Court Opinion

ID: 9638120
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:33:52.871489+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:03.888336
License: Public Domain

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge,
(concurring).
It is doubtful whether plaintiffs in building a new bridge were engaged in interstate commerce so as to be under the wage and hour provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Compare Overstreet et al. v. North Shore Corporation, 5 Cir., 128 F.2d 450, and Fleming, Adm’r, v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 5 Cir., 128 F.2d 395. The dismissal, however, was put solely on the ground of limitation, and that ground 'alone is properly before us.
It is important to note that no violation of Section 6 as to minimum wages is involved. The plaintiffs were paid about double the minimum wage for their work. Eighteen months after the job was complete,. apparently for the first time it was thought the employment was under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and demand was made, followed by suit, for overtime compensation under Section 7. The two sections are quite different. Section 6 is affirmative in form, requiring that “every ■employer shall pay to each of his employees * * * wages at the following rates”, so that the statute amends every contract for labor which falls under it so as to provide for those rates; and what is due is wages. Section 7 is negative and prohibitory in form, “No employer shall * * * employ any of his employees” for longer hours than specified “unless such employee receives compensation” for the ■excess time at one and a half times the regular rate. It annuls as illegal contracts to the contrary by forbidding their execution unless a “compensation” is made at a high rate. The high rate is not called wages, but compensation. The same distinction appears in Section 16(b), giving the federal rights of action, where what is ■due under Section 6 is again referred to as “minimum wages” and what ought to have’ been paid to escape penalization under Section 7 is again called “overtime compensation”. The doubling of each is called “liquidated damages”. I am of opinion that an action for unpaid minimum wages is one for wages, and that the damages by doubling them are incidental, as interest would be; so the Louisiana Civil Code, Art. 3534, which deals alone with “actions * * * of workmen * * * for the payment of their wages”, would be applicable. But where, as here, the action is for “overtime compensation” and damages, due because a prohibitory statute has been violated, it is not one for wages, but for a quasi offense, or tort,1 under the Louisiana Civil Code, Art. 3536. Both articles happen to name one year as the limitation, but it may be otherwise in other states. It is further important to observe the distinction the federal statute makes between what is wages and what is not, for questions of laborer’s liens, and exemption of wages from garnishment are sure to arise.
A limitation of one year is not unusually short. It is the very period named by Congress in the railroad overtime statute, 45 U.S.C.A. § 63.
The federal statute limiting suits for penalties, 28 U.S.C.A. § 791, does not apply, for private compensation rather than public punishment is the aim here, as in the case of triple damages under the Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1-7, 15 note, Chattanooga Foundry & Pipe Works v. Atlanta, 203 U. S. 390, 27 S.Ct. 65, 51 L.Ed. 241, or the artificially fixed damages under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq., Brady v. Daly, 175 U.S. 148, 20 S.Ct. 62, 44 L.Ed. 109, or reparation under the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq., Meeker v. Lehigh, 236 U.S. 412, 35 S.Ct. 328, 59 L.Ed. 644, Ann.Cas.1916B, 691.
We must look to the State statutes for the applicable limitation, that here applying being the prescription of actions for quasi offenses. I concur in the affirmance, but think it ought to be placed squarely on that statute.

 The prevention of overtime work is an important purpose of Section 7, though not positively prohibited. Overnight Motor Transportation Co. v. Missell, 62 S.Ct. 1216, 86 L.Ed. —.