Lee Washington, Inc. v. Washington Motor Truck, Etc.

• Decision Date: 26 October 1973
• Docket Number: No. 6968.,6968.
• Parties: LEE WASHINGTON, INC., etc., Appellant, v. WASHINGTON MOTOR TRUCK TRANSPORTATION EMPLOYEES HEALTH AND WELFARE TRUST, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

310 A.2d 604

LEE WASHINGTON, INC., etc., Appellant, v. WASHINGTON MOTOR TRUCK TRANSPORTATION EMPLOYEES HEALTH AND WELFARE TRUST, Appellee.

No. 6968.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued August 23, 1973.

Decided October 26, 1973.

Quentin W. Banks, Washington, D. C., for appellant.

John R. Foley, Washington, D. C., for appellee.

Before REILLY, Chief Judge, and KERN and NEBEKER, Associate Judges.

REILLY, Chief Judge:

This is an appeal from a judgment in the amount of $1,371.59 against an employer for breach of a provision contained in a collective bargaining agreement with a local of the Teamster's Union. This provision required payment into a health and welfare trust fund of 22 cents for each hour worked by every employee in a job classification covered by the agreement. During the life of the agreement, no such payments were made.

The principal question presented by this appeal is whether or not the obligations set forth in the written bargaining agreement and a supplementary contract signed by the parties with the trustees of the fund ever became legally effective. The employer in this case is a small trucking and excavation hauling concern, whose president, Lee Washington, at the time these instruments were executed, was desirous of obtaining subcontracts from the general contractors engaged in the construction of a subway for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro).

According to Washington's testimony, the union business agent, prior to the signing of the agreements, had informed him that his company could not get work on the subway unless it was unionized. He also testified that he had a verbal understanding with the union representative that unless such subway work was forthcoming, the company would not be bound by the written agreements. As the company was never successful in bidding for subway contracts, its position on appeal is that the oral condition precedent, never having been met, is a defense to the court action, and it assigns as error the contrary findings of the trial court.

On the stand, the union representative denied offering any inducement, or discussing any obligations, beyond those contained in the printed agreements. The trial court found that Washington had indeed been induced to enter into the union contract by reason of the representation that only signatories could secure Metro work, but that at most, this was merely a "lever" used to unionize the company, and there was no mutual agreement that the contracts would not be binding if the employer's subway bids failed.

Although Congress in enacting Section 301 of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 185, conferred jurisdiction upon district courts of the United States to entertain suits for violation of contracts between employees and labor organizations, it has been held that such jurisdiction is not exclusive. Humphrey v. Moore, 375 U.S. 335, 84 S.Ct. 363, 11 L.Ed.2d 370 (1964); Dowd Box Co. v. Courtney, 368 U.S. 502, 82 S.Ct. 519, 7 L. Ed.2d 483 (1962). Prior to the Humphrey case, this court had decided that a third party beneficiary of a collective bargaining agreement could maintain an action in the Court of General Sessions — the statutory precursor of the Superior Court — to recover for benefits to which he was entitled by the terms of such agreement. Clarke v. Ward Baking Company, D.C.App., 191 A. 2d 450 (1963).¹ This opinion also declared that with respect to such agreements, "[t]he same rules of construction are applied as in contract law generally". Id. at 452 (footnote omitted).

The Supreme Court has laid down the rule, however, that the substantive rules governing the interpretations of collective bargaining agreements is a body of law fashioned by the Federal courts. Textile Workers Union v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 456-457, 77 S.Ct. 923, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957). We do not regard the rule of construction postulated by the Ward opinion as inconsistent with that principle, as there have been no opinions by the...