Warren-Bradshaw Drilling Co. v. Hall, 317 U.S. 88 (1942)

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Warren-Bradshaw Drilling Co. v. Hall


No. 21


Argued October 16, 1942
Decided November 9, 1942
317 U.S. 88

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

Syllabus

1. The application of the Fair Labor Standards Act depends upon the character of the activities of the employee. P. 90.

2. Employees seeking to recover overtime compensation and liquidated damages under § 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act held to have sustained the burden of proving that they were engaged in the production of goods for interstate commerce within the meaning of the Act. P. 90.

3. Members of a rotary drilling crew, engaged within a State, as employees of an independent contractor, in partially drilling oil wells (to a depth short of the oil sand stratum) -- which wells were later "brought in" by other workmen, and some of the oil and gas from which, in crude form or as refine product, moved in interstate commerce -- were engaged in a "process or occupation necessary to the production" of oil for interstate commerce, and were covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. P. 91.

4. Assuming that this is prerequisite to the application of the Act in this case, there were reasonable grounds for the employer to anticipate at the time of drilling that oil when produced by the wells would move into other States. P. 92.

5. In the case of an employee who is employed on the basis of an eight-hour day at a fixed daily wage, and regularly works seven days a week, the fact that he is paid, and accepts, wages which are in excess of the statutory minimum, including the minimum for overtime, does not constitute compliance with the overtime compensation requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Overnight Transportation Co. v. Missel, 316 U.S. 572. P. 93.

124 F.2d 42 affirmed.

Certiorari, 316 U.S. 660, to review the affirmance of a judgment, 40 F.Supp. 272, against an employer in an action on behalf of certain of its employees for unpaid overtime compensation and liquidated damages under § 1(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act.