NLRB v. LOCAL NO. 64, FALLS CITIES DIST. COUN. OF CAR., ETC.

Decision Date31 May 1974
Docket NumberNo. 73-1979.,73-1979.
Citation497 F.2d 1335
PartiesNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner-Appellant, v. LOCAL NO. 64, FALLS CITIES DISTRICT COUNCIL OF CARPENTERS, UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO, Respondent-Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Joseph A. Oertel, N. L. R. B., for petitioner; Peter G. Nash, Gen. Counsel, John S. Irving, Deputy Gen. Counsel, Patrick Hardin, Associate Gen. Counsel, Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, John D. Burgoyne, Atty., N. L. R. B. Washington, D. C., on brief.

Raymond L. Sales, Louisville, Ky., for respondent; Irwin H. Cutler, Jr., Segal, Isenberg, Sales & Stewart, Louisville, Ky., on brief.

Before CELEBREZZE and McCREE, Circuit Judges, and WALINSKI,* District Judge.

WALINSKI, District Judge.

This case is before us on petition by the National Labor Relations Board for enforcement of its order of June 27, 1973, which is reported at 204 NLRB No. 102. In its order and accompanying decision, the Board rejected the Administrative Law Judge's recommendation that the complaint be dismissed in its entirety and found that Respondent hereinafter Local 64 had violated § 8(b)(1)(A) and 8(b)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act in failing to issue work permits to four carpenters who were not members of one of the local unions in the Falls Cities District Council. The Board's order required Respondent to cease and desist from this practice, to make the employees whole, to post the usual notices and to take other steps.

The Board's decision involves two issues: 1) whether the Act was violated; and 2) whether Respondent was responsible for the violation. Because we believe that the record offers substantial evidence to support the Board's conclusion that the Act was violated, we will not discuss the first issue.

Responsibility for the violation of the Act is not so easily disposed of. The Administrative Law Judge found that Local 64 had an identity entirely separate from the Falls Cities District Council, and that the District Council was not the agent of Local 64 as regards the violation. The Judge found that the District Council was responsible for the violation; and since it had not been made a party, he ordered the complaint dismissed. The board disagreed, however, and found the District Council to be the agent of Local 64 on the theory that, since Local 64 and virtually all of the other locals in the area had created the District Council and had delegated to it nearly all of the authority usually retained by the locals, liability for the Council's conduct must be imputed to the locals themselves. Specifically, the Board concluded that T. A. Pitts, the secretary-treasurer of the District Council, had acted on behalf of the District Council and in furtherance of Local 64's interests (of which he was President) in denying the applicants work permits, and therefore Pitts was the agent of the District Council which was in turn the agent of the local.

We are thus faced with the determination of an agency relationship. It has been said that such a determination must be made, as contemplated by the applicable statute, in light of the general law of agency, NLRB v. Int. Long. & Ware. Union, et al., 283 F.2d 558, 563 (9th Cir. 1960). 29 U.S.C. § 152(13). Indeed, this Court has held, in a somewhat analogous situation involving a Board determination, that a question of agency must be factually determined "under common law agency principles." Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging Co. v. NLRB, 462 F.2d 190, 193 (6th Cir. 1972). Viewed in this context, the Board's agency determination herein must be upheld...

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  • Kitchen Fresh, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 81-1635
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)
    • October 26, 1983
    ...is an agent of a union, the question must be analyzed within the framework of common law agency principles. NLRB v. Local # 64, Falls City Council, 497 F.2d 1335, 1336 (6th Cir.1974). Common law principles of agency, however, are not to be rigidly applied. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 152(13); Worley Mil......
  • St. Clair Intermediate School Dist.t v. Intermediate Educ. Association/Michigan Educ. Ass'n, Docket Nos. 107479
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Michigan
    • July 31, 1998
    ...to the existence of an agency relationship." Id. at 541, 282 N.W.2d 383, citing Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. v. Local No. 64, Falls Cities Dist. Council of Carpenters, 497 F.2d 1335, 1336 (C.A.6, 1974). Though the majority in this case also acknowledges the edict, it fails to be guided by its ......
  • Parker v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 94-2155 M1/A
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 6th Circuit. Western District of Tennessee
    • January 17, 1995
    ...vacated and case remanded on different grounds, 463 U.S. 1223, 103 S.Ct. 3566, 77 L.Ed.2d 1406 (1983) (citing NLRB v. Local No. 64, 497 F.2d 1335, 1366 (6th Cir.1974); Carparts Dist. Ctr., Inc. v. Automotive Wholesalers Assoc. of New England, Inc., 37 F.3d 12, 17 (1st Cir.1994) (citing Spir......
  • Shaffer v. Block, s. 81-3475
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)
    • April 20, 1983
    ..."The right to control the agent is fundamental to the existence of an agency relationship". NLRB v. Local No. 64, Falls Cities District Council of Carpenters, 497 F.2d 1335, 1336 (6th Cir.1974). Indeed, the very purpose of an agent is to "carry out the ministerial administrative tasks at th......
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