Spires v. Southern Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 16 May 1953
• Docket Number: No. 6563.,6563.
• Parties: SPIRES et al. v. SOUTHERN RY. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

204 F.2d 453 (1953)

SPIRES et al. v. SOUTHERN RY. CO.

No. 6563.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 14, 1953.

Decided May 16, 1953.

Edward E. Lane and E. Neil Rogers, Richmond, Va. (Lane & Rogers, Richmond, Va., on brief), for appellants.

Thomas B. Gay, Richmond, Va., and Clarence E. Weisell, Cleveland, Ohio (H. Merrill Pasco, Robert P. Buford, Jr., and Robert G. Butcher, Richmond, Va., on brief), for appellees.

Before PARKER, Chief Judge, and SOPER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.

PARKER, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal from an order dismissing a suit for lack of jurisdiction. Plaintiffs are thirteen engineers and firemen employed by the Southern Railway Company. Defendants are that company, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the local chapter of the Brotherhood at Richmond, Virginia. The purpose of the suit is to obtain a declaratory judgment as to seniority rights with respect to the operation of a certain freight train and an award of damages on account of loss of seniority rights resulting from action of the railroad taken at the instance of the Brotherhood.

The controversy concerns the rights of engineers with respect to the operation of a freight train known as the "stone train" from the South Richmond yards to the nearby station of Bon Air, near which stone quarries that have now been abandoned were formerly operated. The operation of this train, extending beyond the yard limits, was the subject of an agreement between the railroad and its employees in the year 1916 to the effect that the position of engineer thereon would be available only to engineers having seniority in road service, although it is said that all other jobs on the train were classified as yard jobs. In January 1951, at the request of the Brotherhood, which is the accredited bargaining representative of both yard and road engineers, the railroad agreed to modify the existing practice and reclassified the position of engineer on this train as a yard job available only to engineers with seniority in yard service. Plaintiffs, who have only road seniority, protested the change and caused a grievance to be filed in their behalf by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen with the railroad's superintendent at Richmond. Upon his declining the grievance, it was taken by successive appeals to the general manager and to the vice president in charge of personnel, who also declined it. No attempt was made to seek redress from the National Railroad Adjustment Board either by the plaintiffs or by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, which had been representing them in the presentation of the grievance to the officers of the railroad; but this suit was instituted in the court below and complaint was filed therein alleging that plaintiffs had been deprived of seniority rights by the railroad's action, and that such action had been brought about as a result of pressure exerted by the local chapter of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which, it was alleged, had acted "deliberately and maliciously * * * for the benefit of its members and to the detriment of plaintiffs". The trial judge dismissed the suit on the ground that plaintiffs had not exhausted their administrative remedies, basing his decision on Slocum v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 339 U.S. 239, 70 S.Ct. 577, 94 L.Ed. 795, which he distinguished from Steele v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 323 U.S. 192, 65 S.Ct. 226, 89 L.Ed. 173, in that the decision in the latter was based upon racial discrimination, not present in the Slocum case nor in the case at bar. We think that this action was unquestionably correct.

The Railway Labor Act was passed to provide for the settlement of "all disputes growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements covering rates of pay, rules, or working conditions". 45 U.S.C.A. § 151a. By section 3 of the act, the National Railroad Adjustment Board was created and was expressly given jurisdiction over disputes involving train and yard service employees, including engineers and firemen. 45 U.S. C.A. § 153(h). By subsection (i) of that section, 45 U.S.C.A. § 153(i), it was provided:

"(i) The disputes between an employee or group of employees and a carrier or carriers growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, including cases pending and unadjusted on June 21, 1934, shall be handled in the usual manner up to and including the chief operating officer of the carrier designated to handle such disputes; but, failing to reach an adjustment in this manner, the disputes may be referred by petition of the parties or by either party to the appropriate division of the Adjustment Board with a full statement of the facts and all supporting data bearing upon the disputes."

The case here deals with the manning of a particular job as between road men and yard men and clearly deals with working rules or conditions. It does not involve the discharge of plaintiffs, or the violation of any contract which they have with the railroad, or the denial of any right belonging to them as citizens. The only rights which they claim to have been violated are seniority rights arising out of the collective bargaining agreement of 1916, which were, of course, subject to modification by subsequent collective bargaining agreements. Their real grievance is that they claim to have been treated unfairly in the collective bargaining agreement which was entered into with the railroad by the bargaining agent which represented them; and it is perfectly clear that the Adjustment Board has been given exclusive jurisdiction of grievances of this character.

A very similar case arose in Order of Railway Conductors v. Pitney, 326 U.S. 561, 66 S.Ct. 322, 324, 90 L.Ed. 318, where an agreement was made that certain trains theretofore manned by road conductors should thereafter be manned by yard conductors. In holding that relief from an alleged grievance arising out of this agreement must first be sought from the Adjustment Board before application could be made to a court before which a reorganization proceeding in bankruptcy was pending, the Supreme Court said:

"Congress has specifically provided for a tribunal to interpret contracts such as these in order finally to settle a labor dispute. Section 3 First (i) of the Railway Labor Act provides that disputes between a carrier and its employees `growing

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