Allen v. Southern Ry. Co., 249

• Decision Date: 11 April 1962
• Docket Number: No. 249,249
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: , 49 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3131, 45 Lab.Cas. P 17,583 Anna Mae ALLEN et al., for themselves and in behalf of all other employees of the Southern Railway Company having a common interest in the subject matter of this action, Plaintiffs, and Bickett Bass et al., Additional Plaintiffs, v. SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY et al., Defendants.

Page 871

124 S.E.2d 871

256 N.C. 700, 49 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3131,

45 Lab.Cas. P 17,583

Anna Mae ALLEN et al., for themselves and in behalf of all other employees of the Southern Railway Company having a common interest in the subject matter of this action Plaintiffs, and Bickett Bass et al., Additional Plaintiffs, v. SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY et al., Defendants.

No. 249

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

April 11, 1962

Schoene & Kramer, Washington, D. C., and J. B. Craighill, Charlotte, for defendant Unions, appellants.

Blakeney, Alexander & Machen, Charlotte, for plaintiffs, appellees.

PER CURIAM.

This case was before this Court at the Fall Term 1958. An opinion, delivered by Bobbitt, J., for a majority of the Court was filed at the Spring Term 1959. Allen v. Southern R. R. Co., 249 N.C. 491, 107 S.E.2d 125. That opinion gives an adequate summary of the pleadings, evidence, issues of fact, preliminary proceedings, and judgment in the trial court. A repetition of these matters and a restatement of the legal questions involved are unnecessary here.

After our decision at the Spring Term 1959, plaintiffs, in apt time, filed a petition to rehear. The petition was allowed on 20 May 1959 by the two Justices to whom it was referred, but the Court deferred rehearing pending decision on appeal in a Georgia case originally captioned Looper v. Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Co., 213 Ga. 279, 99 S.E.2d 101, and later captioned International Association of Machinists v. Street, 215 Ga. 27, 108 S.E.2d 796.

The Unions, under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1257(1), appealed the latter decision of the Supreme Court of Georgia to the Supreme Court of the United States which, on October 12, 1959, noted probable jurisdiction. 361 U.S. 807, 80 S.Ct. 84, 4 L.E.d.2d 54. The cause was argued twice in the Supreme Court of the United States, having been reargued on January 17 and 18, 1961. It was decided June 19, 1961. International Association of Machinists v. Street, 367 U.S. 740, 81 S.Ct. 1784, 6 L.Ed.2d 1141.

After the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Street case, a rehearing of our former decision, by oral arguments and by briefs, was held.

Before a decision acceptable to and in accordance with the opinion of a majority of this Court was reached, WINBORNE, C. J., retired from the Court, DENNY, J., was elevated to Chief Justice, and SHARP, J., was appointed to fill the vacancy on the Court. Justice SHARP, formerly a Superior Court Judge, is disqualified and...