Barnhart v. Western Maryland Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 19 November 1941
• Docket Number: No. 1234.,1234.
• Parties: BARNHART et al. v. WESTERN MARYLAND RY. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

41 F. Supp. 898

BARNHART et al. v. WESTERN MARYLAND RY. CO.

No. 1234.

District Court, D. Maryland.

November 19, 1941.

Isaac Lobe Straus, of Baltimore, Md., for plaintiffs.

Walter C. Capper, of Cumberland, Md., and Eugene Williams, of Baltimore, Md., for defendant.

CHESNUT, District Judge.

The complaint in the above case is filed by seven individuals "constituting the committee representing and acting for the Federation of Shop Craft Employes, Maintenance of Way Employes and Signal Man Employes of the Western Maryland Railway" on behalf of themselves and about 1,200 other alleged employes of the Railway Company. The complaint takes the formal outline of a bill in equity asking for an injunction and accounting and a determination of the plaintiffs' status; but in simplified substance the suit seeks to recover wages which the plaintiffs have been prevented from earning by reason of their alleged unlawful and wrongful discharge by the Railway Company in 1922. The defendant has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint because (1) the court lacks jurisdiction of the subject matter; (2) the complaint fails to state a valid cause of action; and (3) because the action, if any, has long been barred by limitations and laches.

The origin and history of the plaintiffs' grievances are recited in the lengthy complaint of 17 pages, which in that respect does not seem to be in compliance with the requirement of rule 8(a) of the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c, which provides that the pleading shall contain a short and plain statement of the grounds upon which the court's jurisdiction depends and a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief. It is developed in the complaint that during the war of 1917, the management of the railroads was taken over by the Government and they were returned to private ownership on March 1, 1920. Immediately prior thereto Congress passed the Transportation Act of 1920, approved February 28th. Chapter 7 of the Act, 45 U.S.C.A. §§ 131-146, created the Railroad Labor Board for the purpose of promoting amicable adjustments of disputes between the railroads and their employes with regard to the rate of wages and working conditions of employes, and authorized the Board in certain contingencies to make and publish decisions as to what would constitute, in the opinion of the Board, just and reasonable rates and conditions. On July 20, 1920, the Board decided a dispute as to wages and on April 14, 1921, it published its decision No. 119 dealing with the subject of rules regulating working conditions. In the latter decision the Board determined that the working conditions and agreements in force under the authority of the United States Railroad Administration should cease and terminate July 1, 1921; and for the immediate future the Board called upon the officers of the railroads and their employes to designate and authorize representatives to confer on and decide disputes relating to working conditions so far as possible, consistent with some general principles then set forth by the Board. On November 29, 1921, the Board rendered a supplemental decision whereby it promulgated a new set of rules for working conditions. The complaint alleges that the Railway accepted the ruling and printed it and put it into effect, and the complaint further alleges that the said rules constituted contracts and agreements between the Western Maryland Railway and its employes and that said contracts and agreements were known and described as "Negotiations of rules and working conditions under decision 119 of the United States Railway Labor Board". The contracts themselves are not set out at length or annexed to the complaint which stated that copies thereof were in possession of the defendant company which would be called upon to produce them at the hearing of the cause. The complaint, however, does include the wording of two of said rules, Nos. 37 and 183. Rule 37 provided that employes should not be dismissed without a fair hearing and trial; and rule 183 provided that the rules should remain in effect until superseded or amended after thirty days notice of changes proposed and conferences thereon held.

The complaint then alleges that on March 16, 1922, the Western Maryland Railway Company summarily, arbitrarily and illegally discharged and dismissed the plaintiffs and other employes without compliance with said rules Nos. 37 and 183; and that the circumstances of said discharge were that the Railway Company entered into contracts with the Dixon Construction and Repair Company and other contractors for the operation of its railway shops and posted notices that "all positions in the Maintenance of Ways of Mechanical Department of Western Maryland Railway Company and its leased and operating lines below the position of mechanical engineer and master car builder (with their personal office force) are abolished. The work heretofore assigned to the positions abolished will thereafter be performed by Dixon Construction and Repair Company;". And on the same day (March 11, 1922) the Dixon Construction and Repair Company posted a notice that employes of the Western Maryland Railway Company in the maintenance of equipment of mechanical department in the positions abolished March 16, 1922, who wished employment of a similar nature on or after March 16, 1922, might apply to the contractor. Thereafter on March 23, 1922, a committee of the employes notified the new contractor that unless the wage scale formerly maintained by the Railway Company was continued, the employes would discontinue work or in other words, go on strike, which in fact thereafter became effective on March 25, 1922. The Labor Board was notified of this latter dispute, and on November 13, 1922, it published its decision No. 1361 to the effect that contracts by the Railroad with the Dixon Construction and Repair Company and other contractors were in violation of the Transportation Act of 1920 insofar as they purported or were construed by the carrier to remove the employes from the application of the Act, and that the contracts affecting the wages and working rules of said employes (of the contractors) were in violation of various decisions of the Labor Board; that the shop employes of the contractor continued to be under the jurisdiction of the Labor Board and subject to the application of the Transportation Act of 1920 and the decisions of the Labor Board; and the carriers were directed to take up with the employes the matter of reinstatement of any interested employes or their representatives.

The complaint does not state specifically which, if any, of the plaintiffs did apply to the Railway for reinstatement, but does allege in more general terms that the plaintiffs were then and always have been ready and willing to perform their duties of employment for the Railway Company in accordance with the alleged contracts and agreements and have so tendered themselves to the defendant and have unsuccessfully invited conferences thereupon.

The complaint further alleges that the defendant refused to accept the decision of the Labor Board as valid and effective, and on December 21, 1922, the President of the Railway wrote the Labor Board denying its jurisdiction and authority to render the decision and requested the Board to join the Railway in obtaining the decision of a court as to the status of the contracts and the Board's decisions; but that no such proceeding was taken or prosecuted and the defendant Railway continued to refuse to recognize, accept or apply the Labor Board's decision and continued to carry out its contracts with the independent contractors and continued to treat the employes as no longer employes of the Railway Company; but that on February 1, 1934, the Co-ordinator of Railroads of the United States ordered the contracts between the Railway Company and the alleged independent contractors abolished as illegal, and accordingly the Railway Company abrogated them; and thereupon it originated and maintained a company union of its employes, and by intimidation and coercion forced such of its employes as it could into the said company union and out of the regular union of said employes which was independent of said company's domination. The complaint further alleges that in 1934 and 1935 the plaintiffs or their representatives appealed to the Railroad Adjustment Board at Chicago (which had succeeded the National Labor Board) and to the National Mediation Board at Washington, D. C., but that both last-named Boards disclaimed any jurisdiction in the matter.

As to the jurisdiction of the court. After hearing counsel and a study of the applicable statutes and judicial decisions, I reach the conclusion that the motion to dismiss must be granted. The jurisdiction of this court to entertain the suit and decide upon the merits of the controversy, if it exists at all, is to be found only in 28 U.S. C.A. § 41(1), which statute gives this court jurisdiction of controversies "where the matter in controversy exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of $3,000, and (a) arises under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority". The complaint alleges the existence of a sufficient amount in controversy, but the question involved is whether the controversy "arises" under a law of the United States, it being quite clear that no provision of the Constitution or treaty is involved; and there being no contention that the suit can be entertained by reason of diverse citizenship which apparently does not exist.

It was decided by the Supreme Court in two fully considered cases that the powers conferred upon the Railroad Labor Board were in effect advisory only, and that its decisions were not made compulsory but had only the sanction and force of publicity and public opinion. Pennsylvania R. Co. v....