Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/353/138/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 15:46:27+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 353 › Benz v. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, S.A.
Benz v. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, S.A.
The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 does not apply to a controversy involving damages resulting from the picketing of a foreign ship operated entirely by foreign seamen under foreign articles while the vessel is temporarily in an American port, though American unions to which the foreign seamen did not belong participated in the picketing, and the Act therefore does not preclude a remedy under state law for such damages. Pp. 353 U. S. 138-147.
(a) Congress could have made the Labor Management Relations Act applicable to wage disputes arising on foreign vessels between nationals of other countries when the vessel comes within territorial waters of the United States, but Congress did not do so. Pp. 353 U. S. 142-147.
(b) The cases of Sailors' Union of the Pacific, 92 N.L.R.B. 547, and Norris Grain Co. v. Seafarers' International Union, 232 Minn. 91, 46 N.W.2d 94, are inapposite to the question for decision here. P. 353 U. S. 143, n. 5.
(c) An intent on the part of Congress to change the contractual agreement made by the foreign shipowner and the foreign seamen in this case cannot be read into the Labor Management Relations Act. Pp. 353 U. S. 146-147.
controversy involving damages resulting from the picketing of a foreign ship operated entirely by foreign seamen under foreign articles while the vessel is temporarily in an American port. We decide that it does not, and therefore do not reach other questions raised by the parties.
The S.S. Riviera, on September 3, 1952, sailed into harbor at Portland, Oregon, for repairs, to load a cargo of wheat, and to complete an insurance survey. It was owned by respondent, a Panamanian corporation, and sailed under a Liberian flag. The crew was made up entirely of nationals of countries other than the United States, principally German and British. They had agreed to serve on a voyage originating at Bremen, Germany, for a period of two years, or until the vessel returned to a European port. A British form of articles of agreement was opened at Bremen. The conditions prescribed by the British Maritime Board were incorporated into the agreement, including wages and hours of employment, all of which were specifically set out. The crew further agreed to obey all lawful commands of the Master of the Riviera in regard to the ship, the stores, and the cargo, whether on board, in boats, or on shore.
and damages. These three cases have been consolidated for consideration here. All of the picketing was peaceful.
"is concerned solely with the labor relations of American workers between American concerns and their employees in the United States, and it is not intended to, nor does it cover a dispute between a foreign ship and its foreign crew."
associations. 233 F.2d 62. [Footnote 4] This, in effect, left the judgments standing against the individual representatives of the unions, the petitioners here. We granted certiorari in order to settle the important question of jurisdiction 352 U.S. 889.
It should be noted at the outset that the dispute from which these actions sprang arose on a foreign vessel. It was between a foreign employer and a foreign crew operating under an agreement made abroad under the laws of another nation. The only American connection was that the controversy erupted while the ship was transiently in a United States port and American labor unions participated in its picketing.
It is beyond question that a ship voluntarily entering the territorial limits of another country subjects itself to the laws and jurisdiction of that country. Wildenhus' Case, 120 U. S. 1 (1887). The exercise of that jurisdiction is not mandatory, but discretionary. Often, because of public policy or for other reasons, the local sovereign may exert only limited jurisdiction and sometimes none at all. Cunard S.S. Co. v. Mellon, 262 U. S. 100 (1923). It follows that if Congress had so chosen, it could have made the Act applicable to wage disputes arising on foreign vessels between nationals of other countries when the vessel comes within our territorial waters. The question here therefore narrows to one of intent of the Congress as to the coverage of the Act.
"[i]t may well be that American laws should not be construed to apply, without some more explicit Congressional indication than we are able to find in the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, to situations with as many points of foreign contact as the situation at bar."
industrial strife between American employers and employees. In fact, no discussion in either House of Congress has been called to our attention from the thousands of pages of legislative history that indicates in the least that Congress intended the coverage of the Act to extend to circumstances such as those posed here. It appears not to have even occurred to those sponsoring the bill. The Report made to the House by its Committee on Education and Labor and presented by the coauthor of the bill, Chairman Hartley, stated that "the bill herewith reported has been formulated as a bill of rights both for American workingmen and for their employers." The report declares further that, because of the inadequacies of legislation, "the American workingman has been deprived of his dignity as an individual," and that it is the purpose of the bill to correct these inadequacies. (Emphasis added.) H.R.Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 4. What was said inescapably describes the boundaries of the Act as including only the workingmen of our own country and its possessions.
intended to make void such contracts and payments, a few words would have stated that intention, not leaving such an important regulation to be gathered from implication."
"seamen on foreign vessels while in harbors of the United States, and the courts of the United States shall be open to such seamen for its enforcement."
"taking the provisions of the act as the same are written, we think it plain that it manifests the purpose of Congress to place American and foreign seamen on an equality of right in so far as the privileges of this section are concerned, with equal opportunity to resort to the courts of the United States for the enforcement of the act. Before the amendment . . . , the right to recover one-half the wages could not be enforced in face of a contractual obligation to the contrary. Congress, for reasons which it deemed sufficient, amended the act so as to permit the recovery upon the conditions named in the statute."
"to advance payments made by foreign vessels while in foreign ports is plain. This Court had pointed out in the Sandberg case, supra, that such a sweeping provision was not specifically made in the statute. . . ."
Id. at 275 U. S. 470. Soon thereafter, several proposals were made in Congress designed to extend the coverage of the Seamen's Act so as to prohibit advancements made by foreign vessels in foreign ports. A storm of diplomatic protest resulted. Great Britain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and Canada all joined in vigorously denouncing the proposals. [Footnote 6] In each instance, the bills died in Congress.
provisions made by these parties. For us to run interference in such a delicate field of international relations, there must be present the affirmative intention of the Congress clearly expressed. It alone has the facilities necessary to make fairly such an important policy decision where the possibilities of international discord are so evident and retaliative action so certain. We, therefore, conclude that any such appeal should be directed to the Congress, rather than the courts.
61 Stat. 136, 29 U.S.C. § 141.
The demands were first transmitted to the Master on September 7, 1952, by a person identifying himself as a delegate of the Sailors' Union of the Pacific. None of the crew belonged to that union. At 3 a.m. on September 8, 1952, the same party and some of the crew members called on the Master in his cabin. They demanded that he come to the crew's quarters and bargain with them on wages and conditions on the ship. This demand was refused. While claim was made that filthy conditions existed aboard and contaminated food was served, the court, after hearing evidence and personally inspecting the vessel, found to the contrary. There is no issue here as to these findings.
None of the crew were members of any of the three unions involved in the intermittent picketing.
A cross-petition for certiorari was filed for a review of this question. The petition was denied. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, S.A. v. Benz, 352 U.S. 890.
Petitioners rely on two cases to bolster their argument that the Act applies to a foreign dispute such as the one here. We need only say that these cases are inapposite, without, of course, intimating any view as to their result. First, petitioners seek support in Sailors' Union of the Pacific, AFL, and Moore Dry Dock Co., 92 N.L.R.B. 547 (1950). That case, however, was brought to the Board by an American employer, the owner of the drydock, claiming that the picketing by an American Sailors' Union was of the drydock, and constituted a secondary boycott, and therefore an unfair labor practice. The Board, in its opinion, gave no indication that it felt that the Taft-Hartley Act was intended to apply to a dispute involving employment aboard a foreign vessel. In fact, in a forerunner of that same case, Compania Maritima Sansoc Limitada, Case No. 20-RC-809, May 1, 1950, CCH NLRB Decisions, 1950-1951, 10,081, a petition to represent employees on a Panamanian vessel manned by foreign seamen, and owned by a Panama corporation, the majority of whose stockholders were citizens of foreign countries, was dismissed on the ground that the internal economy of a vessel of foreign registry and ownership was involved. The Board thus made it clear that it would not assume jurisdiction when a foreign vessel was involved. It did assume jurisdiction in the later dispute because that dispute was between an American employer and an American union.
The second case on which petitioners rely is Norris Grain Co. v. Seafarers' International Union, 1950, 232 Minn. 91, 46 N.W.2d 94. There, a suit for an injunction was brought by the American owner of a grain elevator in Duluth, Minn., charging an American union and its affiliate with a secondary boycott by picketing not of a foreign vessel, but of the grain elevator. Though a Canadian union (affiliated with the American union) was joined as a defendant, the action ran between an American plaintiff employer and an American defendant union. There was no claim by the foreign vessel owner against a union.
1 U.S. Foreign Rel.: 1928 at 830-838 (Dept.State 1942); id.: 1929 at 1005-1009 (Dept.State 1943); id.: 1931 at 808-814 (Dept.State 1946); id.: 1932 at 959-960 (Dept.State 1948).
"We think these laws ought to be construed in the spirit in which they were made -- that is, as founded in justice -- and should not be strained by technical constructions to reach cases which Congress evidently could not have contemplated without departing from the principle upon which they were legislating and going far beyond the object they intended to accomplish."
Id. at 60 U. S. 197.
The case involves a contest between American unions and a foreign ship. The foreign ship came to Portland, Oregon, to load a cargo of wheat for carriage to India. The crew members were paid about one-third the amount of cash wages that are paid to American seamen on American vessels carrying grain to the Orient. This foreign ship is in competition with those American vessels.
American unions, therefore, have a interest in the working conditions and wages of the seamen aboard this foreign vessel. Their interest is in the reemployment of the foreign crew at better wages and working conditions. And they peacefully picketed the foreign vessel to further that interest.
The judgment we sustain today is one in damages against members of the American union who engaged in that peaceful picketing. It is for conduct precisely regulated by the Taft-Hartley Act.
picketing was not a secondary boycott condemned by § 303(a)(1) of the Act.
If the purpose of the peaceful picketing was to force the foreign vessels to bargain with one of the American unions without any of them being first certified as the representative of the seamen, the question arises whether that was not a violation of § 303(a)(2) of the Act.
If either § 303(a)(1) or § 303(a)(2) was violated, then the injured person may sue in the federal courts for damages, as provided in § 303(b). The Court bases its decision that the Act is inapplicable on the conclusion that the underlying controversy was between the foreign vessel and its crew. It intimates, however, that the Act would apply if this suit had been brought by the American independent contractors whose employees refused to cross the picket line, although the identical conduct by the American unions were involved. But, even if we assume arguendo that the foreign vessel would not be subject to the regulatory provisions of the Act, it could nonetheless sue under § 303(b) to get protection from any unfair labor practice condemned by the Act. That is indeed the force of our ruling in Teamsters Union v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 350 U. S. 155, 350 U. S. 160-161.
The Labor Board has asserted jurisdiction over unions that bring their pressures to bear on vessels of foreign registry. (In the Matter of Sailors' Union of the Pacific, 92 N.L.R.B. 547) at the same time that it has declined to assume jurisdiction over the foreign vessel. [Footnote 2/1] Id. at 560-561.
If there is to be peace along the waterfront and a full and free flow of commerce as declared in § 1 of the Act, these American unions should be subject only to disciplinary action by the federal agencies to whom Congress has entrusted the job of law enforcement. [Footnote 2/2] Only by applying those centralized controls can we avoid the "diversities and conflicts likely to result from a variety of local procedures and attitudes toward labor controversies." Garner v. Teamsters Union, 346 U. S. 485, 346 U. S. 490.
administrative remedy and a remedy by way of damages. I see no answer, therefore, to the conclusion that state law has been preempted by federal law within the meaning of our decision in Weber v. Anheuser-Busch Inc., 348 U. S. 468.
If American unions or their members are to be mulcted in damages for unfair labor practices affecting commerce, Congress has provided the way in which it shall be done.
The Sailors' Union of the Pacific picketed the main gate of a San Francisco shipyard, where a ship of foreign registry and ownership was undergoing repairs, after the owner of the vessel refused to recognize the union as exclusive representative of the crew. After the picketing began, the union filed, with the Board's Regional Office, a petition to be certified as the representative of the vessel's crew. As noted by the Court, the Board's Regional Director administratively dismissed the petition, "inasmuch as the internal economy of a vessel of foreign registry and ownership is involved." The Board sustained the Regional Director's action on the ground that it had no jurisdiction over the foreign owner of the vessel. The Board, however, assumed jurisdiction over an unfair labor practice complaint, issued against the union by the same Regional Director, charging that the picketing violated § 8(b)(4)(A) of the Act.
That was the conclusion of the Minnesota Supreme Court in a situation similar to this one. An American union and a Canadian union picketed the dock of an American grain company to prevent the loading and unloading of vessels owned by a Canadian company, which had served notice that it would cease to recognize the Canadian union as bargaining representative for its crews. In a suit by the grain company against both unions, the Minnesota Supreme Court concluded that the state courts had no jurisdiction over the dispute, which was governed by the Federal Act.
"This action is directed not against the relationship between the Canadian Company and its employes or its relationship with the Canadian Union, but against acts of defendants done in the United States, and neither seeks to regulate the relationship between the Canadian Company and its employes or the Canadian Company and the Canadian Union."
Norris Grain Co. v. Seafarers' International Union, 232 Minn. 91, 109, 46 N.W.2d 94, 104.
Compania Naviera Hidalgo, S. A.

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