Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 317 U.S. 564 (1943)
Walling v. Jacksonville Paper Co.
No. 336
Argued November 19, 20, 1942
Decided January 18, 1943
317 U.S. 564
CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
Syllabus
1. The Fair Labor Standards Act is applicable to employees of a wholesale paper company who are engaged in the delivery, from company warehouses within a State to customers within the same State, after a temporary pause at such warehouses, of goods procured outside of the State upon prior orders from, or pursuant to contracts or understandings with, such customers. P. 567.
2. Such goods retain their character as goods in interstate commerce until finally delivered to the customer, and they are not divested of that character by the temporary pause at the warehouse, or by the fact that the company regards them as stock in trade, or by the circumstance that title to them passes to the company upon their delivery at its warehouse. P. 569.
3. As to the company’s business in other goods procured from outside of the State and delivered from the warehouses to customers within the State -- it being claimed that such business is "in commerce" within the meaning of the Act because the customers form a fairly stable group whose needs can be anticipated with considerable precision -- the evidence lacks that particularity necessary to show that the status of the goods in question was different from that of goods acquired and held by a local merchant for local disposition. P. 569.
4. That a wholesaler whose business is intrastate is in competition with wholesalers doing interstate business is of no significance in determining the applicability of the Fair Labor Standards Act, since that Act does not extend to activities "affecting" commerce, but only to such as are "in" commerce. P. 570.
5. That the Fair Labor Standards Act is applicable to a wholesaler who makes purchases of goods outside of the State, though selling intrastate exclusively, is not to be implied from the exception from the Act, by §§ 13 (a)(1) and 13(a)(2), of employees of retailers. P. 571.
6. The applicability of the Fair Labor Standards Act doe not depend on whether a wholesaler’s business is wholly interstate, but rather on the character of the employee’s activities. P. 571.
128 F.2d 395 affirmed.
Certiorari, post, p. 615, to review the reversal of a judgment in a suit brought by the Wage and Hour Administrator to enjoin violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.