Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Moore

• Citation: 112 F.2d 959
• Decision Date: 08 August 1940
• Docket Number: No. 9168.,9168.
• Parties: ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO. v. MOORE. MOORE v. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

112 F.2d 959 (1940)

ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO. v. MOORE.

MOORE v. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO.

No. 9168.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 20, 1940.

Rehearing Denied August 8, 1940.

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James L. Byrd, of Jackson, Miss., for appellant and cross-appellee.

C. B. Snow, of Jackson, Miss., for appellee and cross-appellant.

Before SIBLEY, HOLMES, and McCORD, Circuit Judges.

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge.

Prior to June, 1926, the appellee Earl Moore was working as a switchman for the Alabama & Vicksburg Railway Company at its yards in Jackson, Miss. He was a member of the Switchmen's Union of North America which had an agreement with that railway company as to rates of pay, hours of service and working conditions. In June, 1926, the appellant, Illinois Central Railroad Company, through the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. Co., took over the operation of the Alabama & Vicksburg Railway Company, expressly assuming performance of said union contract. A consolidation of switching yards at Jackson led in November, 1926, to the making of a new seniority roster of switchmen in the consolidated yards. Moore's number was moved from 37 to 52. He worked in the yard under this number for some time, being in consequence sometimes idle, and then brought a suit in October, 1932, for damages because of the partial unemployment, asserting that his employment was with reference to his old Switchmen's Union contract. He lost his case in the Supreme Court of Mississippi on March 16, 1936, that court saying: "The effect of the promulgation of this November, 1926, seniority roster was to offer the appellant and the other switchmen affected thereby a new contract in so far as their relative seniority was concerned, and, where the breach of a contract is followed by the offer of another as a substitute therefor, the acceptance thereof waives the breach of the former. By accepting work under the new roster without protest, the Illinois Central was justified in believing that the appellant would claim only thereunder, and that it could safely deal with its other switchmen on that assumption and accord to them their rights thereunder." Moore v. Yazoo & Miss. Valley R. R. Co., 176 Miss. 65, 166 So. 395, 397.

Meanwhile, on February 15, 1933, Moore, having been absent from work for a year on sick leave, reported for work and was discharged as "an unsatisfactory employe." On his request he was given a hearing before the Superintendent, in which his slowness and irregularity of working, and his having sued the Company were brought up. The latter was found in the trial of this case to have been the real cause of the discharge. Moore appealed to the General Manager, but did not attend at the time and place set for hearing.

On Sept. 25, 1936, Moore sued the Illinois Central Railroad Company in a court of Mississippi for damages for his discharge, alleging that at the time of his discharge he was a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen which since 1924 had an agreement in force with that Company touching rates of pay and other things, including seniority, material portions of which were exhibited, along with the seniority roster of November, 1926, above mentioned, on which he was number 52. He alleged that he "was entitled to work under said contract of employment whenever work was available for 52 men in the Jackson yards and said contract provides, among other things, that no person should be fired or discharged without just cause"; and that he was discharged arbitrarily and without just cause. Six special pleas were filed and held good on demurrer, but on appeal to the Supreme Court of Mississippi the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings. Moore v. Illinois Cent. R. R. Co., 180 Miss. 276, 176 So. 593. Moore then amended to claim damages in excess of $3,000, and the cause was removed to the district court of the United States. By that court's permission the six pleas were withdrawn and a so-called plea in abatement filed. It set up that the Illinois Central Railroad Company is a common carrier in interstate commerce whose railroad extends from Chicago in Illinois to New Orleans in Louisiana, passing through Mississippi and other States; and that it and Moore as its switchman were subject to the Acts of Congress, especially that of May 20, 1926, amended June 21, 1934, 45 U.S.C.A. § 151 and ff; that the Union contract relied on exists under said laws, and said contract and laws require adjustment of disputes thereunder by the Company's higher officers, and then by the Adjustment Board, which remedies have not been pursued, because of which the suit should be abated. This plea was stricken on demurrer. Six pleas substantially like those withdrawn were then filed, and a seventh setting up that the Union Contract was by its terms terminable on thirty days' notice in writing and that Moore's written notice of discharge was in any view effective after thirty days. These pleas and an answer were disposed of adversely by demurrer, or by trial before the court without a jury, and judgment was entered for $4,183.20. This appeal results, with a cross-appeal which claims larger damages.

The district judge in all his important rulings of law considered himself bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court of Mississippi in this and other cases, under the authority of Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188, 114 A.L.R. 1487.

We are impressed with the seriousness of the question as to what law determines the validity and meaning of railroad union contracts, and the remedies applicable to them; and of the practical consequences of the holding that for so long a period as six years a discharged employee may sit quiet without the pursuit of the special remedies in the contract or under the Acts of Congress, and then by suit recover back pay for that time, when perhaps proof may have become difficult touching the merits of his discharge.

We are of opinion that the doctrine of Erie v. Tompkins, supra, applies only to local matters governed wholly by State law. A railroad union contract applying over a railroad system which operates in many States is not such. Its meaning and effect ought to be the same in each State. The present contract was signed by a representative of the Union residing in Chicago and by the General Manager of the railroad whose headquarters are in Chicago. Nothing appears to localize it in Mississippi. Its subject matter, the relationship of an interstate railroad with its employees, is well within the commerce power of Congress and has for fifty years been a subject of federal legislation.¹

The very matter of collective agreements was taken over and extensively regulated and remedies for disputes provided by the Railway Labor Act of 1926, amended in 1934. Section 2 of the Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 151a, names as one of its purposes: "(5) to provide for the prompt and orderly settlement of all disputes growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements covering rates of pay, rules, or working conditions." In stating the duties of carriers and employees, 45 U.S.C.A. § 152(1), it requires them to exert effort "to make and maintain such agreements", and that "all disputes between a carrier or carriers and its or their employees shall be considered, and, if possible, decided, with all expedition, in conference between representatives designated and authorized so to confer * * *." Section 152(2). Three lengthy paragraphs relating to the choice of representatives, the making of collective bargains, the deduction of union dues, and to agreements not to join a union, are expressly written into every contract of employment. 45 U.S.C.A. § 152(3) (4) (5) (8). Subparagraph (7) prohibits changes in the rates of pay, rules or working conditions of employees as a class, as embodied in the agreement, except as provided by the agreement or the statute. Section 3, 45 U.S.C.A. § 153, provides jurisdiction in the Railroad Adjustment Board for all manner of disputes, the First Division being expressly given jurisdiction over those involving yard-service employees. Subsection (i) makes it plain that not only disputes raised by the Union but also those of a single employee are included, saying: "The disputes between an employee or group of employees and a carrier * * * growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, including cases pending and unadjusted on June 21, 1934, shall be handled in the usual manner up to and including the chief operating officer of the carrier", and then may be referred to the Adjustment Board. Awards are final except as to a money award; Subsection (m) (o). Awards, including money awards, are enforcible in the district court: Subsection (p). This legislation was explained and vindicated as respects the forming of collective agreements in Texas & New Orleans R. R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Ry. & S. S. Clerks, 281 U.S. 548, 50 S.Ct. 427, 74 L.Ed. 1034, and Virginian Railway Co. v. System Federation No. 40, 300 U.S. 515, 57 S.Ct. 592, 81 L.Ed. 789.

A collective agreement between the employees of an interstate carrier by rail and their employer is therefore not a local matter as to whose nature and application the decisions of a State Supreme Court are binding on the federal courts. On the contrary, because of the subject matter, and of the federal legislation touching it, a federal court is bound to exercise an independent judgment, and the Supreme Court of the United States has final authority. The decisions of the Supreme Court of Mississippi are entitled to the same respectful consideration as are those of the courts of other States, but no more.

The decision of the Mississippi court in this very controversy is not conclusive of it. As in the case of Wichita Royalty Co. v. City National Bank, 306 U.S. 103, 59...