Court Opinion

ID: 9651422
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:19:10.520722+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:33.817742
License: Public Domain

HOLMES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
In my opinion, the services of the taxpayer’s employees did not constitute agricultural labor, and were not exempted from the Social Security Act. The activities of the taxpayer had advanced beyond the stage of ordinary farming operations, and had become commercial in nature. The size of the packing plant and the utilization, under typical factory conditions, of specialized machinery and personnel, were indicative of the commercial nature of the enterprise, which is separate from the activity of fruit growers. The labor for picking and hauling was not performed by employees of the owner or tenant of the grove. The taxpayer was a separate entity to whom the grove owners had relinquished all control of the picking, packing, and marketing of the fruit. No reason or authority' exists for different treatment of a cooperative packing house from that accorded an independent packing house. The employees of both are in need of the protection of the Social Security Act.
I realize that a close question is presented relative to the nature of the picking and hauling services, as contrasted with those performed in processing, packing, and shipping; but the court below found as a fact that such services were incident to the commercial activities of the taxpayer at its packing house, as distinguished from ordinary farming activity. This finding was not clearly erroneous, and should not be disturbed. In this instance, as'customarily, the picking, packing, and hauling of fruit was done, not by the growers themselves, but by outside interests.
The growers’ contracts with the taxpayers indicated that all parties considered thegathering and transportation of the fruit to the packing house as an integral part of the marketing arrangement. The taxpayer, not the individual growers, determined when the fruit should be picked and how it should be handled and transported. The trucks and equipment were supplied by the taxpayer. From the gathering of the fruit to its sale, the heart of the enterprise was at the packing house.1 The manager of the taxpayer was asked: “Is it a fair statement to say that the growers of citrus fruit, as a customary practice, either sell the fruit on the trees to independent operators or have a co-operative association come on and pick and pack and ship the fruit?” He replied: “That’s definitely the way it is handled, yes sir, in one channel or the other.”
I think the judgment appealed from should be affirmed.

 Calaf v. Gonzalez, 1 Cir., 127 F.2d 934.