Bradford v. Grand International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

• Decision Date: 29 November 1937
• Docket Number: 34486
• Citation: 188 La. 819,178 So. 362
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: BRADFORD et al. v. GRAND INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS et al

178 So. 362

188 La. 819

BRADFORD et al. v. GRAND INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS et al

No. 34486

Supreme Court of Louisiana

November 29, 1937

Rehearing Denied January 10, 1938

Appeal from First Judicial District Court, Parish of Caddo; Robert J. O'Neal, Judge.

Suit by H. A. Bradford and others against the Grand International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and another, to annul a ruling of the Grand International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and to enjoin the defendants from putting it into effect, wherein S. E. Angle and others intervened as defendants. From a judgment dismissing the plaintiffs' suit, the plaintiffs appeal.

Judgment affirmed.

Hunter & Hunter, of Shreveport, for appellants.

C. E Weisell, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Lee & Lee, of Shreveport for appellees.

Hendrick & Hendrick, of Shreveport, for interveners.

ROGERS Justice. HIGGINS, J., absent.

OPINION

ROGERS, Justice.

In May, 1929, the Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad Company and the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company were consolidated under the name of Louisiana & Arkansas Railway System. Prior to their consolidation, the two railroads were parties to certain agreements with their engineers and firemen, who were members of the seniority districts existing on each railroad. There was one seniority district on the Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad Company, which bore the number 632. There were two seniority districts on the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company, one east of the Mississippi river, including New Orleans, and the other west of the river, including Shreveport. The former was known as district No. 426 and the latter as district No. 516. All the engineers operating along the lines of the railroads are affiliated with the Grand International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and, as such, are members of the local divisions of the national body, which correspond in numbers and territorial limits with the seniority districts.

Both railroads enter Shreveport and Alexandria. This controversy is over a division of the work in the railroad yards of those cities.

Prior to the consolidation of the railroads, a General Committee of Adjustment existed for each local division of the Grand International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Following the consolidation, by a vote of the members, these three committees were merged into one Committee of Adjustment for the entire system. This committee consisted of three members, one from each division. R. E. Owens, of Division 426, was made the general chairman of the new committee.

Shortly after the Committee of Adjustment for the entire system was constituted and organized, the dispute concerning the division of work arose. R. E. Owens, the general chairman, issued an order, designating how the work should be distributed. This order in the main provided that in the Shreveport yard when six engines were used they should be operated by four crews from the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company and by two crews from the Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad Company; and that when a third engine was used in the Alexandria yard, it should be operated by a crew from the Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad Company. At the time this order was issued, there were four Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company engines and two Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad Company engines in use at Shreveport; and at Alexandria there were only two Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company engines in use. The order also directed that when additional engines were placed in service, the work should be divided equally between the two divisions, No. 516 and No. 632, which were the parties to the dispute.

This order was not satisfactory to the members of Division 632 of the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company, and it was appealed by them to the General Committee on Adjustment. The vote of the two members of the committee resulted in a tie. Chairman Owens, casting the deciding vote, ruled that the original order should stand. The controversy then found its way to the Advisory Board, but owing to the illness of its secretary, the members of Division 632 failed to submit any evidence, and the Advisory Board sustained the ruling of Chairman Owens. This was in the latter part of the year 1930. The decision of the Advisory Boardwas not satisfactory to the members of Division 632, and they prosecuted an appeal to the 1933 Triennial Convention of the Grand International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers held in Cleveland, Ohio. At the Convention, Division 632 was represented by one of its members, who was a duly accredited delegate. No member of Division 516 was present, and that division was one of a group of several divisions represented by a single delegate who was a member of a division located at New Orleans, not on the old Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company.

At this convention the delegate representing Division 632 moved a suspension of the rules and asked to submit the appeal of that division. There being no objection, a Committee on Appeal was appointed. The representative of Division 632 appeared before this committee and protested the ruling of the Advisory Board approving the ruling of General Chairman Owens, on the ground that the Advisory Board had decided the case without hearing any evidence from Division 632. The Committee on Appeal submitted the following recommendation to the convention, viz.:

"We, your Committee on Appeal Case No. 32 dispute of the L&A and LR&N, beg leave to submit the following: 'In view of the fact that this decision was rendered by the Advisory Board before all of the evidence was in, we, your Committee recommend that work in Shreveport Yard be divided on a 50-50 basis. Work in the Alexandria Yard be divided as follows: 66-2/3 to LR&N Engineers and 33-1/3 to L&A Engineers."

The recommendation of the Committee on Appeal was adopted by the convention.

No notice of the appeal by Division 632 had been given to Division 516, as required by the rules and regulations of the Brotherhood. No member of Division 516 was present at the convention, and that division had no hearing before the Committee on Appeal or before the convention itself. Consequently, the division was not able to make any defense or to present its side of the disputed question.

On being informed of the adoption by the convention of the recommendation of the Committee on Appeal, the members of Division 516 brought a suit in the First judicial district court of this state to set aside the ruling of the convention, and they obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting the placing of the ruling in effect.

Following the filing of the suit in 1933, the Assistant Grand Chief Engineer was sent to Shreveport to negotiate a settlement of the dispute between the contending divisions. The evidence in the record fails to show what negotiations, if any, were had between the divisions, but it does show that, due to the efforts of the Assistant Grand Chief Engineer, they reached an agreement in the month of November, 1934, for the dismissal of the suit of Division 516 and for a division of the work, with the right reserved to Division 516 to apply to the next General Convention of the Brotherhood for a reconsideration of its ruling of 1933. The tentative agreement as to the division of the work, which has since been in effect, was upon the following terms, viz.:

"All yard work in Alexandria yards to be given to the Engineers on the former Louisiana Railroad & Navigation Company, with the understanding that if three switch engines are to be used in that yard the third switch engine shall be given to the Engineers on the Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad. In Shreveport yards all switch engine work to be divided and apportioned on a 50-50 per cent basis, as between the Engineers on the former LR&NRR, and the Engineers on the L&ARR."

In accordance with the right reserved to it under the agreement, Division 516 appealed to the General Convention of the Brotherhood held in 1936, also at Cleveland, Ohio, for a rescission of the convention's 1933 ruling. Both divisions were notified that the appeal would come before the convention. Division 632 made a written answer to the appeal, which was filed in the Grand Office for consideration by the convention.

In due course, the appeal was presented to the convention and a committee was appointed to hear the parties and to report its findings. Representatives of both divisions appeared before the committee, which, after hearing both sides to the dispute, submitted the following recommendation to the convention, viz.:

"We, your Committee, appointed on Appeal Case No. 19, with reference to the controversy between Divisions 632 and 516, on the L&ARR, find after careful consideration of all statements pertaining to the case that this case was not handled in accordance with Section 28(a) Standing Rules. We, therefore, recommend that the action taken by the Convention in 1933 with reference to this case be rescinded and that the decision of the General Committee of Adjustment supported by the Advisory Board's decision prior to the 1933 Convention be reestablished, as this recommendation is in accordance with the law of our Constitution and By-Laws."

After some discussion on the floor the committee's report was adopted by the convention.

Under date of July 21, 1936, the Grand Chief Engineer addressed a letter to General Chairman Owens, informing him of the action taken by the General Convention. Copies of this letter were also sent to the contending divisions. Following receipt of the copy of the letter by Division 632, this suit was brought to annul the convention's ruling and to enjoin the defendants from putting the...