International Union v. Colonial Hardwood Floor. Co., 5750.

• Decision Date: 03 May 1948
• Docket Number: No. 5750.,5750.
• Citation: 168 F.2d 33
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL UNION UNITED FURNITURE WORKERS OF AMERICA et al. v. COLONIAL HARDWOOD FLOORING CO., Inc. (UNITED STATES, Intervener).
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

168 F.2d 33 (1948)

INTERNATIONAL UNION UNITED FURNITURE WORKERS OF AMERICA et al. v. COLONIAL HARDWOOD FLOORING CO., Inc. (UNITED STATES, Intervener).

No. 5750.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 13, 1948.

Decided May 3, 1948.

Harry Weinstock, of New York City (Jacob J. Edelman and Isidor Roman, both of Baltimore, Md., and Weinstock & Tauber, of New York City, on the brief), for appellants.

Charles Edward Rhetts, of Washington, D. C. (Gerard D. Reilly, of Washington, D. C., and Earle K. Shawe, of Baltimore, Md., on the brief), for appellee Colonial Hardwood Flooring Co., Inc.

Before PARKER, SOPER, and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.

PARKER, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order refusing to stay proceedings in a suit by an employer against a labor union and its local organization under sections 301 and 303 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 185, 187, to recover damages on account of a strike, in violation of the provisions of a contract, and a secondary boycott. The defendants moved for a stay of proceedings pursuant to section 3 of the United States Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C.A. § 3, on the ground that the contract upon which suit was instituted provided for arbitration of the matters in suit. The District Court denied the stay, holding that the contract did not provide for arbitration of these matters and that the United States Arbitration Act had no application because of the exclusion clause contained in the first paragraph thereof. The defendants have appealed from this order; and we think it clear that the denial of stay in such case is, in effect, the denial of an interlocutory injunction, from which immediate appeal lies to this court. Shanferoke Coal & Supply Corp. v. Westchester Service Corp., 293 U.S. 449, 55 S.Ct. 313, 79 L.Ed. 583; Enelow v. N. Y. Life Ins. Co., 293 U.S. 379, 55 S.Ct. 310, 79 L.Ed. 440.

The contract sued on is a trade agreement relating to wages, hours and conditions of employment and providing the terms under which the parties shall proceed during the twelve months period covered by the agreement, Article IV of the contract is entitled "Grievance Procedure" and consists of seven sections. Section 1 thereof provides for a steward to represent management for each department and a plant committee of three members. Section 2, consisting of subsections lettered from (a) to (1), provides a step by step procedure for the settlement of disputes presented by employees or groups of employees to the stewards, and for reference, if necessary, to the plant committeeman, the superintendent, the plant committee, the general manager, officers of the local union and the international union, with final reference to arbitration if settlement is not reached by the grievance procedure, and with the agreement that there shall be no strikes or lockouts but that the grievance provided in the article shall be the only method for settling disputes "which are the subject of this agreement", with the further provision that any matter pertaining to a general increase of wages shall not be subject to the grievance or arbitration provision. The remaining sections of the article, five in number, relate to the machinery of the grievance procedure, providing for conferences between the plant committee and the general manager, for the prompt answer in writing of grievances presented in writing, for the right of the president of the local union to accompany the plant committeeman in conferences concerning grievances, for the right of international representatives and local union officers to attend meetings of the plant committee and management and for sharing the expenses of arbitration.

It is clear, as held by the District Judge, that the arbitration clause embedded in Art. IV, as one of the subsections of section 2, has relation to the controversies which are made the subject of grievance procedure of that article, and not to claims for damages on account of strikes and secondary boycotts, which are matters entirely foreign thereto. Damages arising from strikes and lockouts could not reasonably be held subject to arbitration under a procedure which expressly forbids strikes and lockouts and provides for the settlement of grievances in order that they may be avoided. It would have been possible, of course, for the parties to provide for the arbitration of any dispute which might arise between them; but they did not do this, and the rule noscitur a sociis applies to the arbitration clause in the grievance procedure to limit its application to controversies to which the grievance procedure was intended to apply.

And we think, also, that the learned District Judge was correct in holding that the provisions of the United States Arbitration Act may not be applied to this contract, because it is a contract relating to the employment of workers engaged in interstate commerce, within the clear meaning of the exclusion clause contained in the first section. This is not to say, of course, that such workers and their employers may not agree to arbitrate their differences, but merely that the provisions of the United States Arbitration Act do not apply to their agreements. Art. I of that Act of February 12, 1925, c. 213, as reenacted by the Act of July 30, 1947, c. 392, 9 U.S.C.A. § 1, contains nothing but definitions of "maritime transactions" and "commerce" and an excepting clause; and we think it clear that the excepting clause was intended to apply to the entire act. This becomes even clearer when reference is made to the statute as originally enacted, where the portion containing the definitions and exception is not separately numbered but is manifestly intended to apply to the statute as a whole (43 Stat. 883). It is as follows:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That `maritime transactions,' as herein defined, means charter parties, bills of lading of water carriers, agreements relating to wharfage, supplies furnished vessels or repairs to vessels, collisions, or any other matters in foreign commerce which, if the subject of controversy, would be embraced within admiralty jurisdiction; `commerce,' as herein defined, means commerce among the several States or with foreign nations, or in any Territory of the United States or in the District of Columbia, or between any such Territory and another, or between any such Territory and any State or foreign nation, or between the District of Columbia and any State or Territory or foreign nation, but nothing herein contained shall apply to contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce." (Italics supplied.)

Section 2 of the act provides for the validity and enforceability of arbitration provisions in maritime transactions and contracts evidencing a transaction in commerce as defined in the act. Section 3 provides for stay of proceedings in federal courts in suits brought on contracts providing for arbitration. Section 4 provides for the enforcement of arbitration agreements in federal courts that would have jurisdiction of the controversy between the parties.^* The remaining sections prescribe machinery for conducting the arbitration, entering the award as a judgment of court, vacating the award, modifying it and confirming it by order of court. It is perfectly clear, we think, that it was the intention of Congress to exclude contracts of employment from the operation of all of these provisions. Congress was steering clear of compulsory arbitration of labor disputes; and unless the excepting clause which we have italicized is applied to the entire act, and not confined to the first section, section 4 would give the court power to force arbitration in any agreement providing for arbitration where there is jurisdiction because of diversity of citizenship or other reasons. Of course, if the excepting clause applies to section 4, it applies also to section 3; for the only alternative to applying it to the entire act is to limit it to section 1. The effect of limiting the excepting clause to section 1 would be merely to exclude employment contracts from maritime...