Macklin v. Spector Freight Systems, Inc.

Citation478 F.2d 979
Decision Date09 May 1973
Docket Number71-1517 and 71-1620.,No. 71-1259,71-1259
PartiesSaul MACKLIN et al., Appellants v. SPECTOR FREIGHT SYSTEMS, INC., et al. Saul MACKLIN et al. v. DRIVERS, CHAUFFEURS AND HELPERS, LOCAL UNION NO. 639, Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

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Ben Paul Noble, Washington, D. C., with whom Thomas O. Mann, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellants in Nos. 71-1259 and 71-1517. Henry Schoenfeld, Washington, D. C., also entered an appearance for appellants in Nos. 71-1259 and 71-1517.

Harry A. Rissetto, Washington, D. C., with whom Charles P. O'Connor, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellee Spector Freight Systems, Inc. William J. Curtin, Washington, D. C., also entered an appearance for appellee Spector Freight Systems, Inc.

Hugh J. Beins, Washington, D. C., with whom Thomas L. Moser, Arlington, Va., was on the brief, for appellant in No. 71-1620.

James van R. Springer, Washington, D. C., for appellee International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Raymond W. Bergan and Earl C. Dudley, Jr., Washington, D. C., were on the brief for appellee International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Sidney Dickstein, Washington, D. C., also entered an appearance for appellee International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America.

Charles Hodge, of the bar of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, pro hac vice, by special leave of court, for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as amicus curiae. Julia P. Cooper, Washington, D. C., and Peter A. Janiak, Oakland, Cal., were on the brief for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as amicus curiae urging reversal.

Before WRIGHT and MacKINNON, Circuit Judges, and VAN PELT,* Senior District Judge.

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

This class action involves allegations of racial discrimination against one of the nation's largest trucking firms, Spector Freight Systems, Inc., against one of the nation's most powerful unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, and against Teamsters Local 639 which represents drivers in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Appellant Macklin was a member of the local during the period when the discriminatory practices were alleged to have occurred. He still is. The International and the local are charged with participation in a continuing conspiracy with Spector to deny blacks access to the remunerative over-the-road driver jobs. More specifically, Spector is said to maintain a practice of refusing to hire blacks, including Macklin, for these jobs on unjustifiable racial grounds. The International and the local are alleged to cooperate with Spector in this unlawful practice with respect to their own members. An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation of the events that gave rise to this suit indicated that of Spector Systems' approximately 2,700 drivers only 109, or approximately four per cent, were blacks. More significant, the EEOC report found that there was no evidence that Spector employed any blacks as over-the-road drivers as of early 1967 when the events culminating in this suit occurred.

In January 1967 Spector assumed control of operating rights between New York and Washington which the Interstate Commerce Commission had granted to Macklin's employer, Jacobs Eastern Transport, Inc. Jacobs had sold the rights to Spector a few months earlier, subject to ICC approval which was soon given. Within a few days of assuming control, Spector informed Macklin and Jacobs' other over-the-road drivers, all of whom apparently were black, that they were laid off until Spector established an over-the-road trucking terminal in Washington. No such terminal has been established. This fact becomes important for the following reasons.

The contract of sale between Jacobs and Spector indicates that Spector bought not merely Jacobs' operating rights, but also Jacobs' business. Under the terms of the then applicable National Master Freight Agreement, which both Spector and Jacobs had signed and which governed the firms' relations with their Teamsters-represented drivers, it appears that, since the Jacobs-Spector transaction covered both business and operating rights, Spector was obliged to either dovetail the seniority list of its own employees with that of Jacobs1 or maintain a separate seniority list, with Jacobs' drivers at the top, for that part of the New York-Washington route that Jacobs' drivers had driven and Spector's had not before the acquisition.2 Spector, however, chose to insist on the applicability of another provision of the Master Freight Agreement which referred only to "a purchase of permits or rights by one Carrier from another Carrier, without the purchase or acquisition of equipment, terminals, or business." This provision gave the Jacobs employees "no seniority rights at all," but stated that they should "be offered opportunity for employment at the bottom of the seniority list of the Company purchasing the permits."3 Moreover, Spector refused to offer Macklin and other Jacobs over-the-road drivers such positions anywhere in its system on the ground that they had a right to over-the-road driver jobs only if Spector chose to establish a D.C. terminal.

Convinced that Spector owed him an over-the-road job somewhere in its system under the terms of the Master Freight Agreement, Macklin asked Local 639 to institute grievance proceedings for him. In the proceedings that followed the local accepted the applicability of the provision that Spector relied on, but took the position that under the agreement Jacobs' over-the-road drivers should be given the right to transfer at the bottom of the seniority list to a Spector terminal in New Jersey from which shipments would be made on the route rights purchased from Jacobs. Following the terms of the Maryland-District of Columbia Freight Council Supplemental Agreement,4 the parties initially submitted the grievance to the Joint Maryland-District of Columbia Area Committee on March 20, 1967. This Committee was composed of equal numbers of union and employer representatives. When a deadlock occurred the grievance was referred to a higher level grievance adjustment body, the Eastern Conference Joint Area Committee, although the Maryland-District of Columbia group could, by a majority vote, have referred the grievance to an arbitrator.5 On April 25, 1967 the Eastern Conference Committee decided for Spector against the local's claim for work in New Jersey, ruling that the Jacobs over-the-road drivers should be given first opportunity to work as over-the-road drivers only if Spector established a D.C. long-haul terminal. No further action was taken by the union, apparently because the Maryland-District of Columbia Agreement provided no further appeal.6

On October 15, 1968 Macklin filed a complaint with EEOC against Spector and the local, charging conspiracy to discriminate against him. On January 24, 1969, after the 60-day period specified by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Section 706(b), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(b) (1970), for referral to the state agency had expired, EEOC formally assumed jurisdiction of his complaint.7 A lengthy agency investigation ensued, but failed to culminate in any settlement or conciliation between Macklin, the local, and Spector. On October 26, 1970 EEOC gave Macklin notice of a right to sue in federal court under Title VII. And on November 3, 1970 Macklin and his former co-worker at Jacobs, Roberson, who had also complained to EEOC,8 filed a class action for similarly situated blacks9 charging Spector, the local, and the International with violations of Title VII and Section 1 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act,10 now 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (1970). The District Court dismissed the claim against the International for lack of jurisdiction on February 22, 1971. Dismissal of the claim against the local and Spector was granted on June 15, 1971 without a statement of reasons. On appeal, this court remanded the June 15, 1971 judgment to the District Court for a statement of reasons. Responding to the remand, the District Court held, first, that the Title VII claim could not proceed because the plaintiffs had not complied with the 1964 Civil Rights Act's jurisdictional prerequisite of filing a claim of discrimination with EEOC within 210 days after the occurrence of the alleged unfair employment practice. Second, the court assumed that the gravamen of the complaint was Spector's failure to accept plaintiffs' view of Jacobs' drivers' rights under the relevant collective bargaining agreement. Since this claim, at least in Macklin's case, was said to have been adjudicated under the grievance adjustment provisions in the agreement, the District Court held that unless plaintiffs were "estopped from collaterally challenging the arbitration award by their election to be bound by the results of the grievance procedure," the "arbitration process is without finality and a useless tool by which to settle disputes arising out of the administration of the collective bargaining agreement." Third, the court held that the complaint under Section 1981 was governed by the three-year limitation period of 12 D.C. Code § 301(8) (1967), and that, since the dispute said to underlie plaintiffs' claim—Spector's failure to hire the Jacobs over-the-road drivers in comparable positions and Macklin's unavailing use of the grievance procedure—occurred more than three years before the suit was filed in November 1970, the suit was barred.

With all respect, we find ourselves unable to sustain any of the District Court's holdings. Thus we must reverse the judgments of dismissal and remand these cases for further proceedings consistent with this opinion....

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