Court Opinion

ID: 9637151
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:58:54.543701+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:53.888481
License: Public Domain

MATHEWS, Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result).
I concur in the result, but do not concur in all that my associates (Judges DEN-MAN and STEPHENS) say in their opinion.
After pointing out, correctly, that appellee’s shareholders have a right to the water used by appellee for the generation of electricity, my associates say: “The water, therefore, is allowed to flow only in accordance with the demands of the shareholders * * *. As the water is called for by the shareholders, appellee guides its flow from the rivers and reservoirs through its hydroelectric plants (thereby generating electricity) and on down * * * to the shareholders. Thus the demand for, and distribution of, water also determines the production of electricity; in other words, the electricity is generated at the hydroelectric plants only as appellee delivers water to its shareholders.” The quoted statements are incorrect. Water delivered to appellee’s shareholders may be, and is ordinarily, used for the generation of electricity long before, and several times before, delivery thereof is made or called for.
After pointing out, correctly, that appellee’s shareholders produce cantaloupes, watermelons, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, carrots and other vegetables, my associates say: “Quantitatively, the major content of these cantaloupes, watermelons, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and carrots is the water which has been in part pumped for and all of it directed toward the plant roots by the appellee’s employees.” This, if true, is immaterial. Our holding that appellants are engaged in the production of g'oods for commerce, within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 201-219, should not depend, or seem to depend, upon the water content of vegetables produced by appellee’s shareholders.
My associates say: “We are unable to agree with the suggestion that if the persons supplying water * * * are deemed within the Act then so would be included the persons engaged in the * * * manufacture of ploughshares and harness for plow horses or tractors sold to the farmers.” I am not aware of any such suggestion and hence do not feel called upon to agree or disagree therewith.
*869My associates say: “We can see no difference between appellants lifting the water vertically and directing it laterally toward the plant roots which channel it into the vegetable itself, and the mechanics who supply pieces of metal into the channels of a machine which automatically manufactures pens or pins or wire clips.” I know nothing of any such mechanics. If any such exist, we are not concerned with them and have no occasion to compare them with appellants.
The judgment should be reversed.