxation does not imply that it is free from federal regulation or that its road and drawbridge are not instrumentalities of interstate commerce. Petitioners, who are engaged in operating and maintaining respondent's facilities so that there may be interstate passage of persons and goods over them, are so closely related to that interstate movement, as a practical matter, that we think they must be regarded, under the allegations of their complaint, as "engaged in commerce" within the meaning of §§ 6 and 7 of the Act.
We conclude that petitioners' complaint was erroneously dismissed. Accordingly, the judgment below is reversed, and the cause remanded to the district court for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.
Compare Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, 316 U. S. 517; Warren-Bradshaw Drilling Co. v. Hall, 317 U. S. 88; Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 317 U. S. 564; Higgins v. Carr Brothers, 317 U. S. 572.
Section 3(b) defines "commerce" as "trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States or from any State to any place outside thereof."
This has been the administrative interpretation. See Interpretative Bulletin No. 5 of the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor, issued in November, 1939 at p. 7. This is set forth in the 1941 Edition of the Wage and Hour Manual at p. 34. See also p. 54.
Compare the dissenting opinion in Pedersen v. Fitzgerald Construction Co., 262 App.Div. 665, 668, 30 N.Y.S.2d 989, affirmed without opinion, 288 N.Y. 687, 43 N.E.2d 83.
See 83 Cong.Rec. 75th Cong., 3d Sess., Pt. 7, p. 7434, and Pt. 8, pp. 9168-71. See also Joint Hearings before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor and the House Committee on Labor on S. 2475 and H.R. 7200, 75th Cong., 1st Sess. (1937), Pt. 1, pp. 42, 43.

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