Court Opinion

ID: 9756195
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:13:53.135288+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:56:32.310535
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
In an opinion filed two days before the decision in Fleming, Administrator, v. A. H. Belo Corporation, 5 Cir., 121 F.2d 207, 211, was announced, this Court in construing the Fair Labor Standards Act determined that Section 7(a), 29 U.S.C.A. § 207(a), relating to overtime employment, was such a separable part of the statute as to make the validity of any agreement for a lump-sum payment dependent upon the establishment of a regular rate of pay for the statutory work week provided by the Act. Consequently, having determined as a fact that in the execution of the employment cards the employees gave no consideration to the statement therein of the compensation for the statutory week but only considered the contract as a whole, this Court concluded that the arrangement was not permitted by the Act.
Following the above decision by the Circuit Court of Appeals, defendant has moved for rehearing of this question among others and has requested that additional findings of fact be made and a different conclusion of law with respect to said cards be entered. The motion was granted, and after a hearing and further consideration of the ruling in Fleming, Administrator, v. A. H. Belo Corporation, supra, it appears it was there determined that in the statute there is an absence of any “prohibition against or limitation upon” the making of agreements by employers with their employees, and that the overtime provisions of the Act “are inserted not at all to discourage or limit overtime work.” Thus, that the validity of any arrangement between employer and employee is to be determined by general contract law.
Considered as not controlled by the terms of the Act, the employment card arrangement as a whole evidences a binding arrangement, even though not establishing any factual agreement for compensation for forty hours. Admittedly an anomalous situation, the cards thus present a valid contract in law but not a factual contract as to detail. However, the latter would now appear to be immaterial and thus the prior ruling of the Court was erroneous.
Additional Findings of Fact.
Additional findings of fact are made as follows:
A. The employees whose signatures are affixed to the employment cards actually signed the same, without the result of fraud or vitiating duress, and without the operation of any device or misrepresentation on the part of the employer. They were persons able to read and understand the language on said cards. They were thereafter paid the total compensation thereon pro*666vided, and some of the employees received small increases in compensation for substantially reduced working hours, and the defendant substantially observed the total hour provisions thereon provided.
B. As a matter of fact the employees signing said cards gave no consideration to the details thereon, looking only to total hours to be worked and total compensation to be received.
Conclusions of Law.
A. As a matter of general law, and without regard to the Fair Labor Standards Act, the employment cards evidence an enforceable contract of employment.
B. Under the ruling in Fleming, Administrator, v. A. H. Belo Corporation, supra, the employment card arrangement constituted compliance with the terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
C. The plaintiff is not entitled to the injunction prayed with reference to the employees executing such employment cards.