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MORRIS V. MCCOMB, 332 U. S. 422 - Volume 332 - 1947 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 332 > MORRIS V. MCCOMB, 332 U. S. 422 (1947) > Full Text
CERTIOIARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
This case requires further application of the principles stated in Levinson v. Spector Motor Service, 330 U. S. 649, and Pyramid Motor Freight Corp. v. Ispass, 330 U. S. 695. The first question is whether the Interstate Commerce Commission has the power, under § 204 of the Motor Carrier Act, 1935, [Footnote 1] to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service with respect to drivers and mechanics employed full time, as such, by a common carrier by motor vehicle when the services rendered through such employees by such carrier in interstate commerce are distributed generally throughout the year, constitute 3% to 4% of the carrier's total carrier services, and the performance of such services is shared indiscriminately among such employees and mingled with their performance of other like services for such carrier not in interstate commerce. The other question is whether, if the Commission
Page 332 U. S. 424
has that power, the overtime requirements of § 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 [Footnote 2] apply to such employees in view of the exemption stated in § 13(b)(1) of that Act. [Footnote 3] We hold that the Commission has the power in question, and that the overtime requirements of § 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act therefore do not apply to such employees.
This action was brought March 26, 1942, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, United States Department of Labor, under § 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, [Footnote 4] to enjoin the petitioner, James
Page 332 U. S. 425
F. Morris, from violating § 15(a)(1) and (2) of that Act [Footnote 5] through failure to pay his employees compensation for overtime in accordance with § 7 of that Act. [Footnote 6] After a trial based on the pleadings and stipulated facts, the complaint was dismissed September 26, 1945. In its unreported conclusions of law, the court stated that neither the petitioner nor his employees were engaged "in the production of goods for commerce" within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and that, to the extent that they might be considered to be engaged "in commerce" within the meaning of that Act, the requirements of its § 7, as to compensation for overtime, did not apply to them. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed this judgment May 29, 1946, and remanded the case for further proceedings. Walling v. Morris, 155 F.2d 832. Because of its importance in interpreting the Motor Carrier Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act and because the question first stated above had not been passed upon in our decisions in the Levinson
Page 332 U. S. 426
and Pyramid cases, supra, we granted certiorari, Morris v. Walling, 330 U.S. 817, limited to the following question:
His principal business was the transportation of steel. In the regular course of his business, in 1941, he generally employed about 60 persons, 40 as truck drivers, 14 as mechanics, painters, washers, and repairmen in the garage, three as dispatchers, and three as general office workers. His equipment consisted of about 50 trucks or tractors and 60 trailers.
Page 332 U. S. 427
He was prepared to and did render general cartage service to the general shipping public. In 1941, he rendered such service to 47 consigning firms, but about 97% of his revenue came from the Great Lakes Steel Corporation and the Michigan Steel Corporation, both in Ecorse. His general cartage services, in 1941, were made up of three intermingled types of service, generally classifiable as follows on the basis of the revenue derived from them: (1) 35%: transportation of steel largely within steel plants. This was transported for further processing in those plants and an unsegregated portion of its was shipped ultimately in interstate commerce. (2) 61%: transportation between steel mills and industrial establishments. These shipments consisted principally of bumper stock, fender stock, and other types of steel used in connection with the manufacture of automobiles, a substantial portion of which entered interstate commerce. (3) 4%: transportation of miscellaneous freight directly in interstate commerce, either as part of continuous interstate movements or of interstate movements begun or terminated in metropolitan Detroit. [Footnote 7]
Page 332 U. S. 428
Ever since § 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act took effect, October 24, 1938, petitioner's employees, with the exception of his office workers, consistently worked enough hours to entitle them to additional compensation at the rate of one and one-half times their regular wages if such Section were applicable to them. They were, however, paid on the assumption that the Section did not apply to them, and therefore, for the most part, received only their regular rate of pay for such overtime. Accordingly, if it is found that § 7 is applicable to them, there is ground for an injunction against its further violation. No issue is presented here as to the office workers, because there is no proof of overtime services' having been rendered by them or being now in prospect. No issue is presented here as to the dispatchers. The Circuit Court of Appeals held that § 7 applies to them as employees engaged in the production of goods for interstate commerce, and that they are not exempt as administrative employees. Those issues, however, are not within the limited grant of certiorari. As to the garagemen and laborers, including mechanics, painters, washers, and repairmen, together with their superintendent of maintenance, there is no issue presented here, except to the extent that such classifications include mechanics doing the class of work defined as that of "mechanics" in Ex
Page 332 U. S. 429
Parte No. MC-2, 28 M.C.C. 125, 132, 133, [Footnote 8] including the making of mechanical repairs directly affecting the safe operation of motor vehicles. All of the garagemen and laborers, except their superintendent of maintenance,
Page 332 U. S. 430
were paid for their overtime work at "straight" or regular hourly rates. He was paid a weekly wage, and received no overtime pay, although he devoted approximately 25% of his time to the performance of routine physical tasks of the same general character as those of the employees working under his direction. The Circuit Court of Appeals held that the superintendent of maintenance was not exempt as an executive or administrative employee, and should be classified in the same manner as the others in this group. There is nothing in the record showing the extent to which the respective garagemen and laborers devoted themselves to the several classes of work above mentioned and, if this were an action to recover overtime compensation for individual employees, it would be necessary to determine that fact. However, as this is an action only for an injunction relating to future practices, the situation can be met by limiting the injunction to the appropriate classifications of workers. On this basis, the injunction against violation of § 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act may be issued as to those garagemen and laborers who are not "mechanics" as defined by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the issue before us is limited to the proper application of such an injunction to such "mechanics."
The drivers are full-time drivers of motor vehicles well within the definition of that class of work by the Commission if the work is done in interstate commerce. [Footnote 9] From October 24, 1938, to August 1, 1940, the drivers received their "straight" or regular hourly rate of pay for all overtime work. Since August 1, 1940, their overtime work has been paid for in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement in force as to union drivers, throughout metropolitan Detroit, employed either in intrastate or interstate general cartage. From August 1,
Page 332 U. S. 431
1940, to August 1, 1941, these agreements required payment of overtime in excess of 52 hours a week at one and one-half times the regular rate. After August 1, 1941, as a concession to wartime conditions, this additional rate was applied only to overtime in excess of 54 hours a week. The statutory workweek which would be applicable under § 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act at all times has been substantially shorter than those just mentioned. [Footnote 10]
"the character of the activities, rather than the proportion of either the employee's time or of his activities, that determines the actual need for the Commission's power to establish reasonable requirements with respect to qualifications, maximum hours of service, safety of
Page 332 U. S. 432
operation and equipment. [Footnote 11]"
In the record before us, instead of 4% of the driving time of each driver being devoted each day to interstate commerce without relation to what the driver does at other times, the parties present the actual experience of the petitioner and his drivers throughout 1941. The printed record, together with an unprinted exhibit filed with the Clerk, classifies all of the 19,786 trips taken in 1941 by the 43 drivers who respectively drove motor vehicles for the petitioner during not less than eight weeks in that year. Only the "Pickup Trips" and "Boat Dock Trips" are counted as being in "interstate commerce." These involved movements of goods to or from railroad freight houses, line haul motor carrier depots, or the boat docks of the several steamship companies in Detroit. It was stipulated that the petitioner was "engaged as a common carrier for hire in the local transportation of property by motor vehicle," was "engaged in a general cartage business and . . . [was] prepared to render such services to
Page 332 U. S. 433
the general shipping public." Each driver appears to have been a full-time driver during each week that he worked. The tables show 464 "Pickup Trips" and 260 "Boat Dock Trips," or a total of 724 made in interstate commerce, when and as required by petitioner's consignors. These constituted 3.65% of the petitioner's total trips. They were not distributed equally to each driver, nor on the basis of 4% of his time each day. However, apparently, in the normal operation of the business, these strictly interstate commerce trips were distributed generally throughout the year, and their performance was shared indiscriminately by the drivers and was mingled with the performance of other like driving services rendered by them otherwise than in interstate commerce. These trips were thus a natural, integral, and apparently inseparable part of the common carrier service of the petitioner and of his drivers.
One or more such trips were taken by one or more drivers each week. The average number of drivers making one or more such trips in each week was nine drivers out of 37, or 24.4%. There were six weeks in which more than half of the drivers thus engaged directly in interstate commerce. The highest percentage of drivers making such trips in one week was 78.1%, when 25 drivers out of the 32 then on duty, did so. As to the distribution of such trips, throughout the year, among the total of 43 drivers, every driver, except two, made at least one such trip with interstate freight. Each of the two who failed to make any such trip was employed for only about one-half the year, and that was during the months when the trips in interstate commerce were the less frequent. On the other hand, one driver made 97 such trips in interstate commerce. Another made 52, and the average per driver was over 16. The greatest number of such trips made by a single driver in a single week was seven out of nine. In several other weeks, he made six such trips out of a total of
Page 332 U. S. 434
seven in the week. The net result is a practical situation such as may confront any common carrier engaged in a general cartage business, and who is prepared and offering to serve the normal transportation demands of the shipping public in an industrial metropolitan center. From the point of view of safety in interstate commerce, the hazards are not distinguishable from those which would be presented if each driver drove 4% of his driving time each day in interstate commerce. In both cases, there is the same essential need for the establishment of reasonable requirements with respect to qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees. If the common carrier is required, by virtue of that status, to take this interstate business, he must perform the required service in accordance with the requirements established by the Commission. The Commission has made no exception in these qualifications and maximum hours of service that would exempt the drivers of the petitioner from them as a class. The applicability of the Commission's present requirements as to specific drivers during specific weeks is not the issue before us. We hold that the Commission has the power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service, pursuant to the provisions of § 204 of the Motor Carrier Act, for the entire classification of petitioner's drivers and "mechanics," and it is the existence of that power (rather than the precise terms of the requirements actually established by the Commission in the exercise of that power) that Congress has made the test as to whether or not § 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act is applicable to these employees. [Footnote 13]
Page 332 U. S. 435
Congress has gone out of its way to make this purpose clear in cases comparable to the one before us. It has done this by making the power of the Commission, under § 204 of the Motor Carrier Act, expressly applicable to motor vehicle pickup and delivery service within terminal areas [Footnote 14] to transportation in interstate commerce
Page 332 U. S. 436
wholly within a metropolitan area, [Footnote 15] and to casual, occasional, or reciprocal transportation of property in interstate commerce by any person not engaged in transportation by motor vehicle as a regular occupation or business. [Footnote 16] It has made the Commission's power over safety requirements expressly applicable to these operations, even though, at the same time, Congress has exempted them from general regulatory control.
Congress furthermore has provided a special procedure by which, in an appropriate case, an intrastate motor carrier or any other party in interstate, may secure the general exemption of such a carrier from compliance with the Motor Carrier Act even though such carrier does perform some interstate transportation. Congress, however, expressly has authorized the Commission, and not the courts, to decide when the case is an appropriate one
Page 332 U. S. 437
for such a general exemption. [Footnote 17] It does not appear that any such certificate of exemption has been obtained or sought as to this petitioner.
Having determined that the Commission has the power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service for these drivers and "mechanics" under § 204 of the Motor Carrier Act, the question recurs as to whether, in the face of the exemption stated in § 13(b)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the requirements of § 7 of that Act nevertheless apply to these employees. This issue as to the possible reconciliation of the language of these Acts so as to provide for concurrent jurisdiction was considered
Page 332 U. S. 438
at length in the Levinson case and the conclusion was there reached that such a construction was not permissible.
"(b) The provisions of section 7 shall not apply with respect to (1) 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 204 of the Motor Carrier Act, 1935. . . ."
"E. Approximately one (1) percent of the defendant's operations consists of the transportation of miscellaneous freight in general cartage service for hire and for shippers other than Great Lakes Steel Corporation or Michigan Steel Corporation. Cartage in this category is of the same physical character as that described in subparagraphs A, C, and D above, except that it is done on behalf of and for the account of shippers other than Great Lakes Steel Corporation and Michigan Steel Corporation."
"Our conclusion is that mechanics devote a large portion of their time to activities which directly affect the safety of operation of motor vehicles operated in interstate or foreign commerce, and hence that we have power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service for such employees under said section 204(a)."
"(c) Notwithstanding any provision of this section or of section 203, the provisions of this part, except the provisions of section 204 relative to qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees and safety of operation and equipment, shall not apply "
"(b) Nothing in this part, except the provisions of section 204 relative to qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees and safety of operation or standards of equipment shall be construed to include . . . (8) The transportation of passengers or property in interstate or foreign commerce wholly within a municipality or between contiguous municipalities or within a zone adjacent to and commercially a part of any such municipality or municipalities, except when such transportation is under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment to or from a point without such municipality, municipalities, of zone, and provided that the motor carrier engaged in such transportation of passengers over regular or irregular route or routes in interstate commerce is also lawfully engaged in the intrastate transportation of passengers over the entire length of such interstate route or routes in accordance with the laws of each State having jurisdiction; or (9) the casual, occasional, or reciprocal transportation of passengers or property by motor vehicle in interstate or foreign commerce for compensation by any person not engaged in transportation by motor vehicle as a regular occupation or business."
"(4a) To determine, upon its own motion, or upon application by a motor carrier, a State board, or any other party in interest, whether the transportation in interstate or foreign commerce performed by any motor carrier or class of motor carriers lawfully engaged in operation solely within a single State is in fact of such nature, character, or quantity as not substantially to affect or impair uniform regulation by the Commission of transportation by motor carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce in effectuating the national transportation policy declared in this Act. Upon so finding, the Commission shall issue a certificate of exemption to such motor carrier or class of motor carriers which, during the period such certificate shall remain effective and unrevoked, shall exempt such carrier or class of motor carriers from compliance with the provisions of this part, and shall attach to such certificate such reasonable terms and conditions as the public interstate may require. At any time after the issuance of any such certificate of exemption, the Commission may by order revoke all or any part thereof if it shall find that the transportation in interstate or foreign commerce performed by the carrier or class of carriers designated in such certificate shall be, or shall have become, or is reasonably likely to become, of such nature, character, or quantity as in fact substantially to affect or impair uniform regulation by the Commission of interstate or foreign transportation by motor carriers in effectuating the national transportation policy declared in this Act. . . ."
By a pedantically literal reading of § 13(b)(1), it is possible to say that these employees are among those as to whom the Interstate Commerce Commission has "power" to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service. A sporadic and minute portion of their activities, approximating 3% to 4% of the total, affects the
Page 332 U. S. 439
safety of operation of trucks in interstate commerce. The Commission's power under § 204(a) of the Motor Carrier Act is confined to regulation of transportation in interstate and foreign commerce, and its jurisdiction over employees' activities is limited to those which affect the safety of operation of motor vehicles engaged in such transportation. United States v. American Trucking Assns., 310 U. S. 534. Hence, the potential scope of the Commission's "power" over petitioner's employees is extremely narrow. Approximately 97% of their activities are beyond the jurisdiction of the Commission. Yet it is by the slender thread of this "power" that they fall within § 13(b)(1) and hence are deprived of the benefits of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
When that is done, it becomes clear that, when § 13(b)(1) speaks of those over whom the Interstate Commerce Commission has "power" it means those who perform at least a substantial amount of activities within the Commission's jurisdiction. Congress was not concerned with insignificant conflicts between Fair Labor Standards Act regulations and Interstate Commerce Commission regulations. Nor was it desirous of leaving unregulated nearly all of the working time of those who are engaged in the production of goods for commerce but who spend infinitesimal amounts of time directly in interstate transportation. In other words, engaging in
Page 332 U. S. 440
an occasional and microscopic amount of activities affecting safety of operation should no more exclude employees from the Act than sporadically shipping insubstantial amounts of goods in interstate commerce should bring those engaged in such shipments within the purview of the Act. See Mabee v. White Plains Pub. Co., 327 U. S. 178, 327 U. S. 181. That was implicitly recognized by the Court in Pyramid Motor Corp. v. Ispass, 330 U. S. 695, 330 U. S. 708, and I had not supposed until now, that that case or Levinson v. Spector Motor Co., 330 U. S. 649, justified any other result.
But for this Court's decisions in the Levinson and Ispass cases, my views in this case would be in substantial accord with those expressed by MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. See Levinson v. Spector Motor Service, 330 U. S. 649, dissenting opinion at 330 U. S. 685; Pyramid Motor Freight Corp. v. Ispass, 330 U. S. 695. I thought the decisions in those cases foreshadowed the extreme result here, which goes so far as to exclude from the Fair Labor Standards Act's protection at least two employees who made no trips in what petitioner regards as the interstate phase of his business. While on the other hand one driver made 97 such trips, there were others who made only very occasional ones.
Page 332 U. S. 441