Oppenheimer v. Sunkist Growers

153 Cal.App.2d Supp. 897 (1957) JOHN G. OPPENHEIMER, Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

SUNKIST GROWERS, INC. (a Corporation), Defendant and Appellant.

California Court of Appeals.

Aug. 20, 1957. John G. Oppenheimer, in pro. per., for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Farrand, Fisher & Farrand for Defendant and Appellant. [153 Cal.App.2d Supp. 898]

SWAIN, J.

The plaintiff voluntarily and without prior notice quit his oral employment with the defendant at 8 a. m. on June 8, 1956. The wages then admittedly earned were not paid him until June 14. Because the amount then paid did not include the penalties that had accrued, the trial court concluded that the "wages" continued, and gave plaintiff judgment on the theory that he was entitled to be paid for 20 days. The plaintiff appealed from that portion of the judgment that limited his basic recovery to 20 days. The defendant appealed from that portion of the judgment that allowed recovery in excess of $36 (three times the daily wage) and as we agree that the penalties ceased when the earned wages were paid, we are modifying the judgment, by reducing it.

Section 202 of the Labor Code declares that if an employee, not employed under a written contract, for a definite period, quits his job, without prior warning, "his wages shall become due and payable not later than seventy-two hours thereafter." Section 203 of the same code provides: "If an employer wilfully fails to pay, without abatement or reduction, in accordance with sections 201 and 202, any wages of an employee who is discharged or who quits, the wages of such employees shall continue as a penalty from the due date thereof at the same rate until paid or until an action therefor is commenced; but such wages shall not continue for more than thirty days. No employee who secretes or absents himself to avoid payment to him, or who refuses to receive the payment when fully tendered to him, including any penalty then accrued under this section, shall be entitled to any benefit under this section for the time during which he so avoids payment."

"Suit may be filed for such penalties at any time before the expiration of the statute of limitations on an action for the wages from which the penalties arise."

[1] On June 14, 1956, plaintiff was entitled not only to his earned wages then due but also to penalty wages for three days at the rate of $12 per day. (Defendant admits that penalty wages in the sum of $36 for that period were and are due so we shall not concern ourselves with the problem of making deductions from that sum for income tax or social security.) The plaintiff claims that inasmuch as the penalty wages then due were not paid when the earned wages were paid, the penalty wages continued for 30 days from the due date. We do not agree. The purpose of the above sections of the Labor Code is to compel the prompt payment of earned [153 Cal.App.2d Supp. 899] wages. Such a statute is to be strictly construed and it should not be extended to provide for penalty wages after the earned wages have been paid.