One of the most difficult and important issues of the late
nineteenth involved how to reconcile the needs of both industry and the people
who worked in it. Americans believed in progress, and progress required bigger
and better machinery. At the same time, real people suffered at the hands of
new industrial methods when technology made living and working conditions
unbearable.
Your task is to try, in civil court, the following case.
Keep in mind that all of you are Americans of the late 19th century
– maintain the sense of values and priorities that you think someone of that
time and place would possess.
Billie Holliday v. Pigfoot Dress Shop (1898)
Facts: The
Pigfoot Dress Shop is located on Greene Street, in lower Manhattan. For several
years, it has produced shirts of the highest quality and sold them all over the
country, as far west as California.
In order to
produce these shirts the owners employ about 50 women as cutters, who earn $12
a week, and sewers, who earn $6 a week. The work consists of performing one
task repetitively: cutting a pattern or sewing a particular stitch. The factory
normally is open 11 hours a day, six days a week, although the owners
frequently ask their workers to stay late or come in on Sundays if extra work
needs to be done. Employees are not paid extra for this work, since their
salary is weekly.
Ms.
Holliday, who has worked for Pigfoot as a sewer since 1894, is suing the
company under a New York law requiring a maximum 60 hours of work per week (no
more than 10 hours per day) for all factory workers. After that maximum,
employees may volunteer to work more, but must be paid time-and-a-half for each
extra hour. She asserts that she and her co-workers receive no extra pay for hours
worked over the limit, and that they do not work those hours voluntarily. She
also claims that those extra hours have caused her physical suffering in the
form of chronic back pain, headaches and heat exhaustion. She is requesting
that the court grant an injunction against the company, preventing it from
requiring the extra work. She also is requesting $2,000 in back wages and
punitive damages.
The owners
of the factory argue that the law is a violation of their 14th
Amendment right to liberty of contracts, and point to the precedent of Allgeyer v. Louisiana.
It is expected that attorneys and witnesses will
supplement these basic facts with research on typical conditions and
circumstances of late-nineteenth-century labor. All outside research must
be properly cited, using footnote format. AT LEAST ONE SOURCE CITED HERE
MUST BE A BOOK OTHER THAN A REFERENCE WORK. Attorneys’ papers missing this
research will not be accepted.
Due on the day of the
trial is a 2-page typed essay for everyone. Groups may work together, but
each person must submit her own, unique essay. Attorneys must make their
arguments, outlining the constitutional questions and explaining why the court
ought to rule in favor of their clients. Witnesses must describe their
circumstances and show how they fit into typical conditions of the times. Judges
must outline the basic constitutional issues, the relevant court precedents,
and the arguments each side ought to make. (No extra research is required for
these essays.)
There will be two witnesses in the trial:
Billie
Holliday
John B.
Farrow – owner of the factory
In the trial:
1) Groups will meet
for 10 minutes
2) Each pair of attorneys will deliver opening arguments. (Minimum 3 minutes, maximum 4 minutes. Speeches of less than 3 minutes
will receive failing grades)
3) Attorneys will
question Holliday. (Cross examination will be permitted.)
4) Attorneys will
question Farrow (Cross examination will be permitted)
5) Attorneys will
make closing arguments (Minimum 2
minutes)
6) Judges will
question attorneys
7) Judges will meet
in conference. Judges will be graded for their grasp of the arguments, the
clarity of their positions in conference, and their questions of attorneys.
