BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE F. & E. v. BUTTE, A. & P. RY. CO.
| Decision Date | 10 January 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 16882.,16882. |
| Citation | 286 F.2d 706 |
| Parties | BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN & ENGINEMEN et al., Appellants, v. BUTTE, ANACONDA & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY et al., Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Harold C. Heiss, Russell B. Day, Cleveland, Ohio, E. J. Foley, D. L. Holland, Butte, Mont., for appellants.
W. M. Kirkpatrick, P. L. MacDonald, R. Lewis Brown, Jr., J. B. Woodlief, Butte, Mont., for appellee.
Before BARNES, HAMLEY and JERTBERG, Circuit Judges
This action arises out of a prior adjudication wherein Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway Company, appellee herein, sought and was denied an injunction against a strike then contemplated by appellants. Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, D.C.Mont.1958, 168 F.Supp. 911. Jurisdiction, then and presently, exists because the action arises under the laws of the United States; viz. the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C.A. §§ 151-163, and the amount in controversy exceeds the jurisdictional limit in force when the action was originally filed. 28 U.S.C. § 1331. This court has jurisdiction on appeal. 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
In late 1957 appellee sought to induce appellants to agree to certain changes in the terms of their employment contracts. Appellee desired that switching crews, which were then composed of five men, be reduced to three men. When appellants refused to accede to appellee's demand, appellee, acting under section six of the Railway Labor Act, served upon appellants notices for changes in their contracts (45 U.S.C.A. § 156). The services of the National Mediation Board were requested. A few months later, however, appellee attempted to withdraw the section six notices, and to terminate the services of the mediation board. Appellee announced that the switching operations, previously conducted by its employees, would, after a forthcoming change in switching yards, be conducted by employees of its parent corporation, the Anaconda Company. Anaconda Company employees are represented by the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers.
Responding to appellee's actions, appellant Brotherhoods issued a strike notice, effective March 14, 1958. On March 13, appellee obtained from a Montana state court a temporary injunction against the strike; because of the presence of a federal question, however, the case was transferred to United States District Court. The district court concluded that appellee had violated the "status quo provisions" of the Railway Labor Act, which preclude alterations in working conditions after intervention by the National Mediation Board. Thus since appellee was acting in violation of the law, it was not entitled to the remedies provided by a court of equity. Accordingly, the trial court dissolved the injunction. This determination was upheld on appeal in a decision rendered by this court on May 18, 1959. 268 F.2d 54, certiorari denied 361 U.S. 864, 80 S.Ct. 124, 4 L.Ed.2d 104.
Before oral argument in the appeal just mentioned, the International Union of Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers, and its local, Butte Miners' Union No. 1, obtained a temporary restraining order from a Montana state court. This restraining order, which is still in effect, prohibits Anaconda Company from giving loading and switching work, now accomplished by members of the Miners' Union, to members of appellant brotherhoods. Accordingly, a strike by appellants would be futile; appellee cannot restore the status quo so long as its parent is bound by the restraining order in question. To rectify this situation appellants filed a supplemental answer and counterclaim in the federal district court for the District of Montana. The relief sought by appellants is twofold; first they request an injunction preventing the Miners' Union from progressing with their suit in state court or attempting to secure compliance with the temporary restraining order; secondly, they ask for an order requiring appellee to restore the status quo. The district court, however, denied appellants leave to file their supplementary answer and counterclaim. Hence, appellants have taken this appeal.
Appellants contend that the original decree beside dissolving the injunction previously obtained by appellee, also determined that appellee had violated the status quo provisions of the Railway Labor Act. Appellee can be forced to restore the status quo, however, only if it is relieved from the restraining order obtained by the Miners' Union. Thus, appellants contend here, as they did in the court below, that the Miners' Union must be made a party to this dispute in order to enforce the trial court's original decree.
Appellants' argument overlooks the fact that the trial court in its original decree did not order appellee to restore the status quo. True, the trial court did determine that appellee had violated the Railway Labor Act, but the court made this conclusion only as a logical step on the path to its final decision. And that decision did no more than dissolve the injunction which appellee had originally obtained from a Montana state court. That restoration of the status quo was not an issue in the original proceeding is conclusively shown by an examination of this court's review of that proceeding. This court stated as follows:
268 F.2d 54, at page 60. (Emphasis added.)
It thus becomes clear that the error in appellants' argument stems from the confusion of two concepts: (1) restoration of the status quo, and (2) violation of the status quo provisions of the Railway Labor Act. The former was not an issue in the prior action. The latter was an issue, but its determination was merely an essential preliminary to the court's final determination. Appellants, then, can be successful in their attempt to bring in the Miners' Union as a party only if they first convince the court below or this court it should modify the original decree to require appellee to restore the status quo.
The trial court held, however, that appellants could not now ask for such relief. Did the trial court err in this determination? In our opinion, the trial court was correct in this crucial conclusion, and should therefore be affirmed.
Appellee contends that nothing in the Rules of Civil Procedure entitles appellants at this late date to reopen and amend the judgment. Rule 59(e), 28 U.S.C.A., provides that a motion to amend the judgment must be served within ten days of the entry of judgment. Appellants apparently concede that an amendment of the judgment cannot now be made. Appellants contend, however, that they are not seeking to amend the judgment. Their aim is merely to enforce an existing decree; and for such purpose a supplementary bill assuredly will lie. Root v. Woolworth, 1893, 150 U.S. 401, 14 S.Ct. 136, 37 L.Ed. 1123.
The difficulty with this argument is similar to that which infects appellants' argument in favor of joining the Miners' Union. The trial court in its original decree did not order any relief which can now be further effectuated by ordering appellee to restore the status quo. The court did nothing more than dissolve the injunction against appellants' contemplated strike. As a step along the route to this result the court determined that appellee had violated the Railway Labor Act, but no relief was predicated upon this conclusion other than the dissolution of the injunction. The decree granting that relief is self executing; it cannot be made more effective by any further order or decree.
A consideration of the facts of Root v. Woolworth, supra, upon which appellants strongly rely, will demonstrate appellants' error. In Root a supplemental bill was indeed filed some twenty years after the original decree, but it was a genuine supplemental bill, further effectuating the original decree. The original decree, determining that plaintiff's predecessor in interest had paramount title to the realty in dispute, required defendant to execute a conveyance to plaintiff's predecessor in interest. The required conveyance was subsequently executed by a special master. Years later, however, defendant re-entered upon the premises in controversy with the purpose, allegedly, of inducing people to accept leases under him,...
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