Hostetler v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen

• Citation: 183 F. Supp. 281
• Decision Date: 27 April 1960
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 9795 and 10136.
• Parties: Kenneth L. HOSTETLER et al. v. BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN, an unincorporated association, and General Grievance Committee, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Baltimore & Ohio System, Defendants and Third-Party Plaintiffs, v. BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY, a body corporate, Third-Party Defendant. James F. DECKER et al. v. BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN, an unincorporated association, and General Grievance Committee, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Baltimore & Ohio System.
• Court: United States District Courts. 4th Circuit. United States District Court (Maryland)

183 F. Supp. 281

Kenneth L. HOSTETLER et al. v. BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN, an unincorporated association, and General Grievance Committee, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Baltimore & Ohio System, Defendants and Third-Party Plaintiffs, v. BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY, a body corporate, Third-Party Defendant.

James F. DECKER et al. v. BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN, an unincorporated association, and General Grievance Committee, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Baltimore & Ohio System.

Civ. Nos. 9795 and 10136.

United States District Court D. Maryland.

April 27, 1960.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Herbert M. Brune, Baltimore, Md., and Meyer Fix, Rochester, N. Y., for plaintiffs.

Bernard M. Savage and Irving Schwartzman, Baltimore, Md., and Wayland K. Sullivan, Cleveland, Ohio, for defendants. S. R. Prince, Baltimore, Md., for B. & O. R. Co.

THOMSEN, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs in this consolidated case are trainmen, former employees of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company (B&O), who deliberately abandoned their membership in defendant Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT), stopped paying dues to that union, joined a rival union, Union of Railroad Operating Crafts (UROC), which is not "national in scope" as that term is used in 45 U.S. C.A. § 152, Eleventh (c), were cited to B&O by BRT for violation of the Union Shop Agreement, and were subsequently discharged by B&O. The Hostetler suit was filed on July 12, 1957, against BRT and its General Grievance Committee, referred to collectively herein as BRT; the Decker suit was filed on November 8, 1957, against BRT and B&O, but in May 1959, the Decker plaintiffs dismissed with prejudice their action against B&O.

Plaintiffs seek damages from BRT for procuring their discharge. They contend: I. That BRT discriminated against them in expelling them from the union and in citing them to B&O for violation of the Union Shop Agreement. II. That the Union Shop Agreement between BRT and B&O was rendered illegal because after January 1, 1956, BRT used some dues money for political purposes; hence the Agreement could not justify BRT's continued insistence that plaintiffs be discharged for non-payment of dues, despite the fact that such non-payment and the expulsion and citation of plaintiffs therefor occurred between December 1951 and January 1954, before any dues money was used for political purposes.

I. Defendants deny any discrimination. II. They deny any improper use of dues; and deny that any such use, if it existed, would have rendered the Union Shop Agreement illegal, would have required BRT to withdraw its charges against plaintiffs, or would give plaintiffs any right to recover damages from BRT in this case. Defendants also rely on the following defenses: I(A). The exclusive jurisdiction of the National Railway Adjustment Board (NRAB). II(A). Lack of jurisdiction in this court over the second cause of action. III(A). Res adjudicata as to some or all plaintiffs by reason of (1) a previous case in this court, (2) the decisions of the NRAB in those cases submitted to it by B&O, and (3) the decisions of B&O's appeal-hearing officer. III(B). Limitations, laches and estoppel.

Defendants have moved for summary judgment. I find that there is no genuine issue about the facts material to the decision of that motion; where there is any genuine dispute about any facts, they have been stated most favorably to plaintiffs.

On October 1, 1951, the Union Shop Agreement between B&O and BRT, as collective bargaining agent for certain employees of B&O, became effective. The Agreement was authorized by the Railway Labor Act, as amended in 1951, 64 Stat. 1238, 45 U.S.C.A. § 152, Eleventh (a) and (c).

Plaintiffs were already members of BRT or became members shortly thereafter. While maintenance of union membership was made "a condition of continued employment", the statute as amended also provided that this condition would be satisfied "if said employee shall hold or acquire membership in any one of the labor organizations, national in scope, organized in accordance with this chapter and admitting to membership employees of a craft or class in any of said services". 45 U.S.C.A. § 152, Eleventh (c).

On various dates between December 1951 and June 1953 plaintiffs withdrew from BRT and joined UROC. They stopped paying dues to BRT and were expelled from the union for that reason. Plaintiffs joined UROC, believing that it was "national in scope", and that membership in UROC satisfied the condition specified in the statute. However, on February 25, 1957, the Supreme Court decided that UROC was not "national in scope" and was not "organized in accordance with" the statute. Pennsylvania R. Co. v. Rychlik, 352 U.S. 480, 77 S.Ct. 421, 1 L.Ed.2d 480.

BRT had always contended that membership in UROC was not a sufficient maintenance of union status to satisfy the statutory requirement and to protect plaintiffs' employment by B&O. Accordingly, on various dates in 1952 to 1954, after plaintiffs had been expelled from BRT for non-payment of dues, BRT cited plaintiffs to B&O for failure to maintain union membership as required by the Union Shop Agreement. The usual notices were sent, hearings were demanded by each of the plaintiffs, and those hearings were held. In each case it was proved that the employee had voluntarily withdrawn from BRT, that he had ceased paying his dues, and that he had joined UROC. The hearings resulted in decisions adverse to plaintiffs, and all of them appealed. Appeal hearings, as provided for by the Agreement, were held in 1955, but the B&O appeals hearing officer delayed his decision until after the Supreme Court decided Rychlik. Thereupon, appeal decisions adverse to plaintiffs were rendered, and, since BRT continued to press for their discharge, B&O discharged plaintiffs in April, May and June, 1957.

The reason for the discharge in each case was that the employee had stopped paying dues to and had ceased to be a member of BRT. The only issue raised by plaintiffs in the administrative proceedings was that membership in and payment of dues to UROC was a sufficient union membership to protect their employment by the railroad. The question of discrimination by BRT in expelling and citing plaintiffs was not raised, nor was any question with respect to the use of dues.

B&O submitted to NRAB the cases of all the employees who are now plaintiffs in the Decker case, and NRAB sustained the action of the B&O. Only one of the employees (Archie Lewis) appeared or filed any papers with NRAB, although all received due notice of the proceedings. B&O also submitted to NRAB the cases of some of the Hostetler plaintiffs, but withdrew those cases when all of the plaintiffs in the Hostetler case executed covenants not to sue B&O in consideration of $100 apiece paid by B&O, the agreement of B&O to reinstate the men in their jobs with seniority if BRT would consent, and the agreement of B&O to withdraw the cases of the Hostetler plaintiffs already submitted to NRAB and not to submit the cases of the other Hostetler plaintiffs.

I. Discrimination in Expulsion from BRT and Citation to B&O

A. Jurisdiction over Claims for Damages for Discrimination

This court has jurisdiction to consider plaintiffs' claims for damages against BRT based upon the alleged discrimination of the union in expelling them and citing them to B&O. Cunningham v. Erie R. Co., 2 Cir., 266 F.2d 411, 414; Latham v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 2 Cir., 274 F.2d 507; Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 323 U.S. 192, 65 S.Ct. 226, 89 L.Ed. 173; Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80; McNamar v. Baltimore & O. C. Term. R. Co., 7 Cir., 254 F.2d 717; Shiels v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 7 Cir., 254 F.2d 863, affirming D.C.S.D.Ind., 154 F.Supp. 917, certiorari denied 358 U.S. 846, 79 S.Ct. 71, 3 L.Ed.2d 80, rehearing denied 358 U.S. 896, 79 S.Ct. 155, 3 L.Ed.2d 123.

It is not necessary for a plaintiff to exhaust his remedies under the Railway Labor Act before maintaining such an action as this. The NRAB has jurisdiction over disputes between a railroad and one or more of its employees; it does not have jurisdiction over disputes between a union and its members. Even where the dispute is between a railroad and an employee, the employee is not required to exhaust his remedies under the Act before suing the railroad for wrongful discharge. Moore v. Illinois Central R. Co., 312 U.S. 630, 61 S.Ct. 754, 85 L.Ed. 1089.

The dictum in Alabaugh v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 4 Cir., 222 F.2d 861, 867, discussed in Cunningham, 266 F.2d at page 415 and in Latham, 274 F.2d at page 512, does not forbid the prosecution of this action. Alabaugh was not an action for damages, but for an injunction to prevent discharge. In Slocum v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 339 U.S. 239, 70 S.Ct. 577, 94 L.Ed. 795, quoted at length by Judge Parker in Alabaugh, the Supreme Court said: "Our holding here is not inconsistent with our holding in Moore * * * A common-law or statutory action for wrongful discharge differs from any remedy which the Board (NRAB) has power to provide, and does not involve questions of future relations between the railroad and its employees. If a court in handling such a case must consider some provision of a collective-bargaining agreement, its interpretation would of course have no binding effect on future interpretations by the Board." 339 U.S. at page 244, 70 S.Ct. at page 580.

BRT further argues that Rule 7(d) of "Rules and Rates of Pay for Trainmen", which was made part of the Union Shop Agreement, affords the only remedy to which plaintiffs would be entitled. Rule 7(d) provides: "* * * If it is found the employee has been unjustly suspended or dismissed from the service, such employee shall be reinstated with his seniority rights unimpaired and compensated for the wage loss, if any, resulting from said suspension or dismissal."

Whatever protection this rule may afford the railroad (cf. Shiels, supr...