Texoma Natural Gas Co. v. OIL WORKERS IU, ETC.

• Decision Date: 28 December 1943
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 378.
• Citation: 58 F. Supp. 132
• Parties: TEXOMA NATURAL GAS CO. v. OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL NO. 463, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Texas

58 F. Supp. 132

TEXOMA NATURAL GAS CO. v. OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL NO. 463, et al.

Civil Action No. 378.

District Court, N. D. Texas, Amarillo Division.

December 28, 1943.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Morgan, Culton, Morgan & Britain, of Amarillo, Tex. (by D. H. Culton and B. M. Britain, both of Amarillo, Tex.), and J. J. Hedrick and W. T. Spies, both of Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Lindsay P. Walden, of Fort Worth, Tex., for defendants.

WILSON, District Judge.

This suit is brought under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 400, to obtain a declaration of certain rights and other legal relations of plaintiff (herein called the Company) and a portion of its employees, under a contract entered into between it and Oil Workers International Union, Local No. 463 (herein called the Union) as bargaining agent for all the Company's employees at its compressor station and gasoline plant located at Fritch, Texas, exclusive of supervisory, clerical, laboratory, pipeline and communication employees. Specifically it covers the seniority status of employee R. J. (Ralph) Orr under the seniority provisions of the contract, whether the Company had the right under the contract to change from a 40-hour work week to a 48-hour work week, and whether those questions are appropriate matters for arbitration under the arbitration provisions of the contract. It is conceded that there is a diversity of citizenship, and that the matter in controversy, represented by the value of the rights involved, exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum of three thousand dollars.

I. Situation of the Parties.

Plaintiff is engaged in the production of gas in the Panhandle of Texas. It transports this gas to one of its two compressor plants (one plant being located at Fritch in Hutchinson County, Texas, and the other in Moore County, Texas) where the waer and liquid hydrocarbons are removed and the residue increased to such pressure as will carry it to a point in Oklahoma where plaintiff makes delivery to Natural Gas Pipeline Company, which company transports such gas to markets near Chicago and intermediate points. In the transportation of the gas, it becomes necessary from time to time again to "boost" the pressure, and for this purpose Natural Gas Pipeline Company operates ten compressor stations at convenient points.

Plaintiff and Natural Gas Pipeline Company are affiliated corporations with unified management at the principal office in Chicago, Illinois. W. H. Davidson, of the Chicago Office, is Superintendent of Compressor Stations of both companies. His immediate subordinate at the Fritch Station is G. W. Gibbs whose assistant is H. R. Rohwedder. J. G. Dickinson, of Amarillo, Texas, is plaintiff's Superintendent of Production, and represented plaintiff in the negotiations which preceded the execution of the contract hereinafter referred to.

Defendant Oil Workers International Union, Local No. 463, is an association, commonly called a Labor Union, which, as a result of a vote of the Company's employees in the selected group, held under supervision of the National Labor Relations Board, was designated as exclusive bargaining agent for all the Company's employees at its compressor station and gasoline plant at Fritch, Texas, exclusive of supervisory, clerical, laboratory, pipeline and communications employees, for the purpose of collective bargaining with the Company with respect to wages, hours, and other conditions of employment, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S. C.A. § 151 et seq. The employees included comprise, among others, those holding jobs as main engineers, auxiliary engineers and oilers at the compressor plant.

R. D. Moore, V. H. Noland and A. N. Bantz are employees of the Company, selected by the employees covered by the contract hereinafter referred to, as a Workmen's Committee to represent them in meetings with the management "for the discussion of complaints and controversies and the adjusting of grievances and disputes of employees." Said Moore has been a member of the Committee since its first organization upon the execution of the contract, and is its chairman.

II. Execution of the Contract.

After lengthy bargaining and negotiations between the Union, as such bargaining agent for such employees, and the Company, a contract in writing dealing with wages, hours of work and other conditions of employment of such employees was entered into on August 27, 1942. It provided:

"This agreement shall become effective on the first day of September, 1942. It shall remain in effect from year to year thereafter until terminated by written notice given by either party to the other at least thirty (30) days prior to the termination of any such period."

III. Issues Involved.

In the complaint plaintiff seeks a determination as to (1) whether the Company can be required to remove from the seniority list, and from his job as a main engineer, employee R. J. Orr, and disregard the seniority status of that employee appearing on a seniority list prepared and posted in accordance with the contract, (2) whether the Company had the right, without first obtaining from the Union a supplemental contract so providing, to change from a 40-hour week to a 48-hour week, (3) whether either the seniority status or the right to change the length of workweek is, under the contract, arbitrable, and (4) whether a purported arbitration award is invalid either (a) because, over the Company's objection, the arbitrators sought to arbitrate matters not arbitrable but fully covered by the contract, (b) because in attempting to provide a "remedy" the arbitrators undertook to exercise powers beyond those vested in them as arbitrators, or (c) because of the alleged disqualification of one of the arbitrators. Defendants in their answer challenged plaintiff's position on each of these matters, and, in addition, insisted (1) that the dispute is cognizable only by the National War Labor Board, and (2) that the contract has terminated, and all questions raised have become moot (recognizing in that connection that if the contract has terminated, the purported award of the arbitrators was not effective).

At the conclusion of the hearing, I announced that I recognized the necessity for an early determination of the questions raised, and orally held (1) that the Company properly recognized the seniority status of employee Orr as it appeared on the seniority list prepared under the provisions of the contract, (2) that the Company had the right to change from a 40-hour week to a 48-hour week without first negotiating a supplemental contract with the Union, (3) that neither the seniority of Orr nor the right to determine the length of the work week is arbitrable under the arbitration provisions of the contract, (4) that the purported award of the arbitrators is void because of the non-arbitrable nature of the questions involved, and because the relief which the majority of the arbitrators sought to grant was beyond their power to grant, (5) that this Court's jurisdiction is not limited by the provisions of the President's Executive Order creating the National War Labor Board or the regulations thereunder, and (6) that the contract between the parties is still in full force and effect. In view of the dismissal by plaintiff (upon announcement of those holdings) of that portion of the complaint dealing with the alleged disqualification of one of the arbitrators, no holding was made on that point.

At the time my rulings were orally announced, I stated I would later file an opinion expressing my views in more detail. This memorandum is filed for that purpose. Statements of fact herein are intended as findings of fact, and statements of legal conclusions as rulings of law, in accordance with Rule 52 of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c. If further findings and conclusions are desired by counsel, the Court requests suggestions as to any omissions.

IV. Propriety of a Declaratory Judgment.

It is clear that an action for a declaratory judgment is an appropriate procedure for determining the issues herein involved. The statute, 28 U.S.C.A. § 400, provides that:

"In cases of actual controversy * * * the courts of the United States shall have power upon * * * complaint * * * to declare rights and other legal relations of any interested party petitioning for such declaration, whether or not further relief is or could be prayed, and such declaration shall have the force and effect of a final judgment or decree and be reviewable as such."

Here we have a dispute between parties who face each other in an adversary proceeding. The dispute relates to legal rights and liabilities arising from their contract. The dispute is definite and concrete, not hypothetical or abstract. Prior to the suit, the parties had taken adverse positions with respect to their respective rights and obligations under the contract. There is, therefore, a justiciable controversy appropriate for judicial determination under the Declaratory Judgment Act. Aetna Life Insurance Co. v. Haworth, 300 U.S. 227, 242, 57 S.Ct. 461, 81 L.Ed. 617, 622, 108 A.L.R. 1000.

The Act is liberally construed so as to expedite and simplify the ascertainment of uncertain or disputed rights. Mississippi Power & Light Co. v. City of Jackson, 5 Cir., 116 F.2d 924, certiorari denied, 312 U.S. 698, 61 S.Ct. 741, 85 L.Ed. 1133. It has been held to furnish an appropriate procedure for an action to determine rights of parties under a contract to furnish gas, Mississippi Power & Light Co. v. City of Jackson, supra; an action to determine the validity of an act of Congress, Currin v. Wallace, 306 U.S. 1, 59 S.Ct. 379, 83 L.Ed. 441; an action to determine rights under insurance policies, Standard Accident Insurance Co. v. Meadows, 5 Cir., 125 F.2d 422; an action to determine whether a claimant actually owned an easement which...