National Labor Relations Board v. TW Phillips Gas & Oil Co.

• Decision Date: 29 February 1944
• Docket Number: No. 8516.,8516.
• Citation: 141 F.2d 304
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. T. W. PHILLIPS GAS & OIL CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

141 F.2d 304 (1944)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. T. W. PHILLIPS GAS & OIL CO.

No. 8516.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued January 4, 1944.

Decided February 29, 1944.

Howard Lichtenstein, of Washington, D. C. (Robert B. Watts, Gen. Counsel, and Joseph B. Robison and Leo J. Halloran, Attys., National Labor Relations Board, all

of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for petitioner.

Nicholas Unkovic, of Pittsburgh, Pa. (John C. Bane, Jr., W. D. Armour, and Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, all of Pittsburgh, Pa., and John L. Wilson and Rolland L. Ehrman, both of Butler, Pa., on the brief), for respondent.

Before BIGGS, JONES, and GOODRICH, Circuit Judges.

BIGGS, Circuit Judge.

The respondent, T. W. Phillips Gas & Oil Company, is a Pennsylvania corporation which has its principal office and place of business at Butler, Pennsylvania. It is engaged in the business of producing, selling and distibuting natural gas and crude oil. In 1942 it produced natural gas of a value in excess of $3,750,000. At least fifty percent of the gas it produced was transmitted and sold by it to companies engaged in interstate commerce. These companies were American Rolling Mills Company, Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company, Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Corporation, Aluminum Company of America, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, and United Engineering & Foundry Company. The balance of the gas was transmitted to other gas companies for consumption within Pennsylvania, to the United States Post Office Department, to telephone and telegraph offices, department stores, motion picture theatres and other small commercial and residential consumers, primarily for heating purposes. During 1942 the respondent produced crude oil valued at more than $40,000. About half of this was sold to South Penn Oil Company, Valvoline Pipe Lines Company, and Pennsylvania Refining Company. The other half was sold to Quaker State Refining Corporation which is engaged in interstate commerce. The respondent expends about $100,000 annually for equipment and supplies and about $10,000 of this is sold to it by vendors outside the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The respondent contends that there are no facts in the present case which serve to invoke the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board or which are within the purview of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. We do not agree. We need look no further than the decisions of this court in National Labor Relations Board v. Poultrymen's Service Corporation, 3 Cir., 138 F.2d 204, National Labor Relations Board v. Suburban Lumber Company, 3 Cir., 121 F.2d 829, 833, certiorari denied 314 U.S. 693, 62 S.Ct. 364, 86 L.Ed. 554, and Glen Alden Coal Company v. National Labor Relations Board, 3 Cir., 141 F.2d 47. But if none of the respondent's products went directly into interstate commerce and if none of its supplies came to it from without the State of Pennsylvania we should none the less be required to hold the respondent to be subject to the jurisdiction of the Board and within the purview of the Act for if the respondent failed to deliver gas to any of the companies named in the first paragraph of this opinion who could doubt but that interstate commerce would be substantially affected. See Consolidated Edison Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 305 U.S. 197, 59 S.Ct. 206, 83 L.Ed. 126; Santa Cruz Fruit Packing Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 303 U.S. 453, 58 S. Ct. 656, 82 L.Ed. 954; National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 37, 57 S.Ct. 615, 81 L.Ed. 893, 108 A.L.R. 1352; Pueblo Gas & Fuel Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 10 Cir., 118 F.2d 304; Southern Colorado Power Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 10 Cir., 111 F.2d 539; National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst, 9 Cir., 102 F.2d 658.

The respondent also takes the position that the Board was estopped from considering evidence of alleged unfair labor practices which occurred prior to August 21, 1941, the date of a consent election, as well as evidence of alleged unfair labor practices which occurred prior to December 30, 1942, the date when the original charges made by Local No. 12,201, District 50, were withdrawn. We cannot agree. The National Labor Relations Board possesses judicial as well as administrative functions. Congress has imposed the duties to prevent unfair labor practices which tend to affect interstate commerce. See National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. This function is a most important one to be performed by the Board not only administratively but also in its capacity as a quasi-judicial tribunal of the United States. The doctrine of estoppel may not be invoked against the Board so long as it is acting in its administrative or judicial capacity. This is a fundamental conception of our law. See 31 C.J.S., Estoppel, § 138, and the authorities therein cited. It is clear that in the case at bar the Board was at all times acting in its administrative or judicial capacity in its relation to the respondent. There can be no rule which would restrict the Board from an appropriate inquiry into a pending complaint. Cf. National Labor Relations Board v. Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 3 Cir., 135 F.2d 15, 23. The extent to which the Board may refuse to go into matter raised by a complaint, either because the matter is stale or because it has been...