Railway Labor Executives Ass v. United States

• Decision Date: 27 March 1950
• Docket Number: No. 337,337
• Citation: 339 U.S. 142,94 L.Ed. 721,70 S.Ct. 530
• Parties: RAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES' ASS'N v. UNITED STATES et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

339 U.S. 142

70 S.Ct. 530

94 L.Ed. 721

RAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES' ASS'N

v UNITED STATES et al.

No. 337.

Argued and Submitted Feb. 14, 1950.

Decided March 27, 1950.

Rehearing Denied May 1, 1950.

See 339 U.S. 950, 70 S.Ct. 800.

Mr. Edward J. Hickey, Jr., Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Mr. Daniel W. Knowlton, Washington, D.C., for appellee Interstate Commerce Commission.

Mr. W. S. Macgill, Washington, D.C., for the appellees Railroad Intervenors.

Messrs. Philip B. Perlman, Sol. Gen., Herbert A. Bergson, Robert L. Stern, Richard E. Guggenheim, Washington, D.C., for appellee, The United States.

Mr. Justice BURTON delivered the opinion of the Court.

We are called upon to decide whether the Interstate Commerce Commission, in approving a consolidation of railroad facilities under § 5(2)(f) of the Interstate Commerce Act,¹ has the power to extend the period of protection of the interests of the railroad employees beyond four years from the effective date of the order. For the reasons hereafter stated, we hold that the Commission has that power.

In 1947, the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, and several common carriers by railroad, all appellees herein, filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission a joint application for authority to construct, acquire and jointly own or use certain lines of railroad, as well as to abandon certain other lines or operations, as incidents to the construction of a passenger terminal at New Orleans. The Railway Labor Executives' Association, appellant herein, intervened as a representative of the interests of the employees of the railroads. Division 4 of the Commission entered a report and order, effective May 17, 1948 approving and authorizing the transactions. New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal Case, 267 I.C.C. 763, and see Oklahoma R. Co. Trustees Abandonment, 257 I.C.C. 177, 197—201.

The order required the construction of the proposed lines to commence by December 31, 1948 (later extended to December 31, 1949), and to be completed by December 31, 1953 (later extended to December 31, 1954). It contained detailed provisions for the compensatory protection of employees affected by the consolidation, but all such protection was to end by May 17, 1952. The order disclosed that many employees affected by the consolidation would not be displaced until the completion of the project and that, therefore, they would receive no compensatory protection.²

After unsuccessfully seeking reconsideration and modification of the order by the full Commission, the appellant sued the United States, see 28 U.S.C. § 2322, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2322, in the District Court for the District of Columbia, asking that court to set aside that part of the Commission's order which limited the period of protection to four years. The Commission and the railroads intervened, answers were filed and, no facts being in dispute, all parties sought a summary judgment. The case was heard by a three-judge District Court, see 28 U.S.C. §§ 1336, 2325 and 2284, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1336, 2325, 2284, which granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment and dismissed the complaint. D.C.Cir., 84 F.Supp. 178. The case is here on direct appeal. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1253 and 2101(b), 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1253, 2101(b).

Section 5(2)(f) of the Interstate Commerce Act provides:

'As a condition of its approval, under this paragraph (2), of any transaction involving a carrier or carriers by railroad subject to the provisions of this part, the Commission shall require a fair and equitable arrangement to protect the interests of the railroad employees affected. In its order of approval the Commission shall include terms and conditions providing that during the period of four years from the effective date of such order such transaction will not result in employees of the carrier or carriers by railroad affected by such order being in a worse position with respect to their employment, except that the protection afforded to any employee pursuant to this sentence shall not be required to continue for a longer period, following the effective date of such order, than the period during which such employee was in the employ of such carrier or carriers prior to the effective date of such order. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act, an agreement pertaining to the protection of the interests of said employees may hereafter be entered into by any carrier or carriers by railroad and the duly authorized representative or representatives of its or their employees.' 54 Stat. 906—907, 49 U.S.C. § 5(2)(f), 49 U.S.C.A. § 5(2)(f).

The appellant and the United States³ contend that the first sentence of § 5(2)(f) requires the Commission to condition its approval upon a fair and equitable arrangement to protect the interests of railroad employees affected by this consolidation. They contend also that the second sentence prescribes a minimum of protection but does not restrict the Commission's power, under the first sentence, to prescribe further protection if such protection is deemed necessary to make the arrangement fair and equitable to the employees. The Commission, on the other hand, argues that the second sentence sets an inflexible standard for the fair and equitable arrangement required by the first sentence. The Commission concludes, therefore, that, in this case, it has power to require only such an arrangement as will prevent the affected employees from being in a worse position with respect to their employment for a maximum period of four years from the effective date of the order approving the project.⁴

Before the Transportation Act of 1940 brought § 5(2)(f) into the Interstate Commerce Act, there was no statutory provision specifically requiring the protection of employees affected by consolidations of railroad facilities. The precursor of this provision was § 5(4)(b), as amended by the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act of 1933. That section authorized the Commission to approve consolidations 'upon the terms and conditions * * * found to be just and reasonable.'⁵ There was, however, a widespread awareness in the railroad industry that many of the economies to be gained from consolidations or abandonments could be realized only at the expense of displaced railroad labor. The interests of such employees were recognized in the Washington Job Protective Agreement of 1936.⁶ This was a collective bargaining contract approved by about 85% of the railroad carriers and 20 of the 21 railroad brotherhoods. It contained a schedule of substantial financial benefits recommended for employees adversely affected by consolidations or so-called 'coordinations.'⁷

Section 5(4)(b) and the Washington Agreement were both in effect when, in 1939, this Court held that the Commission had power to prescribe terms and conditions comparable to those in the Washington Agreement. United States v. Lowden, 308 U.S. 225, 60 S.Ct. 248, 84 L.Ed. 208. The Commission's requirement, in that case, of a protective period of five years was sustained. Thus, at the time of the enactment of § 5(2)(f), the Commission already had power to determine and prescribe just and reasonable terms and conditions to protect employees affected by consolidations.⁸

The legislative history of § 5(2)(f) shows that one of its principal purposes was to provide mandatory protection for the interests of employees affected by railroad consolidations. In 1938, the President appointed a Committee of Sex to consider the transportation problem and recommend legislation.⁹ It was composed equally of representatives of railroad management and railroad labor. They endorsed the Washington Agreement and recommended amending § 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act so as to include the following:

'After the details of any proposed consolidation have been determined by the interests involved, they should be embodied in an application for approval, addressed to the Transportation Board. In passing upon such an application, the Board should be governed by the following considerations:

'(d) The interests of the employees affected. The Board shall examine into the probable results of the proposed consolidation and require, as a prerequisite to its approval, a fair and equitable arrangement to protect the interests of the said employees.'¹⁰

March 30, 1939, Senators Wheeler and Truman introduced S. 2009, which, in § 49(3)(c), contained substantially the above language:

'The Commission shall require, as a prerequisite to its approval of any proposed transaction under the provisions of this section, a fair and equitable arrangement to protect the interests of the employees affected.'¹¹

In the meantime, the House of Representatives considered a comparable bill, H.R. 4862, introduced by Representative Lea. Extended hearings were held. On the issue before us, this bill contained the same language as did the Senate bill. It required, as a prerequisite to the Commission's approval, 'a fair and equitable arrangement to protect the interests of the employees affected.' ¹² When S. 2009 reached the House, the Committee in charge of it struck out everything after the enacting clause, substituted the text of the House bill and recommended its passage. In it, the provision in question took the form of an amendment to § 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act.

If this provision, which later became the first sentence of § 5(2)(f), now stood alone as it did then, the Commission unquestionably would have power to grant at least as much relief to employees as it had under § 5(4)(b). The crucial question is whether the second sentence of § 5(2)(f), which was inserted soon thereafter, amounts not only to an additional provision for the protection of labor, but also to a limitation upon the discretion vested in the Commission by the first sentence.

The second sentence of § 5(2)(f) has a singificant history of its own. On the floor of the House, Representative Harrington suggested the following proviso to follow the first sentence:

'Provided,...