Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/99094/mitchell-vs-budd
Timestamp: 2018-03-22 18:02:15
Document Index: 651056016

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 3', '§ 13', '§ 17', '§ 201', '§ 6', '§ 11', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 3', '§ 13', '§ 3']

Mitchell Vs Budd - Citation 99094 - Court Judgment | LegalCrystal
Mitchell Vs. Budd - Court Judgment
LegalCrystal Citation legalcrystal.com/99094
Case Number 350 U.S. 473
Respondent Budd
.....§ 13(a)(10). that meant drawing a line between agricultural enterprises operating under rural agricultural conditions and those subject to urban industrial conditions. an individual working in an agricultural packing plant on the edge of los angeles is in a strikingly different environment from one doing the same work in a small town in the heart of kansas. nearness to a large city has relation to the problem of the administrator in making his definition. for the proximity of the plant to a metropolitan center, like the size of the town where the plant is located, may make the decisive difference between an agricultural and an urban environment. [ footnote 2 ] likewise, nearness of the plant to its supplies cannot be considered an irrelevancy. for "area" is.....
Mitchell v. Budd - 350 U.S. 473 (1956)
U.S. Supreme Court Mitchell v. Budd, 350 U.S. 473 (1956)
Held: respondents are not exempted by § 13(a)(10) or § 13(a)(6) from the minimum wage and recordkeeping provisions of the Act. Pp. 350 U. S. 474 -482.
(a) The Administrator's definition of "area of production," within the meaning of § 13(a)(10), as including only plants located "in the open country or in a rural community . . . not including any city, town or urban place of 2,500 or greater population" and within a specified mileage distance from the source of 95% of its commodities, is sustained. Pp. 350 U. S. 476 -480.
(b) Even when done by the grower, the bulking process is not "preparation for market," within the meaning of § 3(f), and therefore not within the agricultural exemption of § 13(a)(6). Pp. 350 U. S. 480 -482.
These are actions brought by the Secretary of Labor under § 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 52 Stat. 1060, 63 Stat. 910, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., to enjoin respondents from violating the minimum wage, § 6, and recordkeeping provisions, § 11, of the Act. The employees concerned work in tobacco-bulking plants operated by respondents in Quincy, Florida, which has a population in excess of 2,500. Respondents claim these employees are exempt from the Act. The District Court ruled against the respondents. 114 F.Supp. 865. The Court of Appeals reversed. 221 F.2d 406. We granted certiorari, 350 U.S. 859, because of the importance of the problems presented and of the apparent conflicts between the decision below and Tobin v. Traders Compress Co., 199 F.2d 8, and Maneja v. Waialua Agricultural Co., 349 U. S. 254 .
The Administrator's definition of "area of production" provides that a plant is within the "area of production" if it is located (1) "in the open country or in a rural community," which is defined as not including "any city, town or urban place of 2,500 or greater population," and (2) within a specified mileage distance from the source of 95% of its commodities. [ Footnote 1 ]
The Court of Appeals, following its earlier decisions in Jenkins v. Durkin, 208 F.2d 941, and Lovvorn v. Miller, 215 F.2d 601, held that the regulation was invalid. It concluded that, once "geographic lines of the area of production have been established, the act makes the exemption effective within that area," and that any qualification by reason of size of the town where the establishment is located is invalid. 215 F.2d at 603. For that conclusion, the Court of Appeals found comfort in Addison v. Holly Hill Fruit Products, Inc., 322 U. S. 607 .
Id. at 322 U. S. 616 . We said that the phrase "area of production" had "plain geographic implications" with which the size of a plant within the area was not consistent. Id. at 322 U. S. 618 . That definition, therefore, was struck down. But its alternative, substantially the one that is involved here, was not passed upon. In fact, we reserved decision in Holly Hill as to whether the population criterion, now presented for decision, was valid. Id. at 322 U. S. 610 .
Id. at 322 U. S. 613 -614. The aim of Congress was to exempt employees "employed in agriculture," § 13(a)(6), and those engaged in agricultural enterprises in the "area of production," § 13(a)(10). That meant drawing a line between agricultural enterprises operating under rural agricultural conditions and those subject to urban industrial conditions. An individual working in an agricultural packing plant on the edge of Los Angeles is in a strikingly different environment from one doing the same work in a small town in the heart of Kansas. Nearness to a large city has relation to the problem of the Administrator in making his definition. For the proximity of the plant to a metropolitan center, like the size of the town where the plant is located, may make the decisive difference between an agricultural and an urban environment. [ Footnote 2 ] Likewise, nearness of the plant to its supplies cannot be considered an irrelevancy. For "area" is understandable in terms of nearness and
fairness. Distance is an important factor in any formula which seeks to treat more or less as a unity labor on farms and labor in agricultural enterprises in the "area of production." [ Footnote 3 ]
No definition of "area of production" could produce complete equality, for the variables are too numerous. The Administrator fulfills his role when he makes a reasoned definition. See Gray v. Powell, 314 U. S. 402 , 314 U. S. 411 . On no phase of this problem can we say that the Administrator proceeded capriciously or by the use of inadmissible standards. Experts might disagree over the desirability of one formula rather than another. It is enough for us that the expert stayed within the allowable limits. We think he did here, and that the definition of "area of production" under § 13(a)(10) is a valid one.
The exemption of § 13(a)(6), read with § 3(f), covers large operators as well as small ones, as we recently said in Maneja v. Waialua Agricultural Co., supra, at 349 U. S. 260 . It also includes "extraordinary methods" of agriculture, as well
as the more conventional ones. Id. at 349 U. S. 261 . The question in the Waialua case was whether sugar milling was included in the agriculture exemption of § 13(a)(6). We said that it was necessary to look to all the facts surrounding the process to determine whether that process was incident to farming. Id. at 349 U. S. 264 -265. We held that sugar milling was not, even when done by the grower. We think like considerations indicate that, in this case, the agriculture operation does not extend through the bulking plants, but ends, as the District Court ruled, with the delivery of the tobacco at the receiving platform of the bulking plant. That is the "delivery . . . to market" within the meaning of § 3(f) of the Act.
"more akin to manufacturing than to agriculture." 349 U.S. at 349 U. S. 265 .
The entire regulation is set forth in the Appendix to this opinion, post, p. 350 U. S. 482 .
"Although it is clear that any line attempting to distinguish between 'urban industrial' and 'rural agricultural' communities on the basis of population can, at best, be only an approximation, it is equally clear that none of the proposals advanced at the hearing would accomplish the objectives of such a test with as much accuracy as the 2,500 population test. As a class, places of 2,500 population or more are predominantly industrial, while places with populations of less than 2,500 are predominantly agricultural. A population limit of 2,500, moreover, has, for over 35 years, been the official dividing line between 'rural' and 'urban' employed by the Bureau of the Census in its studies. This dividing line has also been accepted and used in studies made by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and other government agencies. It has furnished the definition of 'rural' communities which has been the basis of studies of rural and urban communities by many sociologists. It has been incorporated into statute by the Congress of the United States in special legislation for rural communities. * To a very great extent, the handling and processing of agricultural and horticultural commodities is carried on in the open country or in towns of less than 2,500. For example, only about 10% of grain elevators are located in towns of 2,500 or more. Only about 11% of cotton gins are located in such populated places. About two-thirds of all fresh fruit and vegetable canning and packing, cheese manufacturing, and poultry and egg assembling are carried on in the open country on in towns of 2,500 or less."
[ Footnote 2ast ]