Opinion ID: 77326
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Engaged in Commerce

Text: 10 Thorne argues that he was individually engaged in interstate commerce because he regularly used Defendants/Appellees' credit cards in the course of his employment. Appellees respond that the trial court was correct in finding that Thorne was not individually covered by FLSA because his credit card activities did not involve interstate commerce. The Court is persuaded by Appellees' argument, and the Court finds that Thorne did not produce sufficient evidence at trial that his credit card use involved interstate commerce. 11 The Supreme Court has articulated that it is the intent of Congress to regulate only activities constituting interstate commerce, not activities merely affecting commerce. McLeod v. Threlkeld, 319 U.S. 491, 497, 63 S.Ct. 1248, 87 L.Ed. 1538. Therefore, for an employee to be engaged in commerce under the FLSA, he must be directly participating in the actual movement of persons or things in interstate commerce by (i) working for an instrumentality of interstate commerce, e.g., transportation or communication industry employees, or (ii) by regularly using the instrumentalities of interstate commerce in his work, e.g., regular and recurrent use of interstate telephone, telegraph, mails, or travel. 29 C.F.R. § 776.23(d)(2) (2005); 29 C.F.R. § 776.24 (2005). See, e.g., McLeod, 319 U.S. at 493-98, 63 S.Ct. 1248 (finding that plaintiff's activities were purely local, and he was not engaged in commerce when he merely cooked and cleaned for railroad workers). In the case at issue, there was no evidence at trial that Thorne worked for an instrumentality of interstate commerce, and Thorne only argues that he regularly used the instrumentalities of interstate commerce in his work by using Appellees' credit cards to make purchases for the business. 12 Thorne argues that he engaged in interstate commerce both when he used an instrumentality of interstate commerce, i.e. a credit card, to transact business, and also when he purchased goods which had traveled in interstate commerce. However, Thorne's argument that he engaged in interstate commerce fails because he did not produce sufficient evidence of interstate transactions. 13 First, Thorne cites no binding authority which holds that credit card transactions constitute an instrumentality of interstate commerce. C.f. Kitchings v. Florida United Methodist Children's Home, Inc., 393 F.Supp.2d 1282, 1293 (M.D.Fla.2005) (denying individual coverage under FLSA when plaintiff houseparents at Children's Home purchased personal items for Residents at local stores using Children's Home's credit card). Thorne relies on a Department of Labor opinion letter, which states that [e]mployees . . . are individually covered under the FLSA if, in the performance of their duties, they are engaged in interstate commerce. . . . Such employees include those who regularly handle interstate mail and telephone calls, engage in banking or credit card transactions, or receive or handle goods or materials from or destined for out-of-state sources. Opinion Letter, FLSA, 1999 WL 1002373 (March 5, 1999). 14 Even assuming, without deciding, that credit card transactions alone could constitute an instrumentality of interstate commerce, Thorne did not produce sufficient evidence of interstate activity to overcome Defendants/Appellees' Rule 50 motion. Thorne did not produce evidence that he corresponded with merchants outside the state of Florida using the mail, phone, or fax, and nor did he produce evidence that he made purchases of goods from out-of-state vendors. Rather, the only evidence Thorne produced at trial which implicated interstate activity was that bills for purchases made locally at a Home Depot may have been sent from Georgia. Thorne testified that the Home Depot bills, [i]f I'm not mistaken, I think they come from out of Atlanta. R44 at 84. However, Thorne later testified at trial that he didn't do anything that had anything to do with any matter outside of the state. R44 at 132. This Court finds that Thorne's testimony, stating he believed credit card bills came from Atlanta for purchases made at a local Home Depot was not sufficient evidence of engagement in interstate commerce to require submission of the issue to a jury. 15 Moreover, the fact that some of the tools he purchased may have crossed state lines at a previous time does not in itself implicate interstate commerce. When goods reach the customer for whom they were intended, the interstate journey ends and employees engaged in any further intra state movement of the goods are not covered under the Act. McLeod, 319 U.S. at 493, 63 S.Ct. 1248. Courts distinguish between merchants who bring commerce across state lines for sale and the ultimate consumer, who merely purchases goods that previously moved in interstate commerce for intrastate use. Therefore, a customer who purchases an item from Home Depot is not engaged in commerce even if Home Depot previously purchased it from out-of-state wholesalers. 16 In Dunlop v. Industrial America Corporation, 516 F.2d 498, 499 (5th Cir.1975), 2 the court was faced with the question of whether a business which consumes gasoline and oil in the process of providing services to its customers is the ultimate consumer of those goods, and therefore not subject to FLSA coverage. The defendant corporation operated a wholly intrastate garbage removal service, and its only tie to interstate commerce was that its employees used gasoline and oil products which had moved in interstate commerce in operating and maintaining the company's trucks. The court held that the defendant was not covered because it was an ultimate consumer of the goods. Id. at 499-502. 17 Similar to the defendant in Dunlop, ARS operates exclusively within the state of Florida, and its customers are located instate. Under the precedent of Dunlop, ARS's activities were not rendered interstate commerce simply because ARS, an ultimate consumer, purchased goods which had previously moved in interstate commerce. Accordingly, the Court finds that Thorne did not produce sufficient evidence that he engaged in interstate commerce to overcome Defendants' Rule 50 motion. 18