Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Smith

• Decision Date: 02 January 1958
• Docket Number: No. 13069.,13069.
• Citation: 251 F.2d 282
• Parties: BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN, Appellant, v. Charles V. SMITH, and Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen General Committee of Adjustment for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, a Maryland corporation, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

251 F.2d 282 (1958)

BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN, Appellant, v. Charles V. SMITH, and Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen General Committee of Adjustment for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, a Maryland corporation, Appellees.

No. 13069.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

January 2, 1958.

J. A. Culbertson, Cincinnati, Ohio, for appellant.

Charles A. Hastings, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Joseph A. Segal and David W. Goldman of Paxton & Seasongood, Cincinnati, Ohio, V. C. Shuttleworth, of Elliott, Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on the brief), for appellees.

Before SIMONS, Chief Judge, and ALLEN and MILLER, Circuit Judges.

ALLEN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal arises out of an action praying for an injunction against defendant The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, hereinafter called the Railroad, on behalf of plaintiff Smith and others similarly situated. The case arises out of the following facts which, for the most part, are stipulated:

Smith had been employed as a trainman on the Railroad since 1929, and was a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, a voluntary labor association, hereinafter called BRT. Pursuant to the Railway Labor Act as amended, 45 U.S. C., Section 152, Eleventh, 45 U.S.C.A. § 152, subd. 11, BRT negotiated a Union Shop Agreement with the Railroad effective October 1, 1951, to date. On August 6, 1944, Smith was promoted to the status of conductor on the Railroad. Thereafter he performed dual service in the capacity of both trainman and conductor, but at the time this case was filed he was regularly assigned as conductor. The Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, joint plaintiff, hereinafter called ORC, an organization of national scope organized under the Railway Labor Act, did not have a union shop agreement with the Railroad, but since 1927 it had been the exclusive representative of all men employed by the Railroad of the craft and class of conductors, being their certified bargaining representative. Smith under the collective bargaining contract between ORC and the Railroad, started to acquire seniority rights as a conductor at the time of his promotion on August 6, 1944. July 1, 1952, Smith ceased to maintain his membership in BRT, and was cited by BRT July 28, 1952, for noncompliance with the Union Shop Agreement. After the usual administrative proceedings decision was rendered against Smith June 4, 1956. It was determined that Smith had violated the Union Shop Agreement between BRT and the Railroad, and Smith was notified by the Railroad that his employment would be terminated June 14, 1956. Twenty other employees, some of them residing outside the Circuit, who have performed dual service with the Railroad as both trainmen and conductors, are subject to discharge because of noncompliance with the BRT Union Shop Agreement, nine of them having been so notified. The complaint prays for relief for Smith and for all other employees of the Railroad similarly situated belonging to the craft and class of conductors represented by ORC, and for permanent injunction.

The District Court granted the injunction. It held that the Union Shop Agreement between the Railroad and BRT, as interpreted and applied by the parties, is invalid and in violation of the Railway Labor Act as amended, particularly Section 2, Third, Fourth, Seventh, Ninth and Eleventh, to the extent that the agreement destroys the employment and seniority rights of Smith and others similarly situated as conductors and as members of the craft and class of conductors.¹ It held that the termination of the employment and seniority rights as conductors, of the plaintiff and others similarly situated, because of noncompliance with the Union Shop Agreement between the BRT and the Railroad, is unlawful under the Railway Labor Act as amended. It held that the controversy does not involve or require the interpretation of the trainmen's Union Shop Agreement, inasmuch as there is no dispute between the parties to the agreement, the trainmen and the Railroad, as to its interpretation or application; that the National Railroad Adjustment Board therefore has no jurisdiction under Section 152, Ninth, and that plaintiff and others similarly situated are without an adequate administrative remedy. It also held that the ORC has no administrative remedy available under the Railway Labor Act, as the bargaining representative of the craft and class of conductors. It specifically held that, in so far as the discharges contemplated will terminate the employment and seniority as trainmen of plaintiff and others similarly situated, plaintiffs neither seek nor are entitled to relief with respect thereto. A permanent injunction was granted against the Railroad restraining it from terminating or taking any action to terminate the employment status and seniority of Smith and all other employees similarly situated as conductors because of their noncompliance with the Union Shop Agreement. A permanent injunction was issued against BRT restraining it from taking action to require termination by the Railroad of the employment and seniority as conductors of plaintiff and those similarly situated.

The Railroad did not appeal from the judgment and only the BRT, which had been allowed to intervene as party defendant, contests the judgment in this court. It was agreed by the parties that under usual railroad procedures the employees had dual but separate job status and seniority, both as conductors and trainmen. It was stipulated that the ORC is the exclusive bargaining representative of the craft and class of conductors and that the BRT is the exclusive representative of the trainmen.

The controversy presented arose out of the fact that in 1952, after the Union Shop Agreement had been consummated between the Railroad and BRT, Smith and others failed to pay dues to BRT. In accordance with the Union Shop Agreement, BRT then demanded that the employment status and seniority of plaintiffs be terminated. However, it demanded their discharge not only as trainmen but as conductors. The Railroad declares that it will terminate Smith's employment unless restrained and that this action will necessarily terminate Smith's employment and seniority as conductor as well as trainman.

The case thus presents a different problem from that of Pennsylvania Railroad Company v. Rychlik, 352 U.S. 480, 77 S.Ct. 421, 1 L.Ed.2d 480, and Pigott v. Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Company, 6 Cir., 221 F.2d 736. These cases involved suits by employees who had been discharged for noncompliance with a union shop contract, where the employees held jobs only in the same craft or class represented by the union. The instant controversy involves employees who have separate job status and separate seniority rights as both conductors and trainmen. We have one union seeking to enforce its union shop contract, not only against its own members, but against members of another union which has exclusive jurisdiction over the conductor relationship.

BRT urges that the case is not within the jurisdiction of the courts but must be handled exclusively by the National Railroad Adjustment Board. We think the District Court decided this question correctly. Since the controversy arises under the laws of the United States, 45 U.S.C., Section 151 et seq., 45 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., the case is within the jurisdiction of the District Court, 28 U.S.C., Sections 1332 and 1337, unless under the Railway Labor Act jurisdiction is vested in one of the administrative boards.

BRT, relying upon adjudications which involve the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements and upon cases which cover jurisdictional disputes between separate unions, urges that the decision upon this point was reversible error.

While in such controversies the National Railroad Adjustment Board has exclusive jurisdiction (Slocum v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, 339 U.S. 239, 70 S.Ct. 577, 94 L.Ed. 795), the decisions relating to the validity of railway labor agreements hold that the administrative remedy is not available. Here there is no question as to the interpretation of the Union Shop Agreement such as was present in the Slocum case, supra. The issue is not the meaning of the agreement which, in fact, is plain in its provisions and effect. The validity of the Union Shop Agreement as between BRT, the Railroad and the trainmen is not questioned. The issue is whether the BRT Union Shop Agreement is valid if interpreted and carried out by the Railroad and BRT so as to deprive Smith and others similarly situated of their employment as conductors. Decision of this issue depends upon the meaning of the statute and over such a question the federal courts have jurisdiction. In ...