Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co. v. Randolph

• Decision Date: 24 July 1950
• Docket Number: 14084.,No. 14083,14083
• Citation: 182 F.2d 996
• Parties: MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS R. CO. et al. v. RANDOLPH et al. WOOD et al. v. RANDOLPH et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

182 F.2d 996 (1950)

MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS R. CO. et al. v. RANDOLPH et al. WOOD et al. v. RANDOLPH et al.

Nos. 14083, 14084.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

June 23, 1950.

As Corrected on Denial of Rehearing July 24, 1950.

M. E. Clinton, Dallas, Tex. (Wayne R. Howell, Carl S. Hoffman, St. Louis, Mo., G. H. Penland, M. E. Clinton, Dallas, Tex., Ellison A. Neel, Frank J. Rogers, Kansas City, Mo., on the brief), for appellants Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co. et al.

John Murphy, Kansas City, Mo. (J. Gordon Siddens and Tucker, Murphy, Wilson & Siddens, Kansas City, Mo., on the brief), for appellants R. D. Wood, et al.

Clif. Langsdale, Kansas City, Mo., for appellees.

Before GARDNER, Chief Judge, and THOMAS and COLLET, Circuit Judges.

GARDNER, Chief Judge.

These appeals are before us on a single record and are taken from an order which (1) denied motions to vacate an order granting plaintiffs leave to file supplemental and dependent bill of complaint, (2) denied motions to dissolve the temporary restraining order, and (3) denied a motion to increase the amount of bond for the temporary restraining order. The case is before us for the second time although it has not been heard on the merits, 164 F.2d 4.

The temporary restraining order which the court declined to vacate was entered September 29, 1948, following the filing of a supplemental bill of complaint. The court found that if the allegations of this supplemental bill of complaint were true plaintiffs were entitled to the relief therein prayed, and that unless a temporary restraining order issue substantial and irreparable injury would result to plaintiffs and that "the Court doth find upon said verified complaint, affidavits in support thereof, and testimony under oath that plaintiffs are entitled to a temporary restraining order without notice." The order enjoined the above named Railroad Companies from violating the terms of contract pleaded in the complaint and supplemental complaint and of the agreed custom in the original complaint described and enjoined them from disturbing the status of plaintiffs and from taking from them the performance of duties performed by the train porters as described in the complaint, and from complying with the demands of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen as alleged. The order also enjoined the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen from seeking to enforce their demands that the Railroad Companies take from the train porters certain duties which under their contract they claim the right to perform and from interfering with the contractual relations between the train porters and the carriers by strikes or strike votes or threats to take strike votes or to strike for the purpose of enforcing such demand. The order provided that it should remain in effect until a hearing could be conducted on the question of the issuance of temporary injunction. The order stood without attack until the defendants filed the motions here under consideration.

The first appeal was from an interlocutory order of temporary injunction. We remanded the case with directions to dissolve the temporary injunction and for further proceedings in accordance with our opinion. On that appeal it was contended by appellants trainmen that the record disclosed that the controversy presented was a jurisdictional labor dispute within the purview of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., and that the lower court should not have undertaken to interpret the agreement of the plaintiffs or the trainmen with the Railroads by injunctional orders or decrees and that the trial court should have stayed exercise of its power to issue injunctional orders and should have relegated the parties to the tribunals specifically provided by Congress for mediation for determining the interpretation and application of collective bargaining contracts. We sustained this contention and in the course of the opinion, referring to this issue, we among other things said, "The conflicting demands upon the railroads constitute and formulate the labor dispute which the Acts intend shall be settled where possible through the administrative procedure without the issuance of injunction (at least in the first instance) against either of the parties involved."

We also said, "The railroad industry is not static and the machinery for reconciliation of differences among those who carry it on is adapted to meet the problems as they arise from day to day in localities, on different roads and under varying conditions. But in the first instance the courts may not fix and preserve a set status by enjoining the railroads from making a change in their contracts with the porters and the trainmen from resorting to the administrative processes Congress has provided to meet such situations and prevent interruption of commerce."

Pursuant to the opinion and mandate of this court the porters sought to invoke the jurisdiction and services of the National Mediation Board. That Board notified the trainmen, the railroads and the porters of the filing of the porters' application for mediation and asked each party to furnish the Board such statements as the parties cared to present. The Board appointed a mediator who notified all parties of a meeting to be held and all parties attended that meeting. The trainmen, however, announced that they would take no part in the mediation proceedings except as observers although they had contended in this court on the first appeal that the court "should have stayed exercise of its power to issue injunctional orders and should have relegated the parties to the tribunals specifically provided by Congress in the Railway Labor Act for mediation." The Railroad Companies filed a motion to dismiss the proceeding initiated before the National Mediation Board on the ground that the Board did not have jurisdiction of the controversy. Because the trainmen refused to participate in the proceeding or to agree to arbitration the proceeding before the Board failed and the Board found as follows: "It is the judgment of our Board that all practical methods provided by the Railway Labor Act for our adjusting the disputes have been exhausted without effecting a settlement."

Following the Board's announcement the porters filed by leave of court their supplemental and dependent bill of complaint, alleging that they had invoked the services of the National Mediation Board and in this supplemental and dependent bill they among other things alleged that, "Prior to the said hearing before the Board in Dallas, Texas, the Trainmen informed the Railroad Defendants that the Trainmen would not proceed against the Carriers before the Railway Adjustment Board or any division thereof and would not invoke any procedure or finding by said Adjustment Board; that the Trainmen would not seek or enforce their demands upon the Carriers, that the Carriers cancel their contract and custom with the Porters and take the services in controversy from the Porters and give them to the Trainmen, by any proceeding or remedy afforded by the Railway Labor Act; but threatened that the method that would be employed by the Trainmen to enforce their said demands upon the Carriers would be by taking a strike vote and by striking against the Carrier; that unless such demands made by the Trainmen...