Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/361/288
Timestamp: 2015-04-26 19:31:24
Document Index: 506386024

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 215', '§ 17', '§ 217', '§ 6', '§ 16', '§ 216', '§ 17', '§ 2', '§ 202', '§ 15', '§ 15', '§ 17', '§ 15', '§ 17', '§ 16', '§ 216', '§ 17', '§ 17', '§ 16', '§ 216', '§ 17', '§ 15', '§ 17', '§ 217', '§ 6', '§ 206', '§ 16', '§ 216', '§ 17', '§ 217', '§ 15', '§ 215', '§ 15', '§ 17', '§ 17', '§ 16', '§ 17', '§ 16', '§ 6', '§ 7', '§ 17', '§ 17', '§ 17', '§ 205', '§ 205', '§ 205']

MITCHELL, Secretary of Labor, Petitioner, v. ROBERT DE MARIO JEWELRY, INC., et al. | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews MITCHELL, Secretary of Labor, Petitioner, v. ROBERT DE MARIO JEWELRY, INC., et al.
361 U.S. 288 (80 S.Ct. 332, 4 L.Ed.2d 323)
[HTML] dissent, WHITTAKER, BLACK, CLARK
[HTML] Miss Bessie Margolin, Washington, D.C., for the petitioner.
Section 15(a)(3) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 1068, 29 U.S.C. 215(a)(3), 29 U.S.C.A. § 215(a)(3), makes it unlawful for an employer covered by that Act
By § 17 of the Act, 52 Stat. 1069, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 217, 29 U.S.C.A. § 217, the District Courts are given jurisdiction
'for cause shown, to restrain violations of section 15:
Provided, That no court shall have jurisdiction, in any action brought by the Secretary of Labor to restrain such violations, to order the payment to employees of unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation or an additional equal amount as liquidated damages in such action.'
are not in dispute. Several of the employees of the respondent corporation had sought the aid of the Secretary of Labor, petitioner here, in seeking to recover wages allegedly unpaid in violation of §§ 6(a) and 7(a) of the Act. The Secretary instituted an action pursuant to § 16(c) of the statute, 63 Stat. 919, 29 U.S.C. 216(c), 29 U.S.C.A. § 216(c), on behalf of the aggrieved employees, for the recovery of the unpaid compensation. After the commencement of such action, respondents commenced a course of discriminatory conduct against three of the complaining employees, culminating in their discharge. In a second action by the Secretary, pursuant to § 17, this discrimination was found by the District Court to have been caused by respondents' 'displeasure' over the actions of the employees in authorizing suit.
'Moreover, the comprehensiveness of this equitable jurisdiction is not to be denied or limited in the absence of a clear and valid legislative command. Unless a statute in so many words, or by a necessary and inescapable inference, restricts the court's jurisdiction in equity, the full scope of that jurisdiction is to be recognized and applied. 'The great principles of equity, securing complete justice, should not be yielded to light inferences, or doubtful construction.' Brown v. Swann, 10 Pet. 497, 503, 9 L.Ed. 508. * * *' 328 U.S. at pages 397398, 66 S.Ct. at page 1089.
The central aim of the Act was to achieve, in those industries within its scope, certain minimum labor standards. See § 2 of the Act, 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C. 202, 29 U.S.C.A. § 202. The provisions of the statute affect weekly wage dealings between vast numbers of business establishments and employees. For weighty practical and other reasons, Congress did not seek to secure compliance with prescribed standards through continuing detailed federal supervision or inspection of payrolls. Rather it chose to rely on information and complaints received from employees seeking to vindicate rights claimed to have been denied. Plainly, effective enforcement could thus only be expected if employees felt free to approach officials with their grievances. This ends the prohibition of § 15(a)(3) against discharges and other discriminatory practices was designed to serve. For it needs no argument to show that fear of economic retaliation might often operate to induce aggrieved employees quietly to accept substandard conditions. Cf. Holden v. Hardy, 169 U.S. 366, 397, 18 S.Ct. 383, 390, 42 L.Ed. 780. By the proscription of retaliatory acts set forth in § 15(a)(3), and its enforcement in equity by the Secretary pursuant to § 17, Congress sought to foster a climate in which compliance with the substantive provisions of the Act would be enhanced.
Respondents argue that, in the absence of a contrary contractual provision, an employee cannot recover lost wages owing to a discriminatory discharge, and that the jurisdiction here invoked is therefore to be regarded as 'punitive,' outside the function of equity unless expressly authorized by the statute. We intimate no view as to the validity of the premise, for it in no way supports the conclusion. Whatever the rights of the parties may be under traditional notions of contract law, it is clear that under § 15(a)(3) such a discharge is not permissible. Even assuming, without deciding, that the Act did not contemplate the private vindication of rights it bestowed,
Shortly before the enactment of this proviso the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had decided in McComb v. Frank Scerbo & Sons, 177 F.2d 137, that in a § 17 suit brought by the Secretary to enjoin violations of the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Act, the court had power to order reimbursement of unpaid overtime wages. The effect of this decision was to enable the Secretary in such a suit to recover on behalf of employees that which would otherwise have been recoverable only in an action brought by the employees themselves under § 16(b) of the statute, 52 Stat. 1069, 29 U.S.C. 216(b), 29 U.S.C.A. § 216(b). The § 17 proviso was aimed at doing away with this result. Even so, Congress did not see fit to undo the effects of Scerbo entirely, for at the time it enacted the § 17 proviso it also added to the Act § 16(c), whereby the Secretary was empowered to bring a representative action on behalf of employees to recover unpaid wages in cases other than those involving 'an issue of law which has not been settled finally by the courts.' 63 Stat. 919, 29 U.S.C. 216(c), 29 U.S.C.A. § 216(c).
This being so, there is no warrant for construing the § 17 proviso as reaching beyond suits to enjoin violations of the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the statute, so as wholly to eradicate any jurisdiction to restore wage losses to employees discharged in violation of § 15(a)(3). To the contrary, in view of the related character of the issues presented in O'Grady and Scerbo, the modification in the area treated by the latter case bespeaks an intention to leave the O'Grady decision intact. The 1949 amendments, then, only serve to confirm the result we reach independently of them.
I cannot agree with the Court's opinion. My disagreement rests on the belief that Congress has expressly withheld jurisdiction from District Courts to make awards against employers in favor of employees for 'wages' lost as a result of unlawful discharges, in injunction actions, such as this, brought by the Secretary of Labor under § 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 1069, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 217, 29 U.S.C.A. § 217.
Several employees of the corporate respondent, believing that they had not been paid the minimum wages and overtime compensation prescribed by §§ 6(a) and 7(a) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. 206(a), 207(a), 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 206(a), 207(a), requested the Secretary of Labor, in writing, to institute an action against the corporate respondent under § 16(c) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. 216(c), 29 U.S.C.A. § 216(c), to recover the amount of their claims. The Secretary did so on November 16, 1956. Soon afterward, three of these employees were discharged. On May 17, 1957, the Secretary brought another suit against respondents in the same District Courtthis time under § 17 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. 217, 29 U.S.C.A. § 217complaining that respondents had discharged the three employees in violation of § 15(a)(3) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. 215(a) (3), 29 U.S.C.A. § 215(a)(3), and praying for an order enjoining respondents from violating the provisions of that section, reinstating the three employees, and awarding reparations to them for wages lost because of their wrongful discharge. The District Court found that the employees had been discharged, in violation of § 15(a)(3), for instigating the first action, issued an injunction against respondents from violating that section, and ordered respondents to offer reinstatement to those employees. But the district judge doubted that he had jurisdiction under § 17 to award reparations to the employees for their lost wages, and held that, even if he did have jurisdiction to do so, such an award of reparations should be denied as a matter of discretion. On the Secretary's appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed, 5 Cir., 260 F.2d 929, holding that the District Court had no jurisdiction, in an injunction action brought by the Secretary under § 17, to award reparations for wages lost by the employees because of their wrongful discharge. We granted certiorari, 359 U.S. 964, 79 S.Ct. 879, 3 L.Ed.2d 833.
The Court, heavily relying upon the long reach of unrestricted general equity powers, particularly as elucidated in Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U.S. 395, 397398, 66 S.Ct. 1086, 10881089, 90 L.Ed. 1332,
holds that a District Court does have such jurisdiction and power.
It is not to be doubted that an equity court, proceeding under unrestricted general equity powers, may decree all the relief, including incidental legal relief, necessary to do complete justice between the parties. Here, however, the District Court was proceeding, not under unrestricted general equity powers, but under a statutes 17 of the Actthe proviso of which expressly denies to all courts jurisdiction and power, in an action brought by the Secretary for an injunction under that section, 'to order the payment to employees of unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation or an additional equal amount as liquidated damages in such action.'
Evidently dissatisfied with those decisions, Congress passed the Act of Oct. 26, 1949, 63 Stat. 919, by which it added subsection (c) to § 16 and the proviso to § 17 of the Act. By subsection (c)
of § 16, Congress provided, in effect, that when an employee files a written request with the Secretary claiming unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation under § 6 or § 7 of the Act, 'the Secretary of Labor may bring an action in any court of competent jurisdiction to recover the amount of such claim * * *.' In such an action the Secretary, of course, sues as a trustee or use plaintiff for the benefit of the employee, and the action is one at law triable by a jury under the Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution. That is the only remedy which Congress has provided for the recovery of unpaid minimum wages and overtime compensation by suit instituted and prosecuted by the Secretary. By the proviso to § 17, Congress provided: 'That no court shall have jurisdiction, in any action brought by the Secretary of Labor to restrain such violations, to order the payment to employees of unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation or an additional equal amount as liquidated damages in such action.' The Conference Report that accompanied that bill, H.R.Conf.Rep.No. 1453, 81st Cong., 1st Sess., p. 32, said, respecting the proviso, that: 'The provision * * * will have the effect of reversing such decisions as McComb v. Scerbo * * *, in which the court included a restitution order in an injunction decree granted under § 17.' It seems evident from that statement of the Conference Committee that Congress intended the proviso to, in effect, reverse not only McComb v. Scerbo, but also all other 'such decisions.' Not only is it clear from the opinions themselves that the Second Circuit applied the same legal principles in Scerbo that it had earlier applied in O'Grady, but, moreover, that court said that it did so. In the Scerbo case the court said: 'Defendants attempt to distinguish the O'Grady case because the individual employee's right to sue for back pay lost by a discriminatory discharge is not explicit in the Act. We do not agree that the case is distinguishable * * *.' 177 F.2d at page 138. And, in his separate opinion concurring only in the result, Judge Learned Hand's opening sentence was: 'I agree that the decision below followed from what has been decided before * * *.' 177 F.2d at page 140. It thus seems quite clear, not only from the terms of the proviso but also from the legislative history declaring its purpose, that Congress intended not only to deny jurisdiction to District Courts, in injunction actions brought by the Secretary under § 17, to award reparations for unpaid minimum wages or overtime compensation, but also, in effect, to reverse 'such decisions as McComb v. Scerbo.' Surely Walling v. O'Grady, supra, was 'such (a) decision' as McComb v. Scerbo.
Porter v. Warner Holding Co., supra, involved § 205(a) of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 23, 33, which authorized state and federal courts, upon complaint of the Administrator, to grant 'a permanent or temporary injunction, restraining order, or other order,' to enforce compliance with the Act and its policy. (Emphasis added.) There the Administrator had sued a landlord to enjoin collection of excessive rents and to require the landlord to tender to his tenants the excess rents collected. The District Court granted the relief prayed. This Court approved that action, saying that 'An order for the recovery and restitution of illegal rents may be considered a proper 'other order' * * *.' 328 U.S., at page 399, 66 S.Ct. at page 1089. It observed that the Report of the Senate Committee, submitted with the bill that became the Emergency Price Control Act, stated that under § 205(a) of that Act '* * * Such courts are given jurisdiction to issue whatever order to enforce compliance is proper in the circumstances of each particular case.' 328 U.S. at pages 400401, 66 S.Ct. at page 1090. In the light of the provisions of § 205(a) and its legislative history, this Court held 'that the traditional equity powers of a court remain unimpaired in a proceeding under that section so that an order of restitution may be made.' 328 U.S. at page 400, 66 S.Ct. at page 1090.