Gibbons v. Trapnell

• Decision Date: 19 December 1955
• Docket Number: No. 1601.,1601.
• Citation: 151 F. Supp. 453
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
• Parties: Richard GIBBONS, etc., Plaintiff, v. Paul TRAPNELL et al., Defendants.

151 F. Supp. 453

Richard GIBBONS, etc., Plaintiff, v. Paul TRAPNELL et al., Defendants.

No. 1601.

United States District Court S. D. California, S. D.

December 7, 1955.

Judgment of Dismissal December 19, 1955.

John C. Stevenson and Lionel Richman, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff.

Horton & Knox and James H. Carter, El Centro, Cal., for defendant Trapnell.

MATHES, District Judge.

This cause having come before the Court for hearing on defendants' motion filed October 31, 1955, to dismiss the action, and plaintiff's motion filed November 3, 1955, to amend his complaint to join the claimant employees as co-plaintiffs; and the motions having been submitted for decision; and it appearing to the Court:

(1) That this action was commenced on March 9, 1954, by the plaintiff, "Richard Gibbons, as a member, representative, Secretary-Treasurer, and on behalf of the membership of Truckdrivers, Warehousemen & Helpers, Local Union No. 898, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, A. F. of L., an unincorporated association";

(2) That in the first cause of action for injunctive relief against an alleged breach of a collective bargaining agreement, plaintiff invokes the jurisdiction of this Court under § 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 29 U.S.C.A. § 185(a), but the Act does not confer upon this Court jurisdiction of such a claim for injunctive relief (see: Associated Tel. Co., Ltd. v. Communications Workers, D.C.S.D.Cal.1953, 114 F.Supp. 334; International Longshoremen's etc., Union Local 142 v. Libby, McNeill & Libby, D.C.D.Hawaii 1953, 114 F.Supp. 249).

(3) That § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 does not confer upon this Court jurisdiction of the claims for unpaid wages asserted by the Union as assignee in the second and third causes of action (Association of Westinghouse Salaried Employees v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 1955, 348 U.S. 437, 461, 75 S.Ct. 489, 99 L.Ed. 510); and this Court has no jurisdiction of such claims in the absence of diversity of citizenship (see: 28 U.S.C. § 1332; United Protective Workers of America v. Ford Motor Co., 7 Cir., 1952, 194 F.2d 997, 1001; Id., 7 Cir. 1955, 223 F.2d 49, 48 A.L.R.2d 1285; Silverton v. Rich, D.C.S.D.Cal. 1954, 119 F.Supp. 434; cf. Hamilton Foundry & Mach. Co. v. International, etc., Workers, 6 Cir., 1951, 193 F.2d 209, 215, certiorari denied 1952, 343 U.S. 966, 72 S.Ct. 1060, 96 L.Ed. 1363);

(4) That the Fair Labor Standards Act, under which the jurisdiction of this Court is invoked in the fourth and fifth causes of action, does not authorize the action to be brought by an assignee or "an agent or representative," but only by "one or more employees for and in behalf of himself or themselves and other employees similarly situated" (29 U.S.C.A. § 216(b); cf. La Guardia v. Austin-Bliss, etc., Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1941, 41 F.Supp. 678); and the Act also provides that: "No employee shall be a party plaintiff to any such action unless he gives his consent in writing to become such a party and such consent is filed in the court in which such action is brought" ibid.; and

(5) That the Fair Labor Standards Act further provides that every action for unpaid overtime compensation or liquidated damages "shall be forever barred unless commenced within two years after the cause of action accrued" (29 U.S.C.A. § 255(a); cf. Matheny v. Porter, 10 Cir., 1946, 158 F.2d 478), and that the action "shall be considered to be commenced in the case of any individual claimant—(a) on the date when the complaint is filed, if he is specifically named as a party plaintiff in the complaint and his written consent to become a party plaintiff is filed on such date * * * or (b) * * * on the subsequent date on which such written consent is filed * * *." id. § 256;

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