22 N.W.2d 518 | Wis. | 1946
The plaintiffs are and at all times involved were employees of the defendant doing piecework and paid a specified amount per piece. The defendant deducted from the amount of their pay for pieces rejected by the defendant for "alleged defective or faulty workmanship" and scrapped the pieces. The two *453
named plaintiffs sue to recover the amount so deducted, basing their action on sec.
The defendant by answer or demurrer did not object to the misjoinder of the two named plaintiffs, and so waived that objection. Sec. 263.12, Stats. If the deduction was in violation of the statute each of the named plaintiffs is entitled to recover twice the amount of his deduction. We first determine whether the complaint states a cause of action in favor of the named plaintiffs.
The basic allegations are that since 1938 the defendant company has carried on the practice of making deductions from the' wages of the plaintiffs "for alleged defective or faulty workmanship, without the company and a representative designated by the plaintiffs, first determining that such alleged defective or faulty work is due to the plaintiffs' negligence, carelessness or wilful or intentional conduct;" that such deductions range from fifty cents to $1.50 from each week's pay, and that the exact amount is unknown to these plaintiffs, but that the company has in its possession all the records showing with exactness the deductions from plaintiffs' *454 wages from week to week; and that the defendant has refused to pay the plaintiffs the amount of the deductions. The complaint demands judgment for twice the amounts so withheld.
The case is ruled by Zarnott v. Timken-Detroit Axle Co.
While the Zarnott Case, supra, was brought in behalf of all employees of the defendant, as is the instant one, no point was there raised that this was improper and the matter was not mentioned in the opinion of the court. The instant complaint alleges and the answer categorically denies that the cause of action is one of common or general interest to many persons and the answer asserts that each of the hundred four persons named in the exhibit attached to the complaint has a distinct and individual cause of action, if any exists. The allegation of common interest is made to bring the case within the provision of sec. 260.12, Stats., that "when the question is one of a common or general interest of many persons . . . one or more may sue . . . for the benefit of the whole." We think the case is within the statute, and that the motion was properly denied as to the hundred four persons named in the exhibit. See Marshall v. Wittig,
By the Court. — The order of the circuit court is affirmed.
RECTOR, J., took no part.