Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp. v. United Steelworkers

• Decision Date: 16 June 1959
• Docket Number: No. 7851.,7851.
• Citation: 269 F.2d 327
• Parties: ENTERPRISE WHEEL AND CAR CORPORATION, Appellant, v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

269 F.2d 327 (1959)

ENTERPRISE WHEEL AND CAR CORPORATION, Appellant, v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, Appellee.

No. 7851.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 16, 1959.

Decided June 16, 1959.

As Modified August 24, 1959.

William C. Beatty, Huntington, W. Va. (E. Jackson Boggs, and Fitzpatrick, Huddleston, Bolen & Hudgins, Huntington, W. Va., on brief), for appellant.

James P. Clowes, Wheeling, W. Va., and David E. Feller, Washington, D. C. (Carney M. Layne, Huntington, W. Va., Arthur J. Goldberg and Jerry D. Anker, Washington, D. C., on brief), for appellee.

Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, and SOPER and HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judges.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

The question in this case is whether the District Court had power under Sec. 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185, to require specific performance by an employer of the provisions of the award of an arbitrator to whom a labor dispute had been referred in accordance with the terms of the contract between the employer and a labor union which represented the employees. The award directed the reinstatement of certain discharged employees and reimbursement for loss of wages. The suit was resisted by the employer on the grounds (1) that the court lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter and (2), if the court had jurisdiction, the award was invalid because (a) the arbitrator exceeded his power and (b) the award was uncertain and incomplete. The District Judge overruled these objections and ordered that the employer comply with the decision and award of the arbitrator and this appeal followed.

The suit was brought under Sec. 301 of the statute in the first instance to secure specific performance of an agreement to arbitrate employee grievances contained in a collective bargaining agreement between Enterprise Wheel and Car Corporation, the employer, and United Steelworkers of America, the representative of the employees. The contract covered the period from April 5, 1956 until April 4, 1957, at midnight. It provided certain procedures for the adjustment of grievances and, in case they failed to bring about a settlement, that the grievances should be submitted to a panel of three members, one appointed by the Union, one by the Corporation and a third as an impartial umpire selected by the parties, and that the decision of the umpire should be final and binding upon the parties.

On January 18, 1957, eleven employees were discharged when they walked off their jobs by reason of a dispute over the discharge of another employee by the Corporation. The contract provided that the right to manage the plant and to direct the employees was vested exclusively in the Company, including the right to hire and discharge; but the contract also provided that in the exercise of these rights the management should not peremptorily discharge a member of the union but in all instances in which the management might conclude that an employee's conduct would justify suspension or discharge, he should first be suspended for not more than five days during which he might request a hearing and a statement of his offense and after the hearing the management should conclude whether to convert the suspension into discharge or revoke the same, and that if a discharge was decided upon the employee might present a grievance within five days thereafter.

The Union claimed that the eleven discharged men had a grievance under the terms of the contract but the Corporation rejected this contention, insisting that the men had quit and it refused to reemploy them. The grievance procedures provided by the contract were then invoked but no settlement was reached and, accordingly, the Union called for arbitration but the Corporation refused to arbitrate. A charge of unfair labor practice was filed by the Union before the National Labor Relations Board, but the Board refused to issue a complaint. Finally, on August 22, 1957, four months after the contract had expired, the Union instituted the present suit. The Company answered, raising jurisdictional and other questions, and the Union filed a motion for summary judgment which, after full hearing, the court granted and ordered the Corporation to submit the grievance to arbitration in accordance with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

In obedience to this order, the parties proceeded to arbitration. The arbitrator after hearing reached the conclusion that the penalty of discharge was not justified. He held that the action of the men in quitting their jobs should not be condoned but that the facts warranted only the imposition of a disciplinary penalty of suspension of ten days. He filed his award on April 10, 1958. Therein he directed (1) that the discharge of the men be set aside and reduced to a disciplinary penalty of ten days' suspension, to be calculated from January 18, 1957, and (2) that the Corporation reinstate each of the men who desired reinstatement with classification and seniority status as of the date of the discharge, and (3) that the Corporation reimburse the men for all time actually lost from work, which they would otherwise have had at the regular rate of pay less the ten-day suspension period and less such amounts as each had received from other employment after the expiration of the ten-day period.

The first contention of the employer is that the District Court lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit because it was brought by the Union to enforce the personal rights of individual employees and is, therefore, not tenable under the decision in Association of Westinghouse Salaried Employees v. Westinghouse Corp., 348 U.S. 437, 75 S.Ct. 489, 99 L.Ed. 510. We rejected a similar contention in our opinion in Textile Workers Union of America v. Cone Mills Corp., 4 Cir., 268 F.2d 920, and for the reasons therein stated now hold that the District Court had jurisdiction in the pending case.

The second contention of the employer is that the arbitrator exceeded the power vested in him by the collective bargaining contract because he directed that the discharged men be reimbursed for loss of pay which occurred after the expiration of the contract. The award directed the employer not only to reinstate the grievants but also to reimburse them for all time lost from work at the regular rate of pay less the ten-day suspension period and less such amounts as each had received from other employment after the expiration of the ten-day period. The employer's position is that since the contract terminated on April 4, 1957, the grievants' rights thereunder expired on that day and thereafter the Corporation had the right to discharge them at will and without cause so long as the discharge was not for a reason prohibited by the Labor Act. Hence at the time of the rendition of the award they had no right to reinstatement and no right to back pay beyond the expiration date of the contract. On this account the contention is made that the award is void and should be vacated.

This result does not follow from the premises although it may be in accord with the earlier rule that when an award goes beyond the terms of the submission agreement the entire proceeding will be vacated. The view now prevailing is that even if the award exceeds the scope of the arbitration agreement it is not invalid in toto but only so far as it is excessive, if it is of such character that the court can separate the part within from the part beyond the submission. See Lyle v. Rodgers, 5 Wheat 394, 18 U.S. 394, 409, 5 L.Ed. 117; McCormick v. Gray, 13 How. 26, 54 U.S. 26, 39, 14 L. Ed. 36; York & Cumberland R. Co. v. Meyers, 18 How. 246, 59 U.S. 246, 252, 15 L.Ed. 380; De Groot v. United States, 5 How. 419, 72 U.S. 419, 430-431, 18 L. Ed. 700; Marceron v. Chevy Chase Services, Inc., 103 U.S.App.D.C. 303, 258 F. 2d 155, 158; Moyer v. Van-Dye-Way Corp., 3 Cir., 126 F.2d 339, 341; 3 Am. Jur., Arbitration & Award, Secs. 123, 134...