Schatte v. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE, ETC.

• Decision Date: 27 May 1949
• Docket Number: No. 7304.,7304.
• Citation: 84 F. Supp. 669
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
• Parties: SCHATTE et al. v. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES AND MOVING PICTURE MACHINE OPERATORS OF UNITED STATES AND CANADA et al.

84 F. Supp. 669

SCHATTE et al. v. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES AND MOVING PICTURE MACHINE OPERATORS OF UNITED STATES AND CANADA et al.

No. 7304.

United States District Court S. D. California, Central Division.

May 27, 1949.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Zach Lamar Cobb, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs.

O'Melveney & Myers, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant Motion Picture Companies.

Bodkin, Breslin & Luddy, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants I. A. T. S. E. et al.

HALL, District Judge.

The plaintiffs, individuals, are members of Carpenters Union Local 946, suing herein for damages. They sue as a class, as did some of the same individuals in case No. 6063 of this Court, decided by Judge Harrison on February 25th, 1947, Schatte v. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Emp., D.C., 70 F.Supp. 1008, affirmed percuriam without opinion, 9 Cir., 1948, 165 F.2d 216, certiorari denied 1948, 334 U.S. 812, 68 S.Ct. 1018, 92 L.Ed. 1743. The Union is not a party to either action.

The plaintiffs being members of the same class as in case No. 6063, are bound by the doctrine of res judicata under the decision in No. 6063, as to all matters adjudicated therein which are likewise involved in this case. Gregg v. Winchester, 9 Cir., 173 F.2d 512. Even if that were not so, the reasoned force of Judge Harrison's opinion would compel concurrence therein.

In case 6063, the thing involved was alleged to be the "right to work for wages"; here it is alleged to be not only that "right" but also, the "right to bargain collectively under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act as re-enacted in Section 7 of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 29 U.S.C.A. § 157", as the complaint now reads after amendment by consent on the day of the argument. The value of such rights is asserted to be worth in excess of the jurisdictional amount of Three Thousand Dollars, as to each plaintiff.

Insofar as any claim for relief could be ferreted out of the 69 page printed complaint, under the Civil Rights Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 41 et seq., the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., and the 5th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution, which might arise from their "right to work", nothing more need be said than to refer to Judge Harrison's opinion.

It is first necessary to determine whether or not the additional allegations above mentioned confer jurisdiction not existing under the "right to work" allegations disposed of by Judge Harrison's opinion. I cannot see that they do. The deprivation of the right to bargain collectively is an unfair labor practice. 29 U.S. C.A. § 158(a) (1); Sec. 8, Wagner Act, Id., Taft-Hartley Act. The exclusive power to prevent unfair labor practices is given to the Board, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(a), Section 10, Wagner Act, Id., Taft-Hartley Act, and right of review lies not in this Court, but in United States Court of Appeals, Id. subdivision (2). See Amalgamated Workers v. Consolidated Edison Co., 309 U.S. 261, 60 S.Ct. 561, 84 L.Ed. 738; Amazon Cotton Mill Co. v. Textile Workers Union, 4 Cir., 167 F.2d 183; United Electrical Radio & Machine Workers, etc. v. International Brotherhood, etc., 2 Cir., 115 F.2d 488. This leads to the conclusions that the plaintiffs have in fact by said additional allegations removed any doubt as to the lack of jurisdiction of this court as to the first asserted cause of action, unless plaintiffs right to sue in this court exists under either Section 301 or 303(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 185, 187(b).

Section 303(b) in its first clause is a broad grant of jurisdiction to any District Court for determination of injuries to anyone — organization or individual, — regardless of amount, for injury to his or its business or property which may result from acts committed in violation of Section 303(a). That grant of jurisdiction is however limited by the condition expressly contained in subdivision (b) that it is "subject to the limitations and provisions of section 301 hereof."

Whatever else may be said (and a great deal has been said in scores of pages of briefs and more than three full days of argument), any right of recovery under Section 301 must rest upon a contract and its asserted violation. The whole Act relates to labor contracts, hence it must be a contract contemplated by the Act, i. e., a collective bargaining contract or contract relating to fair or unfair labor practices. If this were not otherwise clear it is made so by the language of Sec. 301, as it refers to "contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees * * * or between any such labor organizations". And the plaintiffs have set up or attempted to set up contracts between various labor organizations and employers. The question for decision then is whether or not jurisdiction of "suits for violation" of such contracts are limited to the employer and labor organizations, only, as parties, or may be brought in this court by individual members of a labor organization which is a party to a contract with an employer or with another labor organization.

The paucity of precedent permits recourse only to the language of the Statute and the legislative history, in the decision of that question. Without reciting the legislative history, I think it is plain from it that Congress did not intend to grant jurisdiction to the District Court, without regard to amount or diversity of citizenship, of every suit in which an individual member of any union might wish to assert a violation of a labor contract, whether the contract be between an employer and a labor organization, or between labor organizations. To have done so would be to have placed upon the District Court a staggering burden of litigation without the incidental provisions for additional Judges, other personnel, and the court rooms to try them. The legislative history indicates to me beyond dispute that the intention of Congress by Section 301 was to provide a forum, other than the street, for settlement of asserted violations of labor contracts by law suits, the parties to which could only be the parties to the contract involved, i. e., either the employer or the labor organization. And that it was intended that the labor organization alone could speak as a party to the suit on behalf of the employees it represented as a party to the contract. This conclusion is further borne out by the language of subdivision (c) of Sec. 301, which reads:

"(c) For the purposes of actions and proceedings by or against labor organizations in the district courts of the United States, district courts shall be deemed to have jurisdiction of a labor organization (1) in the district in which such organization maintains its principal office, or (2) in any district in which its duly authorized officers or agents are engaged in representing or acting for employee members." (Italics supplied.)

The provisions of subdivision (b) of 301 relating to suits by or against labor organizations and the effect of judgments in such suits, while couched in permissive language instead of mandatory, did no more than to eliminate the confusion which existed concerning the right of a union to sue and be sued and the like, because of the various state laws under which a union might have been organized, and particularly to eliminate the fear that an individual member might be personally liable for the wrongs committed by his union in asserted violation of a contract. Without such permissive language, it could have been argued that 301(a) did not give a labor organization a right to sue or be sued except under the law of the State of its existence, or where it was doing business. And the same would be true as to the effect of judgments, service of process venue, acts of agents, and things covered by the remainder of Section 303. United Packing House Workers, etc., v. Wilson & Co., D.C., 80 F.Supp. 563, 568.

The plaintiffs contend that in any event they are appropriately parties plaintiff under Rule 23, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., relating to class suits. Whether they do or could qualify under that rule is not necessary to determine as the provisions of Sec. 301 are inconsistent with Rule 23, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and must therefore prevail. Sec. 301 is a special and limited grant of jurisdiction which must be strictly construed. This is especially so in the light of the history of legislation dealing with labor relations and disputes such as the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 17, the Norris-La Guardia Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 101 et seq., the Wagner Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., and the Act under consideration.

I conclude, therefore, that Sec. 301 does not give the plaintiffs as individual members of a union the right to sue in asserted violation of the contracts involved, whether their union was or was not a direct party to such contracts.

Coming now to the question as to whether or not Sec. 303(b), without reference to Sec. 301, grants jurisdiction to the District Court of a right of action under Sec. 303 (a), if any exists, in the plaintiffs as against the defendant I. A. T. S. E., and the individuals who are labor organization officials. Without determining whether or not the plaintiffs could be proper party plaintiffs in any action against I. A. T. S. E. in this or any other court, i. e. if they could state a cause of action for violation of Sec. 303(a), it seems clear to me that this court was not granted jurisdiction. It is noted in Section 301(a) that the grant of jurisdiction therein contained was "without respect to the amount in controversy or without regard to the citizenship of the parties." And that the grant of jurisdiction in 303(b) is only "without respect to the amount in controversy" and that nothing is said with regard to the citizenship of the parties. In an act as controversial as the ...