UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 94-15878
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
D.C. No. CV-93-20226-RMW
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Hon.
Ronald M. Whyte, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted November 14, 1995--San Francisco, California
Before: William A. Norris, Robert R. Beezer, and Stephen S. Trott, Circuit Judges.
COUNSEL
Richard T. Tarrant, Bartko, Tarrant & Miller, San Francisco, California, for the
plaintiff-appellant.
Paula Wright Coleman, United States Department of Labor, Washington, D.C., for the
defendant-appellee.
Filed February 2, 1996
BEEZER, Circuit Judge:
Garth Conlan appeals the district court's order affirming the final decision
of the Secretary of Labor imposing a civil money penalty of $23,250. Conlan was penalized for
violating the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act ("MSPA"). Conlan
owned a facility and real property that, unbeknownst to him, were used by migrant agricultural
workers as housing. The housing did not comply with federal and state health standards. Conlan
contends that the district court erred in upholding the penalty. We have jurisdiction pursuant to
28 U.S.C. section 1291. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.
I
Garth Conlan owns a ranch of 1500 acres, more or less, in Monterey,
California. Although at one time he farmed the ranch, Conlan discontinued farming in 1984 and
began leasing most of his property to tenant farmers. Conlan occupied a personal residence on
the property.
In the summer of 1988, individuals working for the Monterey County
Planning Department and the Monterey County Health Department discovered that migrant
workers were residing on Conlan's ranch in substandard conditions. Along the eastern border of
the Conlan ranch, migrant workers had established an unauthorized camp consisting of 30 to 50
shelters made of cardboard and plastic sheets. No water system or sewage system served the
camp. Garbage and sewage had accumulated in the area. On the southwest corner of the ranch,
migrant workers were living in a structurally inadequate, dilapidated building (the "duplex").
Farm workers were permitted to live there by Juan Marquez, Jr., one of Conlan's tenant farmers.
Neither the unauthorized camp nor the duplex was visible from Conlan's residence. The county
agencies did not inform Conlan that migrant workers were occupying shelters on the property.
1 Marquez, the tenant farmer who
gave the migrant workers permission to live in the duplex, was not fined because he qualified as
a family farmer and was thus exempt from liability under the MSPA. 29 U.S.C. section
1803(a)(1).
2 We note that section 1853(a)
limits the authorized civil money penalty to "not more than ,000 for each violation." Conlan
has not appealed the calculation of his penalty.