Maine Cent. R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees

• Decision Date: 12 March 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-1875,86-1875
• Citation: 813 F.2d 484
• Parties: 124 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2966, 55 USLW 2519, 106 Lab.Cas. P 12,271 The MAINE CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY and the Portland Terminal Company, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. BROTHERHOOD OF MAINTENANCE OF WAY EMPLOYEES, Defendant, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 484

813 F.2d 484

124 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2966, 55 USLW 2519,

106 Lab.Cas. P 12,271

The MAINE CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY and the Portland Terminal Company, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. BROTHERHOOD OF MAINTENANCE OF WAY EMPLOYEES, Defendant, Appellee.

No. 86-1875.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Argued Jan. 5, 1987.

Decided March 10, 1987.

As Amended March 12, 1987.

John Spelman with whom Andrew O. Schiff and Klehr, Harrison, Harvey, Branzburg, Ellers & Weir, Philadelphia, Pa., were on brief for plaintiffs/appellants.

Richard S. Edelman with whom John O'B. Clarke, Jr. and Highsaw & Mahoney, P.C., Washington, D.C., were on brief for defendant/appellee.

Jeffrey Clair, Dept. of Justice, with whom William Kanter, Dept. of Justice, Richard K. Willard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., and Richard S. Cohen, U.S. Atty., Portland Me., were on brief for United States, amicus curiae.

Before BOWNES, Circuit Judge, ROSENN, ^* Senior Circuit Judge, and SELYA, Circuit Judge.

BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-appellants Maine Central Railroad Company and the Portland Terminal Company (collectively, Maine Central) brought an action in district court challenging the constitutionality of an Act of Congress. The challenged legislation imposed a moratorium on changes in the conditions of Maine Central's employment relationship with defendant-appellee, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE). The district court denied Maine Central's motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, granted BMWE's motion for summary judgment, and dismissed the complaint. We hold that the Act was constitutional and affirm the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

Maine Central operates about 740 miles of trackage. Its lines are principally in Maine, but they extend into New Hampshire and Vermont. BMWE, a national labor organization, is the bargaining representative for Maine Central's maintenance of way employees, who perform such labor as track laying and surfacing work, roadway maintenance, and building and structural work. In April 1984 the two parties began negotiating changes BMWE had requested in the existing collective bargaining agreements. The focus of the dispute was job protection. There had been as many as 390 maintenance of way employees working on a seasonal and special project basis at Maine Central in July 1982; there are now approximately sixty-five in active service.

On March 3, 1986, BMWE called a strike. In April 1986 the strike action was extended to include secondary picketing of other railroads. ¹ The National Mediation Board, whose services had been requested by BMWE initially in September 1984, determined that the Maine Central-BMWE dispute threatened to interrupt commerce and to deprive the country of essential transportation services. Based on this determination a Presidential Emergency Board was appointed on May 16, 1986, to investigate the matter and to prepare a report. Exec. Order No. 12,557, 51 Fed.Reg. 18,429 (1986); see 45 U.S.C. Sec. 160 (1982). Section 160 of the Railway Labor Act, which authorizes the appointment of a Presidential Emergency Board, prohibits the parties to the dispute from changing "the conditions out of which the dispute arose," except by agreement, until thirty days after the Board has made its report to the President. 45 U.S.C. Sec. 160. That report was made on June 20, 1986, and Maine Central rejected the settlement recommended in it.

The statutory cooling-off period imposed by section 160 expired on July 20, 1986. On August 6, 1986, Maine Central unilaterally instituted new work rules and rates of pay, which included a twenty percent reduction in wages. BMWE was unsuccessful in an action in district court seeking injunctive relief to restrain Maine Central from implementing the changes.

On August 12, 1986, Congress enacted a "Joint Resolution to provide for a temporary prohibition of strikes or lockouts with respect to the Maine Central Railroad Company and Portland Terminal Company labor-management dispute." Act of Aug. 21, 1986, Pub.L. No. 99-385, 100 Stat. 819. This legislation (the Act) was approved by the President on August 21, 1986. It directed that an advisory board be appointed to make findings and recommendations on the dispute. The cooling-off period that had expired on July 20 was extended for sixty days from July 21; the parties were forbidden from changing, except by agreement, "the conditions out of which [the] dispute arose as such conditions existed before ... March 3, 1986." 100 Stat. at 819. The Act, therefore, required Maine Central to pay its BMWE employees at pre-March 3 rates, thereby invalidating the changes instituted in August. Maine Central apparently did reinstate the wages to their pre-March 3 rates during the Act's effective period.

On August 22, 1986, Maine Central filed a complaint in district court for injunctive and declaratory relief, requesting that the Act be declared unconstitutional and that its enforcement be enjoined. The United States, as amicus curiae, filed a statement of interest and memorandum in support of the Act. Maine Central asked to be allowed to pay into the court the difference between the pre-March 3 wage rates and the wage rates it had instituted in August, so that it would not have to recover these sums from the individual employees if its constitutional challenge proved successful. This request was denied. At a hearing on September 10, 1986, the district court denied Maine Central's request for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, and on September 17, 1986, it granted BMWE's motion for summary judgment and dismissed Maine Central's complaint. The next day, on September 18, 1986, the same day the cooling-off period imposed by the Act expired, Maine Central filed notice of this appeal. ²

II. MOOTNESS

We first decide the preliminary question of whether Maine Central's appeal became moot when the cooling-off period imposed by the Act expired. Federal jurisdiction under article III is limited to actual cases and controversies. Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 546, 96 S.Ct. 2791, 2796, 49 L.Ed.2d 683 (1976). "Simply stated, a case is moot when the issues are no longer 'live' or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome." Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 496, 89 S.Ct. 1944, 1950, 23 L.Ed.2d 491 (1969). According to BMWE, because the cooling-off period has expired, "there is no longer a live controversy concerning the possibility that BMWE might seek to enforce the statute," and Maine Central "has no legally cognizable interest in the outcome of its challenge to the constitutionality of that legislation." We do not agree. Although the cooling-off period imposed by the Act has expired, there still are cognizable interests at stake in this appeal.

The Act required the parties to reinstate pre-March 3, 1986, working conditions retroactively to July 21, 1986, the day after the expiration of the cooling-off period that was imposed because of the appointment of the Presidential Emergency Board. Maine Central reduced its maintenance of way employees' wages by twenty percent on August 6, 1986, and continued to pay them at that rate until the Act became effective on August 21, 1986. BMWE has brought a suit in district court to recover wages owed under the Act for that period. Maine Central asked the district court to defer its decision in that suit until we issued an opinion in this appeal, and to our knowledge that case is still pending. If we were to hold the Act to be unconstitutional, as urged by Maine Central, that claim to back wages would necessarily fail.

We cannot dismiss a case as moot if there are live issues, even if they are secondary or incidental, because there still is a case or controversy to be decided. See Firefighters Local Union No. 1784 v. Stotts, 467 U.S. 561, 571, 104 S.Ct. 2576, 2584, 81 L.Ed.2d 483 (1984) (challenge to preliminary injunction requiring employees to be reinstated not moot, even though the employees had been restored to their former positions, because, among other things, there were unresolved back pay and seniority issues); Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. at 495-500, 89 S.Ct. at 1950-52 (constitutional challenge to exclusion from the Ninetieth Congress was held not to be moot, even though that session of Congress had terminated and petitioner had been seated in the Ninety-first Congress, because his claim for back salary was "still unresolved and hotly contested by clearly adverse parties"). ³ The back pay issue here is very much alive, and this appeal is not moot. ⁴

III. CONSTITUTIONALITY

Maine Central argues that the Act is unconstitutional for two reasons. First, it violated the equal protection component of the fifth amendment ⁵ by singling out Maine Central for burdensome treatment. Second, it violated the separation of powers doctrine by legislatively adjudicating the rights of Maine Central and BMWE. We consider each argument in turn.

A. Equal Protection

The Supreme Court long ago made it clear that the operation of interstate railroads has a public aspect justifying the exercise of federal legislative power to keep labor disputes from interrupting interstate commerce. See Wilson v. New, 243 U.S. 332, 347-48, 37 S.Ct. 298, 301, 61 L.Ed. 755 (1917). Congress acted pursuant to this authority when, in the Railway Labor Act of 1926, it established a compulsory railroad labor dispute resolution process. Detroit & T.S.L.R.R. v. United Transp. Union, 396 U.S. 142, 148, 90 S.Ct. 294, 298, 24 L.Ed.2d 325 (1969); Virginian Ry. v. System Fed'n No. 40, 300 U.S. 515, 553-54, 57 S.Ct. 592, 602-03, 81 L.Ed. 789 (1937); see 45 U.S.C. Secs. 151-163.

The Railway Labor Act contains "rather elaborate machinery for negotiation, mediation, voluntary arbitration, and conciliation." Detroit & T.S.L.R.R. v. United Transp. Union, 396 U.S. at 148-49, 90 S.Ct. at 298. An important aspect of this machinery is the...