Standard Oil Co. of Louisiana v. Porterie, 260.

• Decision Date: 30 August 1935
• Docket Number: No. 260.,260.
• Citation: 12 F. Supp. 100
• Parties: STANDARD OIL CO. OF LOUISIANA v. PORTERIE, Atty. Gen.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

12 F. Supp. 100

STANDARD OIL CO. OF LOUISIANA v. PORTERIE, Atty. Gen.

No. 260.

District Court, E. D. Louisiana.

August 30, 1935.

T. M. Milling, F. L. Hargrove, A. M. Curtis, and Monroe & Lemann, all of New Orleans, for plaintiff.

James O'Connor and A. P. Miceli, Asst. Attys. Gen., for defendant.

Before FOSTER, Circuit Judge, and DAWKINS and BORAH, District Judges.

BORAH, District Judge.

Plaintiff sued to have Act No. 19 of the Third Extra Session of the Louisiana Legislature for the year 1934 declared unconstitutional, null, and void as in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and asked for a temporary restraining order, an interlocutory injunction or injunction pendente lite, and a permanent injunction, enjoining and restraining the defendant in his capacity as Attorney General of the State of Louisiana, his assistants, and the district attorneys of the various judicial districts of the state of Louisiana over whom he has authority and control, from enforcing the provisions of said act. A temporary restraining order was issued on the face of the papers. Thereafter, the case came on for hearing on the application of plaintiff to the statutory three-judge court for an interlocutory injunction, and was considered by that court on the pleadings and on affidavits filed by the plaintiff. Defendant filed no affidavits, but filed the following pleadings:

(1) A motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction;

(2) A motion to dismiss on the grounds that (a) plaintiff was not entitled to relief in equity because it has a plain, adequate, and complete remedy at law, and (b) plaintiff's petition disclosed no cause or right of action; and

(3) An answer.

The court granted plaintiff's application for an interlocutory injunction.

Thereafter, by written stipulation signed by all parties, the case was submitted to the three-judge court "for consideration on the merits and for all purposes, and for final judgment without further hearing or argument," upon the following statement of facts and stipulation:

"(1) The case is submitted upon:

"(a) The petition of the plaintiff, Standard Oil Company of Louisiana, and answer of the defendant, Gaston L. Porterie, Attorney General of the State of Louisiana, on file herein;

"(b) The affidavits of witnesses, testimony of witnesses as stipulated in paragraph (2) hereof, documents and papers attached to the pleadings or heretofore filed herein by the parties, respectively, all of said papers, documents and affidavits to be considered as having been offered and received in evidence without objection on the trial of the merits of the case.

"(2) It is admitted that if the witnesses whose affidavits have been submitted under section (1) b of this stipulation were sworn as witnesses herein, they would testify as set out in their said affidavits; and would testify that if plaintiff's Pension Plan, described in plaintiff's petition, should be modified by Act No. 19 of the Third Extra Session of the Louisiana Legislature for the year 1934, the liabilities of plaintiff under said Pension Plan would be immediately increased by a sum greatly in excess of $5,000 and its annual liabilities afterwards accruing would be increased by a sum greatly in excess of $5,000, and this case is to be considered as though said witnesses had been so sworn and had so testified."

The affidavits of the witnesses for the plaintiff which are thus referred to, and which are uncontradicted by any affidavits on behalf of defendant, reveal the following facts:

Plaintiff, Standard Oil Company of Louisiana, is a Louisiana corporation domiciled at Baton Rouge, La. Defendant, Gaston L. Porterie, is the Attorney General of Louisiana, is a citizen of Louisiana, and his official residence as Attorney General is at New Orleans.

Plaintiff Oil Company is, and has been for many years, engaged in the production, manufacture, and sale of petroleum and petroleum products in Louisiana. In the conduct of that business, it owns and uses real and personal property valued at more than $40,000,000, and employs throughout the state of Louisiana an average of more than 3,000 men daily. It has established a method of providing old age annuities or pensions for its employees, and in so doing it adopted, by a resolution of its board of directors, a certain "Annuity Plan for the Employees of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) and its Participating Subsidiaries," and by said resolution made that annuity plan its method of establishing old age annuities or pensions for its employees. Copies of the resolution and of the plan are set out in the bill of complaint.

The plan was amended effective January 1, 1934, so as to exclude therefrom those thereafter entering or re-entering the service of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), or its participating subsidiaries, including Standard Oil Company of Louisiana. This amendment was ratified and concurred in by plaintiff, Standard Oil Company of Louisiana, through its board of directors.

All employees of plaintiff Oil Company received a copy of this annuity plan and were required to sign a receipt for same, and those employees of plaintiff Oil Company desiring to receive additional benefits were required to sign applications for participation furnished them for the purpose of making the application.

Plaintiff Oil Company has 3,761 employees in Louisiana who are entitled under the obligations arising from the above-described annuity plan to partially share in the benefits provided for in said plan, and has 1,516 employees in Louisiana who, by virtue of contributing to the annuity plan under the terms, conditions, and obligations of that plan, are entitled in due course to share in all of the benefits provided in the plan.

At the Third Extra Session of the Louisiana Legislature for the year 1934, which session was held in December, 1934, that Legislature passed Act No. 19, which became effective on January 9, 1935, and reads as follows:

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana, That whenever any person, firm, corporation or association of persons shall set up, proclaim or otherwise establish or assert it or they have established a system for the pensioning of employees after any particular number of years' service or employment, that should any employee of such person, firm, corporation or association of persons have served as an employee of the said concern for a period of years or not less than one-fourth of the term required to qualify such person to become eligible to receive such pension, that then and in that event, such employee shall become qualified to earn and to receive the proportion of such pension as equals the time he has been employed by the said concern as computed against the term of service or employment required for such person to become eligible for said pension.

"Sec. 2. That any reduction in salary or any discharge of any employee shall not affect the right of the said employee to such pension computed on the basis of the average salary or wage which he has received during the term...