Court Opinion

ID: 9443431
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:19:48.120799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:47.201208
License: Public Domain

PICKETT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
29 U.S.C.A. § 213(a) (10), exempts from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act “any individual employed within the area of production (as defined by the Administrator), engaged in handling, packing, storing, ginning, compressing, * * * in their raw or natural state * * * agricultural * * * commodities for market * * It is clear that the language of the statute grants to the Administrator the authority to fix a reasonable area of production of the products named and that the provisions of the Act do not apply to employees within that area if they are engaged in performing the work named. The Administrator, by general regulation, fixed the boundaries of the area of production of cotton and then provided that if certain *12conditions existed within the boundaries of the area the exemption would not apply. Our question goes to the extent of the authority granted to the Administrator to limit the application of the exemption.
In the first regulation promulgated under the Act, the area of production was limited to products coming from a given distance from the plant. It excluded those plants located near cities or towns having a population of 2500 or more and those having more than seven employees even though within the established boundaries of the area. In Addison v. Holly Hill Fruit Products, Inc., 322 U.S. 607, 64 S.Ct. 1215, 1220, 88 L.Ed. 1488, the Supreme Court, in considering the regulation as it related to fruit, held that Congress did not intend “to allow the Administrator to discriminate between small and bigger establishments within the zone of agricultural production”. It was stated that if Congress had any such intention it “wholly failed to express its purpose.” The only question considered related to that portion of the regulation excluding plants having more than a given number of employees. The court specifically refrained from passing upon the validity of the provision of the regulation which excluded from the exemption plants within a stated distance from cities or towns having a population of 2500 or more.
In determining the invalidity of that part of the regulation relating to the number of employees the court, in t'he Addison case, stated that ’ “Congress did not leave it to the Administrator to decide whether within geographic bounds defined by him the Act further permits discrimination between establishment and' establishment based upon the number of employees.” The court continued that Congress “restricted the Administrator to the drawing of geographic lines, even though he may take into account all relevant economic factors in the choice of areas open to him, the regulations which made discriminations within the area defined by applying the exemption only to plants with less than seven employees are ultra vires.” From this it seems rather clear to me that the Administrator could take into consideration “all the relevant economic factors” necessary to determine the geographic lines of the area of production and the Act granted him no other power or authority. The Administrator must restrict his acts to those which are authorized by the statute. Addison v. Holly Hill Fruit Products, Inc., supra; Social Security Board v. Nierotko, 327 U.S. 358, 369, 66 S.Ct. 637, 90 L.Ed. 718.
When reasonable geographic lines of the area of production are established, then under the plain language of the Act the exemption is effective within that area., The rationale of the Addison case seems to me to be clearly to this effect. I can see no difference between a provision of a regulation excluding plants because of the number of employees and a provision excluding plants located within or near a city or town having a population of 2500 or more if it is within the geographic lines established, and there is no sound reason for any distinction. Generally the population of a city or town has no reasonable relation to the question of whether a plant is located within an area of production. The purpose of the Act was to grant an exemption which was thought to be -helpful to the farmers and horticulturists, and it was not intended that the statutory exemption should be made ineffective or completely destroyed by regulation.
I would affirm the judgment.