In re Virginia & Truckee Ry.

• Decision Date: 06 January 1941
• Docket Number: No. H-204.,H-204.
• Citation: 36 F. Supp. 119
• Parties: In re VIRGINIA & TRUCKEE RY. et al. BIGELOW v. ANDERSON et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Nevada

36 F. Supp. 119

In re VIRGINIA & TRUCKEE RY. et al.

BIGELOW v. ANDERSON et al.

No. H-204.

District Court, D. Nevada.

January 6, 1941.

Duncan A. McLeod, of San Francisco, Cal., and Walter Rowson, of Reno, Nev., for Receiver.

Lloyd V. Smith and John S. Field, both of Reno, Nev., for defendants.

NORCROSS, District Judge.

This proceeding was instituted by the above named receiver upon a petition requesting instructions in respect to the claimed authority and rights of defendants in respect to employees of said Railway and Transit Corporations engaged in operating freight motor trucks and passenger, mail and express motor busses upon the public highways, and for a restraining order pending hearing upon application for temporary injunction. A restraining order was issued upon the petition. Defendants appeared by filing a notice of motion for an order dissolving and vacating the temporary restraining order. The motion was denied and a temporary injunction issued. Defendants filed an answer to the petition and the matter submitted upon hearing held thereon.

The answer, among other matters, alleges:

"* * * that Receiver, in so far as the operations of said corporations are concerned in the interstate transportation of passengers and freight by railway is concerned, come within the provisions of the Railway Labor Act being Title 45, Sections 151-164, U.S.C.A. * * *: that the said Receiver in so far as the operations of said corporation are concerned with trucking service and business engaged in interstate commerce, come within the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, being Title 29, Sections 151-219, U.S.C.A. and the Norris LaGuardia Act, Chapter 6, Title 29, Sections 101-115, U.S. C.A. * * *."

"That the defendant, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America, Local #533, represent all or a substantial majority of the employees of the Virginia and Truckee Railway, a corporation, and the Virginia-Truckee Transit Co., a corporation, who are employed by said corporations in the operation of the trucking service and business which is conducted by receiver of said corporations; that all of said employees are members of the said defendant union, and have designated said defendant as their sole bargaining agent."

"That the employees, who are employed in the trucking service or business of said corporations, are required to work longer hours and for less pay, than are the employees of other concerns carrying on a trucking business in the same localities; that the employees of said corporations are on occasion required to work from ten to fifteen hours per day; that a labor dispute exists between said employees and said corporations in receivership."

The main question of law presented upon the hearing was in respect to the contention upon the part of the receiver that the employees in both the freight trucking service and the motor transit bus service came within the said Railway Labor Act, while the contention upon the part of defendants was as above stated in their answer. The main controversy was in respect to the trucking operations. No question was raised in respect to both operations being engaged in interstate commerce.

The first section of the Railway Labor Act, Tit. 45 U.S.C.A. § 151, contains the following provision: "The term `carrier' includes any express company, sleeping-car company, carrier by railroad, subject to chapter 1 of Title 49, and any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by or under common control with any carrier by railroad and...