Barnes v. Atlanta Transit System
| Decision Date | 31 July 1956 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 5657. |
| Parties | Gerald F. BARNES, Complainant, v. ATLANTA TRANSIT SYSTEM, Inc., Robert L. Sommerville, Jefferies Wallace, Ray K. Mulsey, individually and as President of and Representative of Division No. 732 of the Amalgamated Association of Street Electric Railway & Motor Coach Employees of America, and Division No. 732 of the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway & Motor Coach Employees of America, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia |
Frank A. Holden and Hugh G. Head, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff.
Poole, Pearce & Hall, Atlanta, Ga., Crenshaw, Hansell, Ware & Brandon, Atlanta, Ga., for defendants.
All the defendants on June 25, 1956 moved to dismiss this action on the ground that the Court lacks jurisdiction under the Civil Rights Act of Congress, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1981 et seq., the allegedly wrongful acts of defendants having been done by persons acting individually and not pursuant to authority of the State.
It is well-established that United States District Courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, and grounds of jurisdiction must be shown in the complaint. As there is no diversity of citizenship alleged between the plaintiff and the defendants, and the sole ground of jurisdiction alleged is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of Congress, this Court cannot entertain the action unless it comes within the provisions of the Civil Rights Act.
The complaint is eight pages in length and contains thirty-four paragraphs, but essentially charges the following:
Plaintiff was a bus operator employed by defendant Atlanta Transit System, Inc., and a member of Division No. 732 of the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway & Motor Coach Employees of America. The President of Atlanta Transit System, Inc. and its Supervisor of Bus Operators, and President of said Amalgamated Association are also joined as defendants. Plaintiff alleges that he was unlawfully discharged by his employer on account of an alleged conspiracy between all of the defendants. In effect he charges that all of the defendants wickedly conspired to procure his discharge "from his said employment as aforesaid" because plaintiff, during the year preceding his discharge "began to develop a beard, or set of chin whiskers, which he grew solely because he liked and enjoyed them in the ancient manner in which free citizens, such as many who founded this country did grow chin whiskers, and in which the patriotic symbol known to all as Uncle Sam grows chin whiskers." (Paragraph 17.)
Plaintiff maintained that he "has an inherent and lawful right to grow and have and enjoy chin whiskers, the same being kept neat, clean-trimmed and attractive, and being an adornment to his person and a gift of nature to him that he liked and wanted as an attribute of a man." He alleges that the President of the Transit System "assured complainant that there was no reason why complainant should not continue to wear and enjoy the chin whiskers," said President even adding "that he admired people who adhered to a principle which they thought right regardless of what others might say, so long as there was no harm nor evil in the exercise of that principle." Plaintiff alleges the sole question at issue is, among other things, whether "any citizen has or does not have a right to enjoy his personal liberty and freedom to cut his beard as he likes", etc. In Paragraph 22 plaintiff invokes the first declaration of independence from England, signed in Virginia in 1765, the United States Constitution as of 1789, under which apparently "it was the unqualified and undenied right of every free American citizen to wear chin whiskers."
Despite the fact that from the standpoint of the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Smith v. General Truck Drivers, etc., Union Local 467
...Oliphant v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, 6 Cir., 1959, 262 F.2d 359, 363-364; Barnes v. Atlanta Transit System, Inc., D.C.Ga.1956, 144 F.Supp. 156, 158. The other principle is that when the unions themselves, even without statutory permissive legislation, have set up tri......
-
Elders v. Consolidated Freightways Corp. of Delaware
...clothed with state power. These acts were not, even if wrongful, compelled by state law. We may quote from Barnes v. Atlanta Transit Systems, Inc., 144 F.Supp. 156, 158 (N.D.Ga.1956); "where a person is * * * discharged by his employer such action even if wrong is individual and not state a......