The court granted declaratory judgment and peremptory mandamus to state employee unions, holding that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act requires Pennsylvania to pay wages to state employees performing required work even after appropriation line items are exhausted, with the FLSA preempting state constitutional appropriation requirements via the Supremacy Clause.
Appeal, No. 168, Jan. T., 1895, by plaintiff, from judgment of C. P. Berks Co., Dee. T., 1893, No. 31, for defendant non obstante veredicto. Assumpsit for wages. The facts appear by the opinion of the court below, Eni>lich, J., which was as follows : The peculiar importance of this case consists in the fact that there are about a hundred others pending which will be controlled by the principles decisive of this. At the conclusion of the testimony upon the trial, there being no facts whatever in dispute, a verdict was, by agreement of counsel, directed for plaintiff subject to the opinion of the court upon the questions of law raised by defendant’s points, which were reserved. It may be that some of these points were not technically such as to warrant their reservation, had their form been objected to: see Heany v. Schwartz, 155 Pa. 154. The point, however, alleging that “ there is no evidence in the case showing any liability on the part of the defendant to the plaintiff” was sufficient, under Chandler v. Ins. Co., 88 Pa. 223, and Koons v. Telegraph Co., 102 Pa. 164; and fairly raises every question involved. I confess that I have labored to find some way in which to sustain the verdict consistently with recognized legal principles— appreciating as I do the unfortunate situation, at this time, of the mechanics and workmen who are kept out of the wages of their toil. But I cannot get away from the objection that their rights cannot be worked out in this form of action, whatever remedy there may be presently or hereafter available to them. The facts of the case are as follows: Under authority conferred upon the governor by the act of June 22, 1891, P. L. 379, a commission was appointed to select a site and build an asylum for the accommodation of the chronic insane of the state, the sum of f500,000 being put at the disposal of said commission for the purpose by section 6 of that enactment. A site in the neighborhood of Wernersville, this
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