Opinion ID: 744660
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Engaged in Commerce or the Production of Goods for Commerce

Text: 12 Stewart argues that the Secretary failed to prove by definite and certain evidence that ST & P was involved in commerce or the production of goods for commerce. Brief for Appellant at 7, citing Johnson v. Blankenship, 152 F.2d 99 (8th Cir.1945) (requiring that the plaintiff establish by a preponderance of the evidence the number of hours worked and the amount of wages due). Stewart maintains that ST & P's employees are exempt from the FLSA because they are involved in purely local activities; specifically, ST & P's pallets were repaired in Lincoln, Nebraska, with materials purchased in Lincoln, and were returned to businesses in Lincoln. Id. at 7-8, citing Mitchell v. C.W. Vollmer & Co., 349 U.S. 427, 429, 75 S.Ct. 860, 861-62, 99 L.Ed. 1196 (1955) (the test to determine whether an employee is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the FLSA is whether the work is so directly and vitally related to the functioning of an instrumentality or facility of interstate commerce as to be, in practical effect, a part of it, rather than isolated, local activity), and Wirtz v. McDaniel, 325 F.2d 78, 82 (8th Cir.1963) (same). Stewart contends that the Secretary presented no evidence that the pallets actually left Lincoln, Nebraska, and, therefore, the district court clearly erred in assuming that to be true. Stewart claims that the evidence was neither sufficiently definite nor certain to prove that ST & P was involved in commerce or the production of goods for commerce. 13 We disagree. The district court's factual finding that, during the time in question, at least some of the pallets from ST & P were injected into the stream of interstate commerce, slip op. at 13, is not clearly erroneous. Stewart testified in his pre-trial deposition that he was aware or had reason to know that pallets sold to his customers were likely used for shipments outside of Nebraska. See App. for Appellee at 14-15, 18-21. The evidence adduced at trial showed that, during the relevant period, Cook purchased between 374 and 935 pallets per week from ST & P for shipping its processed hams, see Tr. 22:6-23:3, and ninety-seven percent of those shipments went outside of Nebraska, see Tr. 141:12-18. 14 Furthermore, the district court did not err in concluding that Petty and Hoss were engaged in the production of goods for commerce within the meaning of the FLSA. Commerce is defined under the FLSA as trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States or between any State and any place outside thereof. 29 U.S.C. § 203(b). 15 [E]mployees are engaged in the production of goods for commerce when they are manufacturing, handling, working on, or otherwise engaging in the production of boxes, barrels, bagging, crates, bottles, or other containers, wrapping or packing material which their employer has reason to believe will be used to hold the goods of other producers which will be sent out of the State in such containers or wrappings. It makes no difference that such other producers are located in the same State and that the containers are sold and delivered to them there. 16 29 C.F.R. § 776.21(d) (1997). Because Stewart knew that the pallets rebuilt by Petty and Hoss would likely carry Cook's and other customers' goods in interstate commerce, see App. for Appellee at 14-15, 18-21, Petty and Hoss were engaged in the production of goods for commerce.