Court Opinion

ID: 9419830
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:51:44.394462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:20.852244
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
dissenting in part.
The Court requires this contractor to pay out of his own pocket the wage increase which he was directed to make. Whatever support that conclusion may have in a literal reading of the contract, it is so harsh and unfair as to be avoided if the contract does not compel the result. I do not think it does.
The contract set a minimum wage rate of $1 an hour for bricklayers. But it also provided that if the “prevailing” hourly rates under agreements between organized labor and employers on April 30, 1933, were above that minimum rate, the higher rate would become the minimum and be paid.1 The Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works on recommendation of the Board *244of Labor Review could change the contract rate of $1 an hour; it could also change the “prevailing” hourly rate. If it did either, it would establish a “different” minimum wage rate within the meaning of the contract.2 And the contract price would be adjusted accordingly.
The Board of Labor Review, acting for the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works,3 ruled that bricklayers on another government project at San Antonio should be paid at the rate of $1.25 an hour. San Antonio, as held by the Court of Claims, is in the same vicinity as Fort Sam Houston where the present projects were under way. And plainly the “prevailing” hourly rate refers to the rate which obtains in the vicinity.
So the respondent paid the extra wages under a ruling which, as I read the contract, was binding on him. It seems, therefore, manifestly unfair to hold that he must pay the wage increase out of his own pocket.
A contractor confronted with an order of the quartermaster to raise the wages of his employees is in an ex*245tremely difficult position. If he disobeys the order, he risks a strike and industrial turmoil. Yet the Court holds that he must take that risk or else pay the wage increase from his own pocket. Such a literal reading of the contract is not a fair one. And it is not a necessary one, as I have shown. Hence I would choose a construction which avoided that harsh and unfair result and did not victimize the contractor. If he had not protested the order of the quartermaster but had acquiesced, I suppose no one would say that there had been a dispute “concerning questions arising under” the contract,4 which should have been or could have been appealed. It is not doubted that then the contractor would be entitled to reimbursement. I see no difference in substance if the contractor, after an initial protest, acquiesces in the ruling and accepts the new “prevailing” rate and thus avoids dissension with his employees.
There is justice in what the Court of Claims ruled and I would sustain it.
Mr. Justice Frankfurter and Mr. Justice Rutledge join in this dissent.

 “In the event that the prevailing hourly rates prescribed under collective agreements or understandings between organized labor and employers on April 30, 1933, shall be above the minimum rates specified above, such agreed wage rates shall apply: Provided, That such agreed wage rates shall be effective for the period of this contract, but not to exceed 12 months from the date of the contract.”

 “The minimum wage rates herein established shall be subject to change by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works on recommendation of the Board of Labor Review. In event that the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works acting on such recommendation establishes different minimum wage rates, the contract price shall be adjusted accordingly on the basis of all actual labor costs on the project to the contractor, whether under this contract or any subcontract.”

 The suggestion that the wage increase at San Antonio was not authorized by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works is not warranted by the record. The Board of Labor Review is a part of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. It did not “recommend” an increase at San Antonio. It “formally ruled” that the bricklayers on that project “should be paid at the rate of $1.25 per hour.” The Court of Claims treated that as action by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. That seems to me to be the fair construction; and it was so treated both by the quartermaster and the contractor.

 The Government concedes that the quartermaster’s advice to respondent that he could file an appeal with the Board of Labor Review was erroneous. It points out that the Board of Labor Review was charged with the decision only of “labor issues,” which embrace controversies between employers and employees. The confusion existing in the mind of the Government’s own representative emphasizes the trap set for this contractor whether he followed the quartermaster’s suggestion or acquiesced in his ruling.