James D. Hodgson, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor v. Idaho Trout Processors Company, a Corporation

This appeal concerns § 13(a)(6) of the Fair Labor Standards Act ( 29 U.S.C. § 213 (a) (6)), the provision which exempts employers of “employees employed in agriculture” from the wage and hour requirements of the Act ( 29 U.S.C. §§ 206 and 207). More specifically, the question is whether the district court erred in determining that employees of Idaho Trout Processors Company (Trout Processors) were within the purview of the Act and hence Trout Processors was liable to them for back pay.

Trout Processors was incorporated in 1959 under the laws of Idaho, as a nonexempt cooperative corporation, for the purpose of cleaning, processing, freezing, packing, and marketing trout raised by the three member trout farms. Rainbow Trout Farm, Canyon Trout Farm and Frame Trout Farm are the three stockholders. Trout Processors regularly employs from 7 to 15 employees, whose labors are confined to the processing plant and not to the actual raising of trout. Earl M. Hardy is president and treasurer of Trout Processors and also one of the shareholders of Rainbow Trout Farm.

Trout Processors leases the land for its plant from Kaybar Corporation, whose sole shareholder, is Earl M. Hardy. The…