Santana v. Blasco
Santana v. Blasco
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a complaint involving wages accrued and unpaid, wherein by stipulation of the parties the following facts were established: Plaintiff used to work two days a week as ■chauffeur and four days a week as a laborer on a chicken .and pig farm of the defendant; defendant sold the chickens .and pigs raised on his farm to several business establishments
It is clear to us that the defendant cannot be considered as a merchant in.the usual and regular connotation, of this term. The three classical branches of economy are agriculture, industry, and trade: the first, which deals with the cultivation of natural fruits; the second, with the manufacture of processed products; the third, with the distribution of the objects of commerce in their natural as well as in their processed form. Each one has its own economic circle and should have diverse estimations founded on the different nature of its traditional work. The first point to-be established is the generic classification of the work which produces the wealth within the traditional forms of economy. The second is the nature of such wealth or economic object produced by the work; the third is its individualization within the systems of profit recognized by mercantile speculation. We have deliberately ruled out everything concerning “services” in order to be able to use the classical criterion in its most simple and comprehensive form.
There is no question that an aviculturist is habitually engaged in the work of obtaining natural fruits. Therefore, generically speaking, an aviculturist is a farmer. The economic wealth which he extracts from nature retains its- natu
The criterion which seems to prevail in the scientific regulation of wages is the same. Section 203 (f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (52 Stat. 1060) defines agriculture as follows: “ ‘Agriculture’ includes farming in all its branches and among other things includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities (including commodities defined as agricultural comodities in § 15(g) of the Agricultural Marketing Act, as amended), the raising of livestock, bees, furbearing animals, or poultry, and any practices (including any forestry or lumbering operations) performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparation for market, delivery to storage, or to market or to carriers for transportation to market.” 29 U.S.C.A. 15, § 203 (f). See, also, R. L. Cohen, Economía de la Agricultura, p.. 29 (1942 ed. by Fondo de Cultura Económica.) By analogy, see Maneja v. Waialua Agricultural Co., Ltd., 349 U. S. 254 (Clark) (1955).
We have scrutinized the Findings of Fact, Opinion, and Mandatory Decree No. 16 which is applicable to wholesale trade in Puerto Rico, prepared by the Minimum Wage Board, and we believe it was not the Board’s intention to make a different specialization of tasks from those traditionally sanctioned by long-established economy. The term “wholesale trade” is used in its usual and ordinary sense: “Sale of goods to retailers, to mercantile establishments, or to other wholesalers.”
The judgment appealed from will be reversed and the case remanded to the San Juan Part of the Superior Court of Puerto Rico for decision, based on the application of Act No. 379 of May 15, 1948, and Act No. 289 of April 9, 1946.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.