Full opinion text
METZGER, Chief Judge. Part I. Statement and Findings. I. Nature of Action, Controversy Involved, and Jurisdiction. This action arises under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the Act of June 25, 1938, 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. Plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment, and the defendants filed a counter-claim under Section 16(b) of the Act to recover unpaid overtime compensation for work performed by them as employees of plaintiff, and to recover liquidated damages, costs and attorneys’ fees. Following an earlier trial herein, a decision and judgment of this court, reported at 77 F.Supp. 480, and an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, this action was remanded to this court for further proceedings by a judgment of the Court of Appeals rendered November 10, 1949, reported at 178 F.2d 603. Following the remand, all pleadings heretofore filed in this action were amended by the parties, so as to drop certain parties defendant from the litigation, to eliminate the representative character of the case, and to limit the action to the period from November 20, 1946, to and including September 14, 1947. Under the amended pleadings, the following issues arise with respect to that period of time: A. Were the defendants or any of them exempt from the overtime provisions of the Act by virtue of Sections 13(a) (6), 7(c), or 13(a) (2), during all or any workweeks falling within the aforementioned period? B. Were certain of the defendants, while performing work of repairing and maintaining plaintiff’s dwelling houses, and while furnishing related facilities and services to plaintiff’s employees and others occupying such dwelling houses, engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, within the meaning of Section 3(j) of the Act? C. What, if any, amounts are any of the defendants entitled to recover from plaintiff pursuant to Sections 7(a) and 16 (b) of the Act? These issues are raised by (a) the amended complaint of plaintiff and defendants’ answer thereto; and (b) defendants’ counterclaim, cross-claim, and cross-complaint under Section 16(b) of the Act, and plaintiff’s reply and answer thereto. In addition, defendants seek awards of liquidated damages and recovery of costs and attorneys fees, pursuant to Section 16(b). By its reply and answer, plaintiff seeks to defeat the request for liquidated damages, as well as overtime wages due for the period pri- or to May 14, 1947, by appealing to the good faith defenses contained in Sections 9, 10 and 11 of the Portal-to-Portal Act-of 1947, Act of May 14, 1947, Public Law 49, c. 52, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 61 Stat. 84, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 251-262. All issues have been presented and tried in a single trial. The evidence consists of a lengthy stipulation to certain facts, the testimony of plaintiff’s office manager, the testimony of 22 of the defendant employees of plaintiff, and certain exhibits received in evidence, to which reference will be made later. This case does not involve waiting time, clean-up time, travel time, or any of the types of activity whose consideration occasioned in part the passage of the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947. Defendants have alleged, it is not disputed by plaintiff, and it is found by the court, that the work performed by defendants for plaintiff, for which recovery is sought in the counterclaim, was the principal work performed by them, was compensable both under an express contract and under custom and practice within the establishments and places where the defendants performed such work, and was performed during portions of the days with respect to which the same was so made cempensable; that all such work was in fact paid for by plaintiff, but the dispute between the parties is whether the amounts so paid were sufficient to discharge plaintiff’s obligations under the Act for overtime compensation. This court has jurisdiction of this action and of the parties hereto pursuant to (a) Section 24 of the Judicial Code as amended, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1337; (b) Section 274d of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2201; and (c) Section 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Parties and Period of Time Involved. Plaintiff is a corporation organized under the laws of the Territory of Hawaii on December 14, 1948. This action was instituted on April 9, 1947, by a predecessor corporation to the plaintiff, bearing the same name. On December 14, 1948, plaintiff acquired certain of the assets and business, and assumed certain of the liabilities, of the predecessor corporation, including all rights, interests and liabilities in, or which might arise out of, this action. By stipulation, plaintiff has been substituted as the party plaintiff in this action for the predecessor corporation. All subsequent references to “plaintiff” refer either to the predecessor corporation or to the new corporation substituted herein, depending on whether the matters to which they relate occurred prior or subsequent to December 14, 1948. Defendants are 42 individuals who' were employed by plaintiff during the period from November 20, 1946, to September 14, 1947, inclusive. Each of them appears in this proceeding on his separate behalf only, and in no way as representative of any other persons or legal entities. Unless otherwise specified, each performed his work, on the plantation. Summary of Plaintiff’s Business. Plaintiff operates a sugar plantation located in the District of Waialua, City and County of Honolulu, Island of Oahu, Territory of Hawaii. In 1945, it was the third largest producer of raw sugar in the Territory. At the present time the plantation grows and produces sugar cane on 9,663 acres of land owned or leased by it. Substantially all of the land now devoted to sugar cane production has been owned or leased by the plantation and used by it for this purpose since 1910. As of approximately the commencement of the period covered by this litigation, plaintiff had a total of 959 non-supervisory employees. Plaintiff’s business consists of (a) growing, cultivating, and harvesting sugar cane on the lands owned or leased by it; (b) operating a system of railroad transportation over which harvested cane is hauled to plaintiff’s mill; (c) processing such cane into raw sugar and molasses at the mill; (d) shipping such raw sugar to a refinery situated in the continental United States, where such raw sugar is refined and subsequently sold under the circumstances later discussed herein; (e) shipping molasses in bulk to the continental United States; (f) operating a series of shops for the purpose of maintaining, repairing and overhauling plaintiff’s buildings, machinery, equipment, vehicles, and rolling stock; (g) maintaining mill villages and housing in which plaintiff’s employees and their families dwell. Plaintiff processes no cane except that grown by itself on its plantation. Neither does it directly engage in any sugar refining operation. However, plaintiff and 30 other companies engaged in the production of raw sugar in the Territory, constitute the total membership of an association called California & Hawaiian Sugar Refining Corporation, Ltd. (C & H), a California corporation. C & H is qualified as a cooperative marketing association under the federal Capper-Volstead Act, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 291, 292, and under the applicable laws of the State of California. During the period involved in this litigation the members of C & H, including plaintiff, were under contract to deliver, and did deliver, to C & IT, all of the raw sugar produced by them in the Territory, except for inconsequential amounts sold for consumption as raw sugar in the Territory. In this same period, C & IT operated a sugar refinery at Crockett, California. Under the mentioned contract, C & II was entitled to process all raw sugar delivered to it by its members, and to sell the refined sugar resulting therefrom, as well as to sell in the form of raw sugar any quantities delivered by the members of C & H. Actually, C & H processed into refined sugar more than 90’% of the raw sugar delivered to it by its members, selling the balance as raw sugar. The proceeds received by C & H from its sale both of refined sugar and of raw sugar, as well as any by-products produced by it, were distributed in the following manner. After first deducting the operating expenses of C & IT, the remainder was paid over to the members of C & H, including plaintiff, partly in the form of dividends at 6% on the shares of capital stock of C & IT, all of which were owned by the aforementioned 31 Hawaii companies — “substantially in the same proportion as the tonnage of raw sugar which they ship to C & H” (Def. Ex. 2) — and the balance was paid over to the same companies, in direct proportion to' the amounts of raw sugar delivered by them to C & IT. Plaintiff’s Plantation Operations. Sugar cane is highly perishable. To avoid serious losses it is processed into sugar, syrup or molasses within a relatively short time after being harvested — usually, as the record shows, the practice of processing is between 4 and 16 hours. It “cannot be stored more than 2 or 3 days without spoiling” (Def. Ex. 3B, p. 36). It does not move into interstate commerce in its natural state. Except for small amounts which are used as seed cane, it is grown for the purpose of producing sugar, syrup and molasses. It is these .products, which result from the processing of cane, that become articles of interstate commerce. Substantially all of the cane-growing land of plantation, its buildings and yard area, and other lands owned or leased by it, but unsuited for cane growing, including a wooded area from which firewood is cut for use for fuel by plantation employees living in the plantation villages, forms a contiguous and compact area. All lands devoted to the growing of cane are managed and operated by plaintiff as an integrated farming unit and single enterprise with identical cropping cultivation and harvesting practices, and with the same labor and. equipment. The growing and harvesting of cane, its processing in the mill, and the shipping of raw sugar to the refiner, take place continuously for a period of approximately 7-9 months. Annually, the harvesting and processing of cane are wholly suspended for the remaining 3-5 months, for the purpose of completely reconditioning the mill and equipment, and installing machinery and improvements. Plaintiff’s buildings, including the mill where cane is processed into raw sugar, and a number of buildings which house repair shops for the maintenance of field, transportation and mill equipment, warehouses for plantation supplies, and other buildings having functional relation to the entire plantation operations, are centrally located in the lowlands of the plantation in a compact area. Plaintiff’s cane field operations are highly mechanized. Since 1910 there has been a gradual reduction in the number of man days required to produce a ton of raw sugar on plaintiff’s plantation. This reduction was brought about through mechanization and the application of scientific methods. To a large extent hand labor and the use of horse-drawn equipment and vehicles have been eliminated, and motorized equipment substituted in their stead. The transportation system of plaintiff is also highly mechanized, and this is likewise true of' the processing operations in the mill. There is a high degree of coordination between field operations, transportation, mill processing, shipping, and all other aspects of plaintiff’s activities. “Operational problems on a sugar plantation are comparable to those of a Detroit factory rather than to those >of a large Iowa farm. The primary objective of the management is to maintain ‘belt-line production’ of sugar by so scheduling the various field throughout the plantation for harvesting and transport to the mill that full-scale raw-sugar production will be continuous, 24 hours a day. To do this it is necessary to maintain a fleet of large trucks, mechanical harvesting equipment, a system of narrow-gage railways (or other means of transporting cane to the mill), a laboratory for scientific observation to determine the water and fertilizer needs with an organized force of workers to implement these findings, and large pumping stations and gravity systems for controlling irrigation.” (Def. Ex. 3B, p. 36.) During the year 1945, plaintiff’s direct operating expenses amounted to one and three-quarter million dollars. Of this sum, manufacturing costs approximated five hundred thousand dollars, and an additional sum of approximately two hundred thousand dollars was expended on transportation, in major part for main line hauling of cane into the mill. The record does not disclose the amount expended for operation of the repair and service shops, or for maintenance of employee housing and village facilities. It appears that plaintiff’s railroad system was valued at more than three-quarters of a million dollars (Def. Ex. 2). Activities Occurring From the Time Cane Fields are Prepared For Planting up to the Time of Harvesting. In the preparation and plowing of its cane fields, a so-called “stone boat” sled is used to clear the fields of stones, rocks, and similar obstructions. Concrete irrigation flumes and pipes are moved to their proper location. Sugar cane seed is then planted. The fields are then “ratooned”, this being an operation performed after a cane field is harvested to prepare it for the growing of another crop. In the cultivation, herbicides and insecticides are applied, by means of spraying equipment; in the fields, along irrigation ditches and flume areas, and along cane field roads. Weeds are removed, fertilizer is applied to the fields, and water is supplied by a net-worlc of irrigation ditches, canals, siphons, concrete pipes, flumes, water storage reservoirs and pumps, all of which plaintiff owns, operates and maintains. Ultimately the cane is harvested, loaded into cane cars on portable tracks in the fields, and then moved to the main line railroad. Throughout the plantation, plaintiff maintains a network of field roads for the transportation of labor, field supplies and equipment. Intensive irrigation throughout the year is required for the acreage devoted to cane production. Irrigation frequency is guided by soil moisture samples collected weekly from each field. Approximately 97-98% •of the water received by plaintiff is utilized for irrigation of its cane fields. The degree to which water is used by plaintiff for irrigation purposes is shown by a tabulation received in evidence. In the year 1940, for example, plaintiff applied 30,548 million gallons; this was a daily average of 84 million gallons. By way of comparison, the city of San Francisco used 65 million gallons daily in the same year (Def. Ex. 3B, p. 43). Plaintiff also uses substantial quantities •of water to supply its mill, to operate locomotives used on plaintiff’s railroad, for the domestic water needs of plantation villages and plaintiff’s employees living therein, for sale to small farmers whose produce is •consumed locally, and for plaintiff’s system ■of fire protection. The amount so consumed averaged two million gallons daily. Harvesting Operations. To insure a balanced flow of cane to the mill, harvesting operations are coordinated with the needs and capacity of the mill, and the potential of its transportation system. Fields ready for harvesting are first burned over, to increase efficiency in removing the cane and to reduce trash carried to the mill. In preparation for burning, fire brakes are cut through the cane by a tractor bulldozer rake. This tears cane stalks from the stools and pushes cane off to the side. After the cane is burned, the bulldozer rake opens up lines for the laying of portable track. A portable track plow or leveler follows through these lines to make proper beds for the track. Portable track rail cars, loaded with sections of track, are drawn into the cane fields by tractors. Lifting machines hoist the track sections from the loaded cars and lay them on the track beds. Empty cane cars are then hauled from the main line of plaintiff’s railroad onto a siding thereof into the field for loading purposes, and are placed into position for loading. Cane is loaded on the cars by machines, which are cranes equipped with a boom and a finger-like grab; these pull or grab the cane loose from its growing position and load it directly into the cars. Plaintiff owns 9 such caneloading machines. Full cars are hauled out of the field to the main line for transportation to the mill. A carload of cane averages slightly less than 5 tons per car, gross cane. Cane pieces along the portable track are later picked up by a ground crew and thrown into cars drawn by tractors. Full carts are dumped near the cane loading machines for subsequent lifting into cane cars. Cane dropped in the fields is bulldozed into piles, and these are later lifted by machine into the cars. This operation is referred to as “brooming cane”. Where the main line railroad passes adjacent to the cane field, harvested cane is loaded directly into cars spotted on the main line tracks. Main Line Transportation. From the time of its organization plaintiff has owned and operated a narrow-gage railroad system. This system is constructed, located and operated exclusively on the plantation. It hauls no cane or freight for anyone other than the plantation. It is used predominantly to haul sugar cane from points where cane cars have been concentrated to the mill. It is also used to haul portable rails and other supplies and equipment from the plantation’s warehouses and shop yards to and from the fields, but most of this type of hauling is handled by the plantation trucks. The plantation has a spur track approximately three thousand feet in length running from its mill and •warehouses, and connecting with the railroad line of the Oahu Railway & Land Company. This spur track was used by the plantation to deliver box and tank cars loaded with sugar and molasses to the O. R. & L. Company, and to receive incoming supplies delivered to the plantation by the O. R. & L. Company. The O. R. & L. Company discontinued its operations at the end of 1947. Since that time the outgoing and incoming freight of the plaintiff has been handled by an independently owned and operated trucking company. The plaintiff’s railroad network consists of 56 miles of permanent main line track, hereinafter frequently referred to as “plaintiff’s main line railroad”, and slightly more than 9 miles of portable track. The plantation railroad equipment con-sits of six 25-ton steam locomotives, one 17-ton steam locomotive, one 12-ton steam locomotive, one 12-ton gasoline locomotive, and one 14-ton diesel locomotive, 200 steel cane cars measuring approximately 11 feet iby 6 feet by 5 feet, and 512 wooden cane cars measuring approximately 10 feet by 6 feet by 5 feet. For the functioning of this railroad system, plaintiff maintains a roundhouse, employs section men to maintain the main line trackage, employs 10 crossing watchmen to protect the public at government road crossings, employs workers to spray the railroad rights-of-way with a herbicide, employs workers who together with field men pick up cane spilled along the railroad rights-of-way, and employs personnel to operate the trains. Six to nine train crews, with an average of seven, are required daily to handle cane and incoming and outgoing freight. A train crew consists of four men, including a locomotive engineer, a fireman, a front brakeman and a rear brakeman. A cane train averages at least 60 cars, though this number sometimes goes up to 80 or even 90 cars. Working in the roundhouse are a hostler and an engine wiper, who wash the locomotives and steam boilers, oil and grease the locomotives, fire and steam the locomotives preparatory to the day’s operations, and assist in minor repairs to locomotives. During the off-season, when cane is neither being harvested nor processed, the section men, supplemented by approximately 12 brakemen and 5 firemen, are used in repair and maintenance of main line trackage. Watchmen are used for cleaning and weeding the rights-of-way. Usually one locomotive engineer, two firemen, and three brakemen are assigned to assist the electricians on mill work primarily. One fireman and two brakemen are generally assigned to the welding shop to assist in off-season factory repairs and installation of new equipment. Two more brakemen are sometimes assigned to repair work in the boiling house. One yard engine crew, consisting of an engineer and several brakemen for the diesel locomotive, is maintained during the off-season. Locomotive engineers not otherwise used assist in locomotive repairs. Mill Operations. At its mill, plaintiff processes cane into raw sugar and molasses. Raw sugar is there bagged for shipment to the C & H refinery at Crockett, California. Molasses is either loaded for shipment to the continental United States, or stored temporarily in molasses tanks. Bagged sugar and molasses were loaded into railroad box and tank cars of the Oahu Railroad & Land Company, a carrier, which then proceeded with the transportation of these commodities to points of shipment for the mainland. The term “mill” means the building and equipment of plaintiff used in the actual processing of sugar cane into raw sugar. This includes a cane-cleaning plant and scales, mill carrier, crushing plant, boiling house, fire-room, power plant, sugar warehouse, molasses tank, and all equipment located therein. Mill operations commence when loaded cane cars are delivered by locomotive on the plaintiff’s main railroad, to the mill yard and moved up to the mill. Here the cane is weighed, unloaded, washed, and as much trash is removed as is mechanically possible. These operations take place in the cane-cleaning plant. After being cleaned, the cane is moved by mill carrier to the crushing plant, is there crushed, and the juices extracted. Sugar juices are then clarified and crystallized in the boiling house. The chief product, which is raw sugar, is then bagged and shipped, or temporarily stored and later shipped. Molasses is pumped into a storage tank at the mill, and later shipped. The cane fiber which remains after the extraction of the juice from the cane stalk is known as bagasse. It serves as an economical source of fuel for the production of power. Bagasse produced at this plantation has no marketable value, but is burned in the fire-room, located in the mill, and produces steam. This in turn is used to drive the mill engines and cane processing equipment, to heat and evaporate sugar juice and crystallize the raw sugar, and to generate electric power at the mill’s power plant. Steam used for the latter purpose, after passing through generating machinery, is conveyed through lines for further use in processing operations. The power plant generates electric power. This, however, supplies only about two-thirds of the power needed by plaintiff, so it purchases one-third of the power used by it from the Hawaiian Electric Company, Ltd., an independently owned and operated public utility. There are times when plaintiff’s power system generates more power than it has need of. Because of an existing tie-in between its power system and that of Hawaiian Electric Company, on rare occasions plaintiff feeds back power into the system of Hawaiian Electric. Credit for such power is given to plaintiff in the same manner as though a sale had occurred. Power generated by plaintiff, as well as that purchased by it, is distributed by transmission lines to all the various operations on the plantation, and also to several non-plantation users living in the plantation community. The total amount of power used by non-plantation users is about one-half of one per cent of all the power distributed by plaintiff. None of it is used for or in connection with the production of goods for commerce, or to operate any instrumentalities of interstate commerce, or transmitted into interstate commerce. In the off-season, when the steam and electric power equipment in the mill are overhauled, plaintiff generates no electric power, purchasing all the power it needs from the Hawaiian Electric Company. Weekend Shutdown in the Mill. Production in the mill operations is keyed basically to a 6 day week with continuous and around-the-clock operations divided into three 8-hour shifts. The mill stops grinding cane at 2 p. m. Saturday and starts up at the same time on Sunday. The cessation of grinding operations on Saturday does not, however, result in the stopping of all mill operations. As shown later, in the descriptions of work performed by various defendants, the weekend shutdown period does not extend for 24 hours in regard to the boiling house, the fireroom. and the operations of the power plant. The weekly shutdown for mill operations is necessary to perform cleaning and minor repair work. Off-Season. Although sugar cane can be and is grown the year round in the Territory of Hawaii, efficiency of operations dictates the closing down annually of sugar mills so that extensive general repairs, reconditioning, and installation of improvements can be had. That part of the year when the mill is shut down for repairs is termed the “off-season”. While the off-season usually lasts 3-5 months, in the period covered by this litigation it extended only from December 22, 1946, to and including February 9, 1947. During the off-season, plaintiff conducts no harvesting, cane transportation, or cane processing operations. Field operations continue. Most of the off-season repair work in the mill is done by employees who, during the grinding season, operate the mill machinery. However, some of this repair work is done by employees of the machine shop, welding shop, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, and electric shop. Just as many man-days of work are performed during each 24-hour period in the mill during the off-season as during the grinding season. Repair and Service Shops. Both field and mill operations necessitate the equipping and maintaining of complete service shops for prompt minor repairs and emergency work and major overhaul. Plaintiff operates and maintains a number of repair and service shops which are physically distinct from the mill, housed in separate buildings, and located in an area extending up to 300 feet from the mill building. These shops employ upwards of 100 men, plus necessary foremen and supervisors. These shops are: machine shop, welding shop, blacksmith shop, tinsmith shop, caneloading machine repair shop, tractor repair. shop, garage, electric shop, carpenter shop, paint shop, plumbing shop, and roundhouse. 1. Machine Shop. The machine shop is staffed by 8 employees working under supervision of a machine shop foreman. Practically all of plaintiff’s machining work, except heavy work required by the mill, railroad and shops, is done in the machine shop. The grinding of crankshafts for cars, trucks, tractors, and cranes, the machining of emergency parts for such equipment, and machine work on irrigation pumps are performed in this shop. Major locomotive repairs are made by machine shop personnel working with a heavy crane in the welding shop. Approximately 46% of all machine shop work is for the mill, and 50% for other service departments, including repairs to steam engine driven irrigation pumps. During the off-season, mill work done by the machine shop accounts for from 85% to 90% of the total man hours’ work performed. Work in the machine shop is fairly uniform throughout the year, with peaks in cases of emergency mill repairs and during the mill off-season. Locomotive overhaul is carried out to a limited extent during the grinding season to relieve machine shop off-season work. Steam engine driven water pumps are scheduled for overhaul after the mill overhaul has been completed and after grinding operations are resumed. A large portion of the work done by the machine shop personnel is performed within the shop, utilizing shop tools. These tools include lathes, hydraulic press, drill press, planer, boring machine and crankshaft grinder. From time to time machine shop personnel are called into the mill to perform repairs, regrooving of mill rolls, and such other work as cannot be expeditiously handled by mill workers. 2. Welding Shop. This shop employs 5 men under supervision of a welding shop foreman. About 46% of its work is for the mill. In the off-season, welding shop work for the mill represents approximately 90% or more of the total man-hours. Most of the welding repairs to mill equipment are made in the shop, although personnel are sometimes dispatched to the point of breakdown. Steel cane car repairs are made alongside the shop building by the shop personnel. Welding shop employees also operate pipe rolls located in the pipe rolling shed. The pipe which is rolled is generally irrigation pipe 18 inches in diameter or larger. Welding of this pipe is performed by the shop welders. In this work the welding shop employees are assisted by employees from the blacksmith shop or caneloading machine repair shop. Welding shop equipment consists of heavy pipe rolls, several sets of acetylene and cutting outfits, acetylene generators, and both stationary and portable welding generators. 3. Blacksmith Shop. This shop employs 2 blacksmiths and 2 helpers under supervision of the caneloading machine repair shop foreman. About two days each week are spent by the blacksmiths and helpers on mill work, consisting principally of constructing and reconditioning of cane carrier leveling and preparation knives. Cane car repair work, such as straightening of bars and channels, and repair o £ tractors and caneloaders, and field implement work, occupy the great percentage of the man-hours in the shop. The work of this shop is uniform throughout the year. Equipment in this shop includes 2 forges, an electrically operated hammer, and a variety of small tools. 4. Tinsmith Shop. This shop employs a tinsmith journeyman and 2 helpers. Mill repair work here is negligible, although light sheet steel work, including maintenance and repair of roof gutters and down pipes, is performed by the shop personnel. Repairs of auto, truck, tractor and caneloader radiators are performed by the shop personnel. The main work of this shop is the making and reconditioning of tin irrigation scoops. These scoops are used in quantity in the field for the purpose of deflecting water from concrete irrigation flumes to field irrigation lines. 5. Caneloading Machine Repair Shop. Twelve employees and a foreman work here. They perform all major repairs and overhaul of caneloaders, grabs and miscellaneous field equipment. Men from this shop are occasionally called upon to assist in emergency mill repairs. They also go into the field to repair caneloading machines during the course of harvesting operations. An important function of this shop is the construction of auxiliary field equipment, such as sub-soilers used in plowing, cane line reshapers used to maintain irrigation water lines in the field, and portable track line leveler attachments used in leveling the lines for laying portable tracks. Repairs on such auxiliary field equipment are also made in this shop, with assistance from personnel of the tractor repair shop. In the off-season, at least 8 of the 9 cane-loading machines are completely dismantled and reconditioned. The 9th machine is reconditioned after harvesting has been resumed. In the off-season, 10 to 12 operators of caneloading machines are brought in to supplement the regular employees of this shop, and to assist in overhaul. Five cane grabs are overhauled and, reconditioned during the off-season, and all other cane grabs are repaired. During the harvesting season, 3 new cane grabs are usually built. Equipment in this shop includes 4 portable welding generators, and 3 portable welding generators mounted on trucks for field repairs. A hydraulic press, overhead crane, motor-driven grinders and a variety of small tools complete the shop equipment. Four welders in the shop take care of welding repairs in the field, and repairs to, and building of, new field equipment. 6. Tractor Repair Shop. Seven employees normally work here, but in the off-season this number is supplemented by 12 to 13 tractor operators who are brought into the shop from the fields, to assist in repairs. All tractors used in the harvesting field are overhauled in this shop during the off-season. Tractors used for towing cane line reshapers are also overhauled during the off-season. Other tractors which cannot be overhauled during the off-season are scheduled for overhaul at a later date. This may mean that 6 or 7 out of a total of 48 tractors are left for operating season overhaul. Tractor engines are overhauled at regular periods. Employees of this shop are sometimes dispatched for repair of tractors in the 'fields. They also assist in repair of field implements in the caneloading machine repair shop. 7. Garage. Personnel employed here numbers 24. Primarily work of the garage is to maintain and keep in repair plaintiff’s 98 motor vehicles, consisting of 18 passenger vehicles, 48 pick-up trucks up to one ton, 27 heavy trucks from 1-% to 7 tons, 1 motorcycle, 2 fire trucks, and 2 panel trucks. Sixty-four ■of these vehicles are assigned to operations in the fields, 12 to the repair and service shops, 1 to the mill, 1 to the hospital, 2 to the plaintiff’s retail store, 7 for administration, 2 are fire trucks, and 9 to the motor pool. Overhaul of cars and trucks is scheduled throughout the year, except that pick-up trucks used by the harvesting men are overhauled during the off-season. Truck drivers are not used to assist in truck or auto repairs, since there is generally a spare truck to drive when others are being repaired. All such work is performed by the garage mechanics. Shop equipment consists of 4 overhead cranes, a hoist, valve grinding machine, brake drum lathe, boring machine, tire tools, and a variety of special tools. Complete servicing equipment is also maintained, together with necessary personnel. Seven full-time employees and one part-time employee perform the lubricating and washing of vehicles. One employee dispenses gas and oil at the yard service station. Six persons are employed as helpers to garage mechanics when there is no service work. Field service covers the daily lubrication of all equipment and the replenishing of fuel tanks. Tractors, cane-loading machines, portable air compressor, diesel and gasoline locomotives, and all field equipment are serviced daily by a total of 6 men. Two completely equipped service trucks manned by 2 men each service all field equipment, except that in the harvesting fields. In the latter case, a two-wheel trailer, tractor-drawn, is kept in each of the two harvesting fields. Oil, gasoline, diesel oil, greases and water are carried on the trailer together with power-operated grease guns. One man assigned to each trailer services the cranes and tractors in the harvesting fields. In this way service work can be done during lunch hour and slack periods without serious interference with harvesting operations. 8. Electric Shop. Fifteen employees work in this shop. Three of these are mill electricians who divide their time between the mill and the shop, working two weeks in the former, then one week in the latter. The shop maintains electric pumps and transmission lines and performs domestic wiring repairs, including wiring of houses, and the building of new electrical appliances. Employees of this shop perform necessary work on electrical machines located in the other shops. In addition to mill repair work done by the employees assigned as electricians to the mill, electric shop personnel may assist them in case of major electrical repairs required. About half of the work in this shop is for the mill. During the off-season, about 70% of the work is for the mill. 9. Carpenter Shop. Twenty-five carpenters and two supervisors comprise this shop’s personnel. They perform all carpenter work on the plantation, which includes construction of mill scaffoldings, construction and maintenance of railroad trestles and wooden gates for flumes, and construction and maintenance of cane cars. In addition, they perform necessary maintenance work on the plantation buildings and houses. They also install and maintain steel and concrete pipe lines and siphons. Miscellaneous construction, such as construction of tool lockers, scrapers and strainers, is performed in this shop. Field work, including work on the flumes, railroad trestles, siphons and pipe lines, accounts for about 25% of the work of the employees. Mill scaffoldings and mill building repairs, construction of tool lockers, scrapers and strainers, account for another 10%. Maintenance and repair of plaintiff’s buildings and housing account for another 45%. The remaining 20% of the work consists of construction and repair of cane cars. The work is uniform throughout the year, with little change between grinding season and off-season. During the off-season, additional men averaging from 10 to 15 may be brought in from the fields to assist in cane car overhauling and general carpentry work. 10. Paint Shop. Here are employed 5 painters and a supervisor. They perform all painting work on plaintiff’s buildings, including housing, and they also occasionally paint siphons and railroad trestles. As a general rule, they do not paint for the mill, this work being done by mill employees. Most of the time of the paint shop crew is devoted to painting of plantation buildings and housing throughout the year. During the off-season, an average of two additional employees brought in from the fields may assist in the work of this shop. 11. Plumbing Shop. Six plumbers and one supervisor work here. They perform all plumbing work on the plantation, including the construction and maintenance of sewer and water systems and plumbing for buildings and housing. Approximately 10% of the time is devoted to mill plumbing work, 15% to field work and the remainder to buildings and housing. Assignments vary little throughout the year. During the off-season, an average of two field employees may be assigned to the plumbing shop as helpers. 12. Roundhouse. Reference to the roundhouse has already been made. It regularly employs two men in the shop, who perform the servicing, cleaning and firing of plaintiff’s locomotives. Additional employees are occasionally assigned to this shop to assist in minor locomotive repairs. Laboratory. In a separate building, plaintiff operates a laboratory. Various chemical tests are made by the laboratory personnel in the course of all field and mill operations. This work is performed under the supervision of a chief chemist with the assistance of 13 chemists, testers and samplers. By performing careful analysis of various kinds relative to the cane and materials in the course of growing, cultivating and harvesting of cane, and the extraction of the sugar juices, all operations are controlled pursuant to scientific methods. Determinations of the cane fiber in each field, or variety of cane, are made during each shift. Figures obtained are used in calculating bagasse weights, field distribution and extraction percentages. Cane leaf analysis is made from samples of cane tops brought in each day and analyzed for green weight mixture, total sugars, nitrogen, potash and phosphate. Daily tests are made for a variety of other purposes. Tests are made to determine the amount of field trash in harvesting brought to the mill. Continuous samples are taken from the feed roller of the first mill each hour, and also at each change of harvesting, and records of ratios of cane to available sugar are obtained. Extracted juices are sampled to determine the sugar obtained from cane by the milling process. Extracted juices are used to calculate the weight of bagasse. Every three hours samples from clarified juice are taken, to reveal the relative amount of solids being removed by the lime and heat treatment of juices. Purity of syrup is checked. Samples of bagasse are taken every two^ hours, and ash determinations are also made twice daily, to détermine the influence of different fields on the fireroom. Mixtures of sugar and molasses are tested to determine the amount of sugar lost in the filter cake. Tests are also made of the mill boiler water, locomotive boiler water, steam pump boiler water, and pump water. Pump water from electric pumps and well water are sampled once each month. Wash water from the cleaning plant and condenser water are also analyzed each shift Concrete Products Plant. In a separate building, plaintiff operates its own concrete products plant. Six men ordinarily staff it, although the number varies from 4 to 10. Work is usually performed on a single shift basis, but occasionally two shifts are maintained. This plant is engaged primarily in producing concrete irrigation flumes and water supply pipe. It also makes blocks, footings, sidewalk slabs and various other incidental concrete products required by the plantation. •Crushed rock used in the manufacturing process is purchased locally, but from 80% to 90% of all cement used is obtained from the continental United States. The work consists of setting up forms, mixing and pouring concrete, removing the previous day’s products and arranging them in storage. Cement used is stored in cars which, are set on the siding near the plant, or the cement is stored in the cement shed as part of the inventory of general supplies warehousing. In the latter case, unloading of cement is done by the warehouse personnel. Various activities requiring the flumes, pipe and other products receive them direct .from the storage area where the products are stored. The operations do not have any off-season. During the off-season, however, additional personnel may be brought in from the fields. In 1946, the plant produced approximately 46,000 concrete pieces, including flume sections, pipe and other products. Storage of Supplies. Materials and supplies purchased for plantation operations are warehoused or stored in several separate buildings located in the plantation buildings and yard area. Value of supplies on hand averages $500,000. The total value of goods procured during a year, including stock and special order materials, averages over $1,000,000. Most of the materials received were shipped to the plantation from Honolulu on the O. R. & L. Purchases may be either local or by order and direct shipment from continental United States. Freight received is placed in the proper warehouses by the warehousing personnel. In almost all cases railroad sidings permitted placement of the O.' R. & L. cars next to the warehouse receiving the materials. The warehousing personnel is not responsible for, nor does it engage in, delivering materials to the various operations or shops. The principal buildings in which the supplies and materials of the plantation are stored are the general supplies warehouse and the heavy supplies warehouse. They house electrical goods, building hardware, paints, window screening, tractor and caneloading repair parts, copper tubing, pipe stock, metal shapes stock, galvanized sheeting, steel sheets and many other items. The oil storage warehouse contains lubricants and a limited amount of paint. Gasoline, fuel oil, diesel oil and kerosene were discharged directly from the O. R. & L. tank cars into storage tanks. Most of the automotive parts and tractor, caneloading and miscellaneous parts are stored in the garage. Cement is stored in a separate warehouse. Lime is stored in the mill in the lime room after being unloaded by ware-housemen. Lumber is stored in the open lumber yard adjoining the general supplies warehouse. Herbicides are also stored there. Fertilizers are usually trucked directly from railroad cars to the field as needed; but if temporary storage is required, they are placed in the sugar warehouse. The warehousing operations are handled as one unit under a warehouse superintendent with 13 employees. Five clerks perform the bookkeeping and handle accounts. The remainder of the warehouse personnel is employed in the unloading and storing of stocks and materials, keeping stock record cards and taking inventory. Main Administration Office. The main administration office is located about 1500 feet from plaintiff’s buildings and yard area. The manager, assistant manager, and staff assistants have their offices here. Employees include the cashier, bookkeeper, head timekeeper, 6 assistant timekeepers, 8 clerks, 5 stenographers and typists — a total of 22 employees working under the office manager and his assistant. Four timekeepers keep the time of the field employees; 2 keep the time of the shop, store, mill, hospital and village maintenance employees. These offices are where payroll records are maintained, and salaries and services paid. Also housed in this building are the offices of the civil engineer, one assistant surveyor, 2 junior surveyors, and 2 rod-men, who work alternately in the field and in the office. There is also a draftsman employed in this office. The agriculturist and industrial relations sections are also located in the same building. Stables. The plantation has one main stable near the plantation buildings and yard area. It uses 38 horses and mules. Horses are used by the harvesting overseer to ride in the fields. Pack mules are used upon occasion to pack seed, fertilizer, broken concrete flumes and other things in and out of the cane fields. The plantation has several feeding stations for horses and mules where they are kept temporarily while work is being performed in a particular area. Three employees are assigned to the work of the stables. Firewood. Plaintiff maintains a splitting station in the mill yard. This is equipped with saw and splitting machinery generated by electric power. Firewood, cut by plaintiff’s employees at various places on the plantation, is brought to the station to be sawed and split into pieces of appropriate sizes. The uses of such firewood are: sale of firewood to employees and pensioners, for cooking and heating purposes; for heating water at the village bathhouses; and for starting small boilers and heating walls within the furnaces and pumps used to supply water for irrigating cane fields and for domestic and other uses in plantation villages. Macadamia Nut Trees. Macadamia nut groves are operated by plaintiff in an area approximating 121 acres. Such area is not suitable for sugar cane. During the period covered by this litigation, the trees had not yet reached maturity and no nuts were harvested. A nursery for cultivation of young macadamia trees is maintained on the plantation. Plantation Villages. At the time plaintiff was originally organized, there was no established community housing, or other facilities, in or near the area which plaintiff proposed to devote to the production and processing of cane. To establish a stable labor supply and house it at places convenient to plaintiff’s purpose, plaintiff undertook to create a community, and to supply housing and other necessary services and facilities for its employees. Plaintiff constructed houses, developed services, and built up and established various facilities to serve the needs of permanent living, in plantation villages, of its required number of employees and their families. This was done over a period of years, resulting in the development of Waialua village and several small villages. Waialua village has all the physical and visual characteristics of an established community and is similar to a typical small town of a farming community center. The area is crisscrossed with government roads and roads constructed and maintained by plaintiff. The community offers the usual services and typical commercial establishments to be found in any small town. There is a company store, or retail store, with two branches; an automotive service station; and a hospital. These are owned and operated by plaintiff for plantation employees and their families and non-plantation persons. Plaintiff also built in this area two gymnasiums, one clubhouse, one athletic field, one beachhouse, one swimming pool, and two tennis courts, which are available to an athletic association, membprship of which is composed both of plaintiff’s employees and others in the community. Additional services and establishments located in the community, which are independently operated, include ten general stores, two restaurants, two fish markets, one candy store, one hardware store, one clothing store, four barber shops, one beauty shop, one photographic studio, two automotive service stations, two motion picture theaters, and one bank. “It must be remembered that the whole plantation area, including the town, is owned by the plantation company, and although there are frequently many shops, such as drug stores, tailor shops, shoemaker shops and the like, that are privately operated, they rent their sites from the plantation and can remain only as long as the plantation permits them to do so. Anyone on any part of the plantation is a trespasser unless he has the permission of the management to be there. * * *” (Def.Ex. 3A, p. 71.) Also located in the village are a post office, public library, five churches, one intermediate school, one high school, and one day-care center operated by the territorial school system. For many years, plaintiff’s employees occupied plaintiff’s dwellings pursuant to a system of perquisites. Under this system, employees received housing, housing maintenance, water, firewood and kerosene fuel, electricity, medical care, recreational facilities and various maintenance services, including garbage disposal and street cleaning, as a part of their regular compensation as employees of plaintiff. This system was abolished by an agreement dated November 19, 1946, between plaintiff and the International Longshoremen’s and Ware-housemen’s Union, Local No. 145-7, which acted as collective bargaining representative for most of plaintiff’s non-supervisory employees. As part of the change thus inaugurated, the value of the perquisites previously allowed to employees was converted, at scheduled rates, into cash wages to he paid by plaintiff by way of wage increase, and thenceforth the employees commenced to pay cash, at scheduled rates, as non-employees do, for the continued furnishing by plaintiff of the aforementioned facilities and services, except that no-charge, either to employees or others, was designated for garbage collection, sewage disposal, fire protection, maintenance and. cleaning of village roads and similar village services, which continued to be provided by plaintiff. Neither was any charge designated for continued use of parks, playgrounds, plaintiff’s clubhouse and gymnasium and recreational facilities generally.. An undisclosed number of plaintiff’s dwelling houses are not equipped with tub- or shower facilities. For the inhabitants-thereof, plaintiff maintains bathhouses. From November 20, 1946, when perquisites-were terminated, until April 30, 1947, no-charge was made for use of the bathhouse,, except as this was included in the rent paid by employees for the dwelling houses. Commencing May 1, 1947, and throughout the balance of the period covered by this-litigation, plaintiff instituted a system of' charges for use of the bathhouses: 500-per family per month, and 250 per month, in the case of a single man without dependents. At the present time, the dwelling houses owned by plaintiff number 820, all located: on the plantation. Most of them surround-the buildings and yard area located near the mill. These houses, together with the-business establishments of the community,, constitute the village of Waialua. There-are 335 houses which are scattered over the plantation, but these too are located in, clusters and form small villages. No employee covered by the existing collective bargaining agreement, including-each employee defendant herein, is required as a condition of employment to-live on the plantation or in plantation houses or to use any service or facility that' the plantation may be in a position to render its employees. The relationship that-exists between the plantation and its employees who live in plantation houses is-that of landlord and tenant. However, of' the total number of 959 non-supervisory-employees of plaintiff, only 16 live off the-plantation in houses not supplied or owned by plaintiff. The remaining employees and-' pensioners, together with their families, an aggregate of 2952 persons, all inhabit dwellings owned by plaintiff and generally located in Waialua village, or one of the other plantation villages owned by plaintiff. Plaintiff also rents to non-employees, totaling 421, dwellings not occupied by employees of plaintiff. Some of these persons work off the plantation altogether; others are persons who own, operate or are employed in the independently controlled businesses located in plaintiff’s plantation villages. The relationship between an individual’s employment with plaintiff, and his occupation of a company-owned house, is shown, as testified to by 22 of the defendants, in the following tabulation: Plaintiff has established a fire protection system at the village of Waialua, and as part of that system operates two fire trucks. It also maintains fire hydrants in and about the village, the mill, various buildings in the yard area, and at various other locations. There is a cemetery, 'located on plaintiff’s property, for its employees and their families. Prior to the abolition of the perquisite system, employees of plaintiff performed the work of maintaining and keeping in proper repair the dwelling houses owned by plaintiff, and the village area, and in supplying the usual services necessary to the operations of a community. This has continued without change. Under the mentioned collective bargaining agreement, plaintiff expressly undertakes to provide dwelling maintenance and repairs, and village services; and in this connection, not “to make housing a profit-making venture, as such.” Organization of Plaintiff’s' Plantation. At all times involved herein, plaintiff has been a member of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA), an organ-, ization of Hawaiian sugar-producing plantations. The association publishes a manual, ■ portions of which were received in evidence as Defendants’ Exhibit 2. Major enterprises of the association, as set forth in this manual, are quoted in a publication of the United States Department of Labor, entitled “The Economy of Hawaii in 1947”, Bulletin No. 926, prepared and transmitted to the Congress of the United States pursuant to a requirement contained in the Organic Law of the Territory of Hawaii, 1900, as amended April 8, 1904, 33 Stat. 164, 29 U.S.C.A. § 7. A copy of the publication was received in evidence as Defendants’ Exhibit 3B. An earlier report of the Department of Labor, also rendered pursuant to the provisions of the Organic Law of the Territory, was published under the title, “Labor in the Territory of Hawaii — 1939”, Bulletin No. 687, House Document 848, 76th Cong., 3rd Sess. A copy of this report was received in evidence as Defendants’ Exhibit 3A. As described in the manual issued by HSPA, its functions are these: “The Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association is an organization o.f plantations and individuals united for the purpose of cooperative improvement of the island sugar industry as a whole * * * The association’s major enterprises are divided into the following departments: Experiment station, bureau of labor and statistics, labor saving devices committee, boiler inspection committee, public relations committee, labor relations committee, legislative committee. “The association acts 'as a clearinghouse for all activities of the industry, making possible the freest and quickest interchange of information among the plantation executives. It maintains an office in Washington, D. C., which handles all relations of the Hawaiian sugar industry with Government departments and the Congress.” (Def. Ex. 3B, pp. 34-35.) . This statement of the functions of HSPA is supplemented as follows: “The plantations are organized in an association which has planned for the Hawaiian sugar industries as a whole and which has developed the whole framework of economic relations necessary to their existence on an industry-wide basis, including shipping, the purchase of fertilizer, equipment and other supplies, the development of • mainland refineries and markets, the supervision of management labor policies, the maintenance of research laboratories and the formulation of common programs of action for combating plant diseases, insect pests, and soil problems.” (Def. Ex. 3B, p. 33.) A further aspect of plaintiff’s organization is found in its relationship to Castle & ■Cooke, Ltd., an agency or factor with which it is connected (Def. Ex. 2). Concerning the relationship that exists between plantation and factor, the HSPA manual declares as follows: “While each of the 36 plantations in the Hawaiian Islands is a corporate entity, all their affairs, except the actual operation of sugar growing, are centralized in what are known as factors, general agents offering a multitude of services to their clients. There are five principal factors : Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd., American Factors, Ltd., C. Brewer Co., Ltd., Castle & Cooke, Ltd., T. H. Davies & Co., Ltd.” (Def. Ex. 3B, p. 35.) The functions of the factors are summarized as follows in the HSPA manual: “Financial. — All fiscal matters of the plantations are handled by specialists in the offices of the factors. Moneys are received and disbursed, tax, statements prepared, water and land rents paid or received, surpluses invested, or deficits advanced. “Experimental. — Engineers and other technicians are constantly seeking ways to improve the output of the various client plantations. “Shipping. — All the multitudinous detail of shipping huge quantities, of sugar by water to the mainland is in the hands of the factors. “Merchandising. — Through their mainland buyers, the factors provide a steady flow of needed merchandise to plantation stores and to the plantations themselves.. Because of the size of their operation, everything a plantation and its personnel need is provided at a minimum cost.” (Def. Ex. 2.) The significance of the factor system is stated as follows: “The long-run result of the agency system was thus to deprive the plantations of their independence and to transfer control to the factors, a control which has been further unified by the coordination of policies and planning in the central offices of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association.” (Def. Ex. 3B, p. 35.) These developments, as well as many other aspects of plaintiff’s operations, would seem to be unique to the Territory of Hawaii. “In the sugar-producing areas of Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and Philippines, and the sugar beet States, a farming system had been established before the development of the sugar industry. As the farmers in those areas already owned the land, sugar production grew along the lines of the established farming system. “The Hawaiian sugar industry, on the contrary, began on land which was undeveloped. * * * The land tenure system in Hawaii is different from that in any other part of the United States. It is a complex outgrowth of the feudal system which existed before annexation, under native Hawaiian royalty.” (Def. Ex. 3B, pp. 32-33.) The typical Hawaiian sugar plantation has been described as a “small world in itself” (Def. Ex. 3A, p. 70), whose “structural organization and functioning * * is not unlike tha