International Ass'n of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Dist. Lodge No. 19 v. Southern Pacific Transp. Co., 78-2072

• Decision Date: 29 August 1980
• Docket Number: No. 78-2072,78-2072
• Citation: 626 F.2d 715
• Parties: 105 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2484, 89 Lab.Cas. P 12,253 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS, DISTRICT LODGE # 19, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 715

626 F.2d 715

105 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2484, 89 Lab.Cas. P 12,253

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS, DISTRICT LODGE # 19, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 78-2072.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted June 10, 1980.

Decided Aug. 29, 1980.

Gene G. Muramoto, Sacramento, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant.

William F. Adams, San Francisco, Cal., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Before ANDERSON and FARRIS, Circuit Judges, and RICHEY, ^* District Judge.

FARRIS, Circuit Judge:

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Lodge #19, appeals from the district court's refusal to enforce four awards of the National Railroad Adjustment Board and to make the awards applicable to employees situated similarly to the named claimant employees. Because the board did not exceed its jurisdiction in making the awards, we reverse.

The union and Southern Pacific Transportation Company entered a collective bargaining agreement which provided that some traveling motorcar mechanics be paid on a monthly basis rather than the usual hourly basis. A dispute arose between the union and Southern Pacific over the method and rate of calculating the compensation for monthly-rated motorcar mechanics who work in excess of 1751/3 hours in a given month. The parties were unable to resolve the dispute, and the union submitted to the board four claims on behalf of four mechanics. The board ruled in favor of the compensation scheme advocated by the union, a standard time-and-a-half rate for any time worked in excess of 1751/3 hours in a single month. The board held that Southern Pacific's fluctuating scale should be discontinued.

Southern Pacific paid the four claims for the month of June, 1974, but refused to pay claims for similarly situated employees and continued to use its fluctuating scale. The union petitioned the district court to enforce the board's awards. The district court dismissed the petition because (1) the awards were rendered in excess of the board's jurisdiction under 45 U.S.C. § 153 and (2) the awards were already paid in full.

I. The Jurisdictional Validity of the Board's Awards

The scope of a federal district court's review of an award by the National Railroad Adjustment Board has been described as "among the narrowest known to the law." Diamond v. Terminal Railway Alabama State Docks, 421 F.2d 228, 233 (5th Cir. 1970). The Supreme Court recently reemphasized the limited nature of judicial review in Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Sheehan, 439 U.S. 89, 99 S.Ct. 399, 58 L.Ed.2d 354 (1978). The findings and order of the board are conclusive and may be set aside only for three reasons: "(1) failure of the Adjustment Board to comply with the requirements of the Railway Labor Act; (2) failure of the Adjustment Board to conform, or confine, itself to matters within the scope of its jurisdiction; and (3) fraud or corruption." Id. at 93, 99 S.Ct. at 402.

The district court held, and Southern Pacific now maintains, that the board exceeded its jurisdiction when it interpreted the collective bargaining agreement to include a time-and-a-half overtime rate for monthly-rated motorcar mechanics. In Rossi v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 507 F.2d 404 (9th Cir. 1974), we stated that "(a)wards of the National Railroad Adjustment Board (NRAB) enjoy the same finality as awards of arbitration panels. . . . Courts will not review the merits of arbitration awards so long as the award is based properly on the applicable collective bargaining agreement." Id. at 405. The Fifth Circuit articulated the appropriate standard of review in Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Central of Georgia Railway Co., 415 F.2d 403 (5th Cir. 1969). An award exceeds the board's jurisdiction if it is " 'without foundation in reason or fact' . . . . (A)n award must have a basis that is at least rationally inferable, if not obviously drawn, from the letter or purpose of the collective bargaining agreement." Id. at 411-12.

The district court found that the awards were "not derived from the wording or purpose of the collective bargaining agreement." Although characterized as a factual finding, this statement is taken directly from the legal standard for determining whether an award is in excess of the board's jurisdiction, and we will review it as more closely akin to a conclusion of law. Rule 2(b) of the collective bargaining agreement reads in part: "No overtime will be allowed (to monthly-rated traveling...