Source: http://openjurist.org/599/f2d/588
Timestamp: 2015-08-31 22:00:56
Document Index: 124761580

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 113', '§ 276', '§ 101', '§ 120', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 7']

599 F2d 588 Commonwealth of Virginia Commissioner Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation v. Marshall | OpenJurist
599 F. 2d 588 - Commonwealth of Virginia Commissioner Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation v. Marshall Home
599 F2d 588 Commonwealth of Virginia Commissioner Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation v. Marshall 599 F.2d 588
24 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 137, 86 Lab.Cas. P 33,784
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, ex rel. COMMISSIONER, VIRGINIADEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORTATION,Plaintiff-Appellant,v.Ray MARSHALL, Secretary, United States Department of Labor,Defendant-Appellee,andWashington Building and Construction Trades Council,Defendant-Intervenor-Appellee,American Road and Transportation Builders Association,Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., andAssociated General Contractors ofAmerica, Inc., Amici Curiae.
No. 78-1885.
Argued April 2, 1979.Decided May 30, 1979.
Walter A. McFarlane, Deputy Atty. Gen., Richmond, Va. (Marshall Coleman, Atty. Gen., John J. Beall, Jr., John M. McCarthy and Debra J. Prillaman, Asst. Attys. Gen., Richmond, Va., with him on the briefs), for plaintiff-appellant.
Mauricio A. Flores, Federal Programs Branch, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C. (Barbara Allen Babcock, Asst. Atty. Gen., Ronald R. Glancz, App. Staff, Dept. of Justice, Carin Ann Clauss, Sol. of Labor, Ronald G. Whiting, Associate Sol. and Gail V. Coleman, Atty., Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., with him on the brief), for defendant-appellee.
Terry R. Yellig (Thomas X. Dunn and Sherman, Dunn, Cohen & Leifer, Washington, D. C., with him on the brief), for defendant-intervenor-appellee.
Robert J. Hickey, Peter G. Kilgore and Kirlin, Campbell & Keating, Washington, D. C., submitted on the brief for amici curiae.
Before BREITENSTEIN*, RUSSELL and WIDENER, Circuit Judges.
This appeal of the Commonwealth of Virginia challenges a wage rate determination by the Secretary of Labor made pursuant to the Federal-Aid Highway Act, 23 U.S.C. § 113 and the Davis-Bacon Act, 40 U.S.C. § 276a. The district court decided in favor of the Secretary and dismissed the action. We affirm.
Proceeding under the Federal-Aid Highway Act, 23 U.S.C. § 101, et seq., Virginia applied to the Secretary of Transportation for federal funds to construct a 1.69 miles segment of Interstate 66 (I-66) in Fairfax County, Virginia. The Secretary approved the request on the condition that the median of the highway be constructed so that it could readily be used in the future by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) for an extension of its rapid transit rail system. Work on the median area would be completed to the extent that Metro would be able to lay track and build stations with minimum construction expense when the proposed extension was finally approved. The entire I-66 project is financed with 90% Federal Highway Trust Funds and 10% State funds in accordance with 23 U.S.C. § 120(c). The estimate of the entire project cost is $21 million. The median portion constitutes 17.8% Of the total work and $4 million of the total cost.
Virginia applied to the Department of Labor for a "project wage determination." See 29 C.F.R. § 1.5(a). On October 11, 1977, the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor issued a wage determination which was effective for 120 days under 29 C.F.R. § 1.7(a)(1). It decided that the median work for the proposed Metro extension was distinct from the highway work and issued separate wage rates for each portion of the project. It reasoned that because the median would ultimately be used as a rail-bed that portion of the project was rail construction which had been consistently characterized as "heavy" as opposed to "highway" construction. The rates for the median work were substantially higher than the rates for the highway work.
Virginia then appealed to the Wage Appeals Board, which is authorized to act for the Secretary. 29 C.F.R. § 7.1(d). Virginia asserted that the median work is identical to the highway work in a construction sense and contends that the entire project should have been classified as "highway" construction. After an evidentiary hearing the Wage Appeals Board on March 21, 1978, upheld the Wage and Hour Division in all but one respect. It determined that certain bridge abutments, which would have to be built regardless of the Metro extension, should be classified as "highway" construction.
In order not to postpone construction, Virginia split the project into two parts. A contract for substantially all of the highway work has been let and construction is now underway. That contract bases its wage rates on an April 4, 1978, wage determination, because the previous wage determination had expired. A contract for the median work and the remaining highway work is proposed to be let in the fall of 1979. It will require a new wage determination.
Virginia brought this action to obtain relief from the Wage Appeals Board's March 21, 1978, decision, WAB Case No. 77-33,