Evans v. International Typographical Union

Decision Date25 February 1948
Docket NumberCivil Action No. 1587.
Citation76 F. Supp. 881
PartiesEVANS, Regional Director of Ninth Region of National Labor Relations Board, v. INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION et al.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Robert N. Denham, Gen. Counsel, David P. Findling, Associate Gen. Counsel, and Winthrop A. Johns, Trial Atty., all of Washington, D. C., and Allen Sinsheimer, Jr., Atty., National Labor Relations Board, of Cincinnati, Ohio, for petitioner.

Van Arkel & Kaiser, Henry Kaiser, and Gerhard P. Van Arkel, all of Washington, D. C., and Clarence R. Martin, of Indianapolis, Ind., for respondents.

Elisha Hanson, and William K. Van Allen, both of Washington, D. C., and Wray E. Fleming, of Indianapolis, Ind., for American Newspaper Publishers Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Gerard D. Reilly, and Charles Edward Rhetts, both of Washington, D. C., and John K. Ruckelshaus, of Indianapolis, Ind., for Inland Daily Press Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Thurman Arnold, Paul Porter, and Arnold, Fortas & Porter, all of Washington, D. C., and Baker & Daniels and G. R. Redding, all of Indianapolis, Ind., for Southern Newspaper Publishers' Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Thomas F. O'Mara, of Terre Haute, Ind., for Chicago Typographical Union No. 16, amicus curiae.

Welly K. Hopkins, of Washington, D. C., for United Mine Workers of America, amicus curiae.

Lee Pressman, Gen. Counsel, and Frank Donner, Asst. Counsel, both of Washington, D. C., for Congress of Industrial Organizations, amicus curiae.

Padway, Woll, Thatcher & Glenn and Herbert S. Thatcher, all of Washington, D. C., for American Federation of Labor, amicus curiae.

Jerome Y. Sturm, of New York City, for International Ass'n of Machinists, amicus curiae.

SWYGERT, District Judge.

This is an action brought pursuant to Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended by the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, § 101, 29 U.S. C.A. § 160(j). This section provides substantially that the National Labor Relations Board, after issuance of a complaint under the provisions of Section 10(b) of the Act charging the commission of an unfair labor practice, may petition a federal district court "for appropriate temporary relief or restraining order." A petition has been filed pursuant to this statutory authority and upon the issuance of a rule to show cause why the relief prayed for in the petition should not be granted, the respondents have moved to dismiss this action on two grounds. It is their first contention that Section 10(j) of the Act is unconstitutional because it is repugnant to Article III, § 1 and § 2, and the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Their second contention is that the National Labor Relations Board itself, rather than its Regional Director or the General Counsel, is the only party which may properly petition for the relief sought, and that the Board has unlawfully attempted to delegate to the Regional Directors its powers under Section 10(j).

The authority of courts of equity to grant interlocutory relief pending a final adjudication is of ancient origin and needs no support of cited authority. The application for such interlocutory relief need not be confined to the tribunal to which the final determination of the principal issues is committed. Looney v. Eastern Texas R. R. Co., 1918, 247 U.S. 214, 38 S.Ct. 460, 62 L.Ed. 1084; Erhardt v. Boaro, 1885, 113 U.S. 537, 5 S.Ct. 565, 28 L.Ed. 1116; Eastern Texas Ry. Co. v. Railroad Commission of Texas, D.C., 1917, 242 F. 300; Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Soderberg, C.C., 1898, 86 F. 49. There is thus no novelty in the provision for the separation of the adjudication of the principal action by one tribunal under Section 10(b) and the proceeding before a different tribunal to obtain interlocutory relief under Section 10(j). However, the question remains whether the ancillary action to obtain interlocutory injunctive relief as authorized under Section 10(j) is a "case" or "controversy" in the Constitutional sense.

In construing the limitation of the judicial power of constitutional courts to "cases" and "controversies," the Supreme Court in Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Haworth, 300 U.S. 227, at pages 240, 241, 57 S.Ct. 461, 464, 81 L.Ed. 617, 108 A.L.R. 1000, said:

"A `controversy' in this sense must be one that is appropriate for judicial determination. Osborn v. United States Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, 819, 6 L.Ed. 204. A justiciable controversy is thus distinguished from a difference or dispute of a hypothetical or abstract character; from one that is academic or moot. United States v. Alaska S. S. Co., 253 U.S. 113, 116, 40 S.Ct. 448, 449, 64 L.Ed. 808. The controversy must be definite and concrete, touching the legal relations of parties having adverse legal interests. South Spring Gold Co. v. Amador Gold Co., 145 U.S. 300, 301, 12 S.Ct. 921, 36 L.Ed. 712; Fairchild v. Hughes, 258 U.S. 126, 129, 42 S.Ct. 274, 275, 66 L.Ed. 499; Massachusetts v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447, 487, 488, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078. It must be a real and substantial controversy admitting of specific relief through a decree of a conclusive character, as distinguished from an opinion advising what the law would be upon a hypothetical state of facts."

In applying this statement to the case at bar, the question is narrowed to whether an interlocutory decree granted in a proceeding under Section 10(j) is "of a conclusive character." That is, is it final and conclusive when the court that acts on the application for such interlocutory equitable relief does not have jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate the issues of the principal or parent action, which issues are presented to and must be decided by an administrative agency?

While the jurisdiction of the district court under Section 10(j) is confined to the granting of interlocutory relief, its decision is final and conclusive as to the application for such relief, except as that decision may be reviewed on appeal. This finality, of course, does not preclude the revision or modification of its decree by the district court pending the determination of the principal controversy by the Board. Milk Wagon Drivers Union v. Meadowmoor Co., 1941, 312 U.S. 287, 298, 61 S.Ct. 552, 85 L.Ed. 836, 132 A.L.R. 1200.

When the decision of a district court in a proceeding under Section 10(j) for interlocutory relief is viewed in its relation to the primary proceeding under Section 10(b), it is neither final nor conclusive as to the issues there presented. It is not final because the standard of inquiry in Section 10(j) is the probability of the existence of facts, while the decision of the Board in a Section 10(b) proceeding must rest upon a full hearing and a measure of proof and inquiry extending beyond the standard of probability. The decision of the district court is not res judicata upon the final hearing of an administrative complaint, because in an application for interlocutory and temporary relief under Section 10(j), the court does not undertake to pass upon the merits of the principal controversy. That lies within the province of the Board. The district court determines only whether temporary relief or a restraining order should be granted during the pendency of an adjudication of the issues by the Board. However, these elements of inconclusiveness and lack of finality are inherent in any decision granting interlocutory equitable relief pendente lite. And these factors do not render the proceeding for such relief any the less a "case" or "controversy" within the meaning of the Constitution, because they exist, not as infirmities of the interlocutory judgment, but only in relation to the principal proceeding.

The respondents also contend that because the proceeding under Section 10(j) is previous in time to final administrative action, the jurisdiction of the district court involves an exercise of legislative or administrative functions of a non-judicial character. In the brief filed in support of their motion, this contention is stated thus: "If the court intervened before the administrative process was completed it (1) would be exercising non-judicial functions and (2) it could not render a final judgment, since there would obviously remain something more to be done by the administrative agency." The petitioner correctly points out in his brief that whether the court's functions under Section 10(j) are judicial, rather than legislative or administrative, does not depend upon whether they are auxiliary to the legislative or administrative process, but whether they are essentially judicial in character. The "question depends * * * upon the character of the proceedings." Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line, 1908, 211 U.S. 210, 226, 29 S.Ct. 67, 69, 53 L.Ed. 150.

In Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson, 1894, 154 U.S. 447, 14 S.Ct. 1125, 38 L.Ed. 1047, it was firmly established that a proceeding in a United States Court to compel a witness to testify before an administrative agency is a case or controversy in the constitutional sense and that such functions do not impose non-judicial duties upon constitutional courts. At page 487 of 154 U.S., page 1137 of 14 S.Ct., 38 L.Ed. 1047, the Supreme Court declared:

"The present proceeding is not merely ancillary and advisory. It is not, as in Gordon's case Gordon v. United States, 117 U.S. 697, one in which the United States seeks from the circuit court of the United States an opinion that `would remain a dead letter, and without any operation upon the rights of the parties.' The proceeding is one for determining rights arising out of specified matters in dispute that concern both the general public and the individual defendants. It is one in which a judgment may be rendered that will be conclusive upon the parties until reversed by this court; and that judgment may be enforced by the process of the circuit court. * * * It will be as much a judgment that may be carried into effect by judicial process as...

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    • March 27, 2012
    ...the General Counsel had complete authority to initiate and prosecute injunctions pursuant to § 10(j). See Evans v. Int'l Typographical Union, 76 F.Supp. 881, 888 (S.D.Ind.1948). This practice lasted until 1950, when the Board published a memorandum in the Federal Register explaining that th......
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    • August 18, 1960
    ...Interstate Bakeries Corp., 8 Cir., 146 F. 2d 325, 327; Douds v. Local 294, D.C. N.D.N.Y., 75 F.Supp. 414; Evans v. International Typographical Union, D.C.S. D.Ind., 76 F.Supp. 881; S. E. C. v. Torr, 2 Cir., 87 F.2d 446; American Fruit Growers v. United States, 9 Cir., 105 F. 2d 722; United ......
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    ...of authority. Penello v. Int'l Union, United Mine Workers of Am., 88 F.Supp. 935, 937 (D.D.C.1950); Evans v. Int'l Typographical Union, 76 F.Supp. 881, 889 (S.D.Ind.1948); Madden v. Int'l Union, United Mine Workers of Am., 79 F.Supp. 616, 622 (D.D.C.1948). In 1959 and 1978, Congress amended......
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