Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/321/50.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 23:12:25+00:00

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[321 U.S. 50, 51] Mr. John E. Cassidy, of Peoria, Ill., for petitioners.
Mr. Clarence W. Heyl, of Peoria, Ill., for respondent.
The important question is whether the District Court properly issued an injunction which restrained respondent's employees, conductors, yardmen, enginemen and firemen, from interfering by violence or threats of violence with its property and interstate railroad operations. The sole issues that concern us are the existence of federal jurisdiction and whether the requirements of the Norris-LaGuardia Act (29 U.S.C. 107, 108, 29 U.S.C. A. 107, 108, 47 Stat. 71, 72) were satisfied.
The case arises out of a long-continued labor dispute relating to working conditions and rates of pay. Negotiations between the parties, beginning in October, 1940, failed. A long course of mediation, with the aid of the National Mediation Board, resulted likewise. Accordingly, on November 7, 1941, the mediator proposed arbitration pursuant to the Railway Labor Act's provisions. 45 U.S.C. 155, First (b), 45 U.S.C.A. 155, subd. 1(b), 48 Stat. 1195. Both parties refused. Thereupon, as the Act requires, the Board terminated its services. Ibid. This occurred November 21, 1941. Under the statute, no change in rates of pay, rules, working conditions or established practices can be made for thirty days, unless in that time the parties agree to arbitration or an emergency board is created under Section 10. Ibid. Anticipating respondent would put into effect its proposed schedules at the end of the period, the employees voted [321 U.S. 50, 52] to strike. The time for stopping work was set for December 9, at 11:00 a.m. Respondent knew of the voting on or before December 6, but did not receive formal notice of the strike until about noon of December 8.
With the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, the Mediation Board again intervened, strongly urging both sides to settle the dispute in view of the national emergency. At the Board's request the employees had postponed the strike indefinitely. 1 Further conferences failed to bring agreement and on December 17 the Board again urged that the disputants agree to arbitration under the statute. This time the employees accepted. 2 But respondent continued its refusal, though it also continued to urge the appointment of an emergency board. And, while the record does not show that respondent was notified formally of the employees' agreement to arbitrate until December 28, neither does it appear that respondent did not know of this fact before that time.
On December 21, exactly the expiration of the thirty-day period, respondent by letter notified the employees and their representatives that its proposed schedules would become effective at 12:01 a.m., December 29. By letter dated December 27 and received by respondent before noon on December 28, the employees served notice that a strike would take effect December 28 at six o'clock in the evening. By wire which respondent received that day, the Board [321 U.S. 50, 53] again strongly urged arbitration, pointing out the employees had acceded to the Board's request. Respondent again declined and urged an emergency board be appointed.
Three principal issues have been made in the lower courts and here. Stated in the form of petitioners' contentions, they are: (1) The District Court was without jurisdiction, since there is no claim of diversity of citizenship and, it is said, no federal question is involved;5 (2) the [321 U.S. 50, 55] evidence was not sufficient to show that the public authorities were unwilling or unable to furnish adequate protection for respondent's property;6 and (3) respondent did not make every reasonable effort to settle the dispute as required by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. 7 Without passing upon the others, we think the last contention must be sustained.
Section 8 demands this method be exhausted before a complainant to whom it is available may have injunctive relief. Broadly, the section imposes two conditions. If a complainant has failed (1) to comply with any obligation imposed by law or (2) to make every reasonable [321 U.S. 50, 57] effort to settle the dispute, he is forbidden relief. The latter condition is broader than the former. One must not only discharge his legal obligations. He must also go beyond them and make all reasonable effort, at the least by the methods specified if they are available, though none may involve complying with any legal duty. Any other view would make the second condition wholly redundant. It clearly is not the section's purpose, therefore, by that condition, to require only what one is compelled by law to do. Yet, as will appear, this would be the effect of accepting respondent's position.
It is wholly inconsistent with the section's language and purpose to construe it, as have respondent and the lower courts, to require reasonable effort by only one conciliatory device whem others are available. The explicit terms demand 'every reasonable effort' to settle the dispute. Three modes are specified. 11 They were the normal ones for settlement of labor disputes by the efforts of the parties themselves and the aid of agencies adapted specially for the purpose. The Railway Labor Act12 pro- [321 U.S. 50, 58] vided for all of them, with the aid of governmental machinery in the stages of mediation and arbitration. Section 8 is not limited to railway labor disputes. But it includes them. 13 And its very terms show they were used in explicit contemplation of the procedures and machinery then existing under the Railway Labor Act and with the intent of making their exhaustion conditions for securing injunctive relief, not singly or alternatively, but conjunctively or successively, when available. This purpose of Congress is put beyond question when the section's legislative history is considered in the light of the history and the basic common policy of the two statutes, the Railway Labor Act and the Norris-LaGuardia Act.
The policy of the Railway Labor Act was to encourage use of the nonjudicial processes of negotiation, mediation and arbitration for the adjustment of labor disputes. Cf. General Committee of Adjustment of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co., 320 U.S. 323 , 64 S.Ct. 146; General Committee of Adjustment of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Southern Pacific Co., 320 U.S. 338 , 64 S.Ct. 142. The over-all policy of the Norris-LaGuardia Act was the same. The latter did not entirely abolish judicial power to impose previous restraint in labor controversies. But its prime purpose was to restrict the federal equity power in such matters within greatly narrower limits than it had come to occupy. 14 It sought to make injunction a last line [321 U.S. 50, 59] of defense, available not only after other legally required methods, but after all reasonable methods as well, have been tried and found wanting. This purpose runs throughout the Act's provisions. It is dominant and explicit in Section 8. In short, the intent evidenced both by words and by policy was to gear the section's requirements squarely into the methods and procedures prescribed by the Railway Labor Act.
To construe the section therefore as requiring but one of the three methods to be used, when the other two are equally available, would emasculate the language and would defeat the purpose and policy of the statute.
It would do this by inviting semblance of compliance without its substance, motion of settlement without progress toward it. In railway disputes, the first short step in the succession provided by the Railway Labor Act could be taken and the remainder then could be hurdled by injunction. A party always could negotiate, that is, en- [321 U.S. 50, 61] gage in collective bargaining,18 and thereby be relieved of the requirements, under Section 8, of mediation and arbitration. Thus, in this case, under the construction of the Court of Appeals, when respondent completed negotiations without the aid of mediation, there was no need to go on with mediation. In the court's view compliance with one of the specified methods satisfies the full requirements of Section 8.19 Yet negotiation, in the sense of bargaining collectively, under the Railway Labor Act is an obligation imposed by law. Section 2, Ninth; also First, Second; Virginian Ry. Co. v. System Federation No. 40, 300 U.S. 515, 548 , 57 S.Ct. 592, 599; cf. Texas & N.O.R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, 281 U.S. 548 , 50 S.Ct. 427; General Committee of Adjustment of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co., 320 U.S. 323 , 64 S.Ct. 146, 150. Obviously, if the view of the Court of Appeals is right, the condition requiring 'every reasonable effort to settle' the dispute becomes a dead letter in railway labor disputes, since no more would be required by its terms in that application than is called for by the first condition which demands compliance with legal obligations. Respondent, however, while apparently agreeing with the Court of Appeals that compliance with one method is sufficient, relies not only upon its negotiation, but also upon its participation in mediation. This serves it in no better stead. The section is not disjunctive as to arbitration, but conjunctive as to negotiation and mediation. The case is one, so far as both language and policy go, of one or all. 20 [321 U.S. 50, 62] Respondent's final contention, in this phase of the case, is the most insistent. It is that if 'voluntary arbitration,' as the term is used in Section 8, encompasses arbitration under the Railway Labor Act, by that fact the arbitration ceases to be 'voluntary' and the latter Act's requirement that it be so is violated. In short, it is said that effect is to force respondent to submit to compulsory arbitration.
Without question, as respondent says, arbitration under the Railway Labor Act is voluntary. Section 7, First, requires the machinery to be put in motion by agreement of the parties. A proviso also declares, 'That the failure or refusal of either party to submit a controversy to arbitration shall not be construed as a violation of any legal obligation imposed upon such party by the terms of this Act or otherwise.' 45 U.S.C. 157, First, 45 U.S.C.A. 157, subd. 1. It is clear, therefore, that the Railway Labor Act's purpose is not to impose upon the parties a legal duty to arbitrate, enforceable as is the duty to bargain collectively imposed by Section 2, Ninth, discussed above. And if the effect of bringing that form of arbitration within the mandate of Section 8 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act were to create such a duty, so enforceable, respondent's contention would be more in point. But it does not do that. And the contention that it does entirely misconceives the effect of Section 7, First, of the Railway Labor Act, and confuses 'violation' of its terms with failure to comply with those of Section 8 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. The proviso of Section 7, First, and the requirement of submission by agreement were in force substantially in their present form under the Railway Labor Act of 1926. 44 Stat. 582. It was exactly in the light of these provisions and with the intent, as has been shown, to make it include arbitration under the Railway Labor Act that Section 8 used the term 'voluntary arbitration.' Obviously there was no purpose in doing so to contradict the terms of both statutes and label 'voluntary' what in fact is compulsory. Nor was this the effect. Section 7, First, merely [321 U.S. 50, 63] provides that failure to arbitrate shall not be construed as a violation of any legal obligation imposed upon the party failing by that Act or otherwise. Respondent's failure of refusal to arbitrate has not violated any obligation imposed upon it, whether by the Railway Labor Act or by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. No one has recourse against it by any legal means on account of this failure. Respondent is free to arbitrate or not, as it chooses. But if it refuses, it loses the legal right to have an injunction issued by a federal court or, to put the matter more accurately, it fails to perfect the right to such relief. This is not compulsory arbitration. It is compulsory choice between the right to decline arbitration and the right to have the aid of equity in a federal court.
True, this deprives respondent of a protection to which it might have been entitled if the condition had not been imposed. But that is true of each of the section's conditions. And it is hardly more true with respect to one condition than with respect to others. Mediation, or for that matter negotiation, does not become compulsory because without them or either of them injunctive relief cannot be had. Neither does arbitration.
Nor does it follow, as respondent seems to imply, that it is left without remedy. Other means of protection remain. Suits for recovery of damages still may be brought in the federal courts, when federal jurisdiction is shown to exist. Federal statutes supply criminal sanctions, enforceable in the federal courts, against persons who interfere in specified ways with the operation of interstate trains or destroy the property of interstate railroads. Cf. 18 U.S.C. 412a, 18 U.S.C.A. 412a. With these and other remedies that may be available we are concerned no further than to point out that respondent's failure to observe the requirements of Section 8 has not left it without legal protection. That failure has deprived it merely of one form of remedy which the Congress, exercising its plenary control over the jurisdic- [321 U.S. 50, 64] tion of the federal courts,21 has seen fit to withhold. With the wisdom of that action we have no concern. It is enough, for its enforcement, that it is written plain and does not transcend the limits of the legislative power. Cf. Lauf v. E. G. Shinner & Co., 303 U.S. 323 , 58 S.Ct. 578.
The fact is that respondent complied with the requirements of both Section 8 and the Railway Labor Act in all but the one essential respect. It recognized the employees' designated representatives, negotiated with them, engaged in mediation until it was terminated by the Board as the statute required. When it came, however, to the final and crucial step of arbitration, it declined to go forward as Section 8 requires if, later, injunctive relief is to be had. Whether the refusal was motivated by distrust of the Board,22 by a desire to escape the binding effect of an award,23 by preference for some other possible procedure,24 or merely by re- [321 U.S. 50, 65] spondent's mistaken view of the section's requirements is not material. Arbitration under the Railway Labor Act was available, afforded a method for settlement Congress itself has provided, and until respondent accepted this method it had not made 'every reasonable effort to settle' the dispute, as Section 8 requires.
It remains to refute a further basis for the ruling of the Court of Appeals. This was that, in accordance with its previous decisions, Section 8 does not apply when violence is involved. The terms of the Section offer no support for such a view. 25 And, if exceptions exist, to find one in the circumstances shown by this record would be to invert the statutory order of things. The purpose of the section is to head off strikes and the violence which too often accompanies them, by requiring the statutory steps to be taken before the aid of federal courts is sought in equity. Denial of that assistance is the sanction the statute affords to secure performance of the prescribed preventive measures. To give it, when they have not been taken, not only violates the section's terms. It defeats the purposes they were to accomplish and which, when achieved, make unnecessary invocation of the court's aid.
In general the Act was not intended to interfere with the power to restrain violent acts. 26 And it was contemplated expressly the court might intervene to prevent them, when the particular circumstances show the complainant has had no opportunity to comply with such requirements as those of Section 8.27 But one major purpose of the Act was to prevent the use of injunction improperly as a strike breaking imple- [321 U.S. 50, 66] ment. 28 And the discussion of Section 8 in the Congressional debates shows that, while it would not apply if on the facts the complainant could not meet its terms, it was intended to apply when he had had ample opportunity but refused to do so.29 This is clear not only from Representative O'Connor's 'clean hands' characterization of the section, 30 but also from the general character of the discussion regarding it. Most, if not all, of the objection was upon the mistaken view that Section 8 would apply even though the complainant might have no notice or knowledge of the facts calling for him to take the conciliatory steps before seeking injunctive relief. 31 What has been said above shows this was not the intent or effect of the section. There was indeed no expression of concern for the complainant who, having full opportunity to comply with the section, might refuse deliberately and steadfastly to do so. On the contrary, it appears to have been understood clearly he would be remitted to other forms of relief not touched by the Act.
In view of the disposition we have made of the case, we have not determined the other issues which were presented. Some are of such importance they should not be decided in advance of necessity for determining them. That necessity is not present in this case. Accordingly, we express no opinion concerning those issues.
The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.
[ Footnote 1 ] Petitioners' brief characterizes their action as agreement 'to an indefinite postponement.' Respondent says 'the strike notice was at no time withdrawn, although it was temporarily withheld' until December 28.
[ Footnote 2 ] The record does not disclose the exact time or manner of petitioners' agreement, but clearly indicates it was in response to this proposal of the Board, not the later one of December 28, which was addressed solely to respondent and recited the employees' previous agreement.
[ Footnote 3 ] There were twenty-nine of these. The employees involved in the dispute numbered about one hundred.
[ Footnote 4 ] It may be added to the background of facts that, between January 19, when the injunction issued, and the time when the appeal was perfected, various individual defendants, petitioners here, were cited to show cause why they should not be punished for contempt for violating the injunction. The court also issued an order on February 9 directing the marshal to enforce the injunction by proper means, including the employment of additional deputies if necessary. The record shows the citations were set for hearing but does not disclose what disposition was made of them. It appears, however, from the briefs that the persons cited were convicted and sentenced for violation of the injunction, sentence later being suspended pending the final determination of this case.
[ Footnote 5 ] In the lower courts and here this issue was highly controverted. Petitioners say jurisdiction is lacking since the cause of action is one merely for exercise of the general police power in the protection of the railroad's property. The complaint, it is said, does not specify and provision of federal law which requires construction or application and does no more than aver a general reference to federal statutes, including the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. 1 et seq., and the statute making criminal specified interferences with interstate railroad property. 18 U.S.C. 412a, 18 U.S.C.A. 412a; cf. Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264; Norton v. Whiteside, 239 U.S. 144 , 36 S.Ct. 97; Niles-Bement-Pond Co. v. Iron Moulders' Union, 254 U.S. 77 , 41 S.Ct. 39; Gully v. First National Bank, 299 U.S. 109 , 57 S.Ct. 96.
Respondent and the lower courts find the jurisdictional basis generally in the duties imposed upon carriers by the Interstate Commerce Act and other federal statutes, including the criminal statute referred to above. They rely upon such authorities as Ex parte Lennon, 166 U.S. 548 , 17 S.Ct. 658; Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Ry. Co. v. Pennsylvania Co., C.C.N.D.Ohio, 54 F. 730, 19 L.R.A. 387; and Wabash R. Co. v. Hannahan, C.C.E.D.Mo., 121 F. 563.
[ Footnote 6 ] Cf. the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. 107(e), 29 U.S.C.A. 107( e), 47 Stat. 71.
[ Footnote 7 ] Petitioners also urge that the temporary restraining order became void on the expiration of five days by the provisions of 29 U.S.C. 107(e ), 29 U.S.C.A. 107(e), and could not be extended beyond that time; hence the orders continuing it in force were nullities; and that the evidence was insufficient to show they had participated in or ratified any act of violence or of interference with respondent's operations or property.
[ Footnote 8 ] Cf. text infra at note 21.
[ Footnote 9 ] Cf. 45 U.S.C. 157, 45 U.S.C.A. 157, 44 Stat. 582-584, 48 Stat. 1197. Each party selects an equal number of arbitrators who select another or others, but in case of failure of the named arbitrators to agree the Mediation Board selects the additional member or members.
[ Footnote 10 ] The award is made final and conclusive upon the parties, except for possible impeachment of the judgment entered upon it, in judicial proceedings, on grounds specified in the statute. 45 U.S.C. 158(l), (m), ( n), 45 U.S.C.A. 158(l, m, n), 44 Stat. 584-586, 48 Stat. 1197; 159, Second, Third, 44 Stat. 585.
[ Footnote 11 ] It is not necessary to determine whether they are illustrative or exclusive. Respondent's emphasis upon the disjunctive meaning of 'either ... or ... or' effectually eliminates 'every' from the section. It distorts 'every reasonable effort' into meaning, in effect, 'one of the following reasonable efforts.' A similar distortion is its apparent view that the phrase 'with the aid of any available governmental machinery' qualifies only 'mediation' and not 'voluntary arbitration.' Cf. the further discussion in the text, infra at note 20. And if the section uses 'or' only in the disjunctive, it would be enough either to comply with legal obligations or to make reasonable effort, a view so obviously untenable it has not been suggested.
[ Footnote 12 ] The Norris-LaGuardia Act was adopted March 23, 1932. 47 Stat. 70. At that time the Railway Labor Act of 1926 was in force. 44 Stat. 577. Though it differed in substantial respects from the Railway Labor Act of 1934, now in effect (48 Stat. 1185), it contained provisions for the three procedures of negotiation, mediation and arbitration which, for present purposes, were identical with or substantially similar to those of the later statute. The 1934 changes related principally to the machinery for making the procedures effective, though in some instances it more definitely crystallized legal obligations.
[ Footnote 13 ] Much of the debate in Congress related to previous railway labor disputes, including the Pullman controversy of 1894 and the shop-craft strike of 1922, and to decisions relating to injunctions which had been issued in connection with these disputes, e.g., In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 , 15 S.Ct. 900; cf. 75 Cong.Rec. 4618-4620, 5472-5479, 5503- 5504.
[ Footnote 14 ] Cf. the debates in Congress, 75 Cong.Rec. 4505-4510, 4618-4626, 5462-5515.
[ Footnote 15 ] Cf. notes 13, 14 supra.
[ Footnote 17 ] 75 Cong.Rec. 5464. It was partly for fear of the effects of requiring compliance with Section 8's provisions, upon interruption of service, that Mr. Beck, who led opposition to the bill, urgently advocated an amendment exempting public utilities. 75 Cong.Rec. 5503-5504.
[ Footnote 18 ] It may be assumed that the negotiation must be done in good faith, as is true under the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. 151 et seq., cf. e.g., N.L.R.B. v. George P. Pilling & Son Co., 3 Cir., 119 F.2d 32.
[ Footnote 19 ] 'The employer is not compelled to avail himself of all three methods; any one of them will fulfill the requirements. Thus in Mayo v. Dean, 5 Cir., 82 F.2d 554, 556, it was held that the employer is not obliged to propose both mediation and arbitration.' 132 F.2d 265, 271.
[ Footnote 20 ] Cf. note 11, supra.
[ Footnote 21 ] Cf. Lockerty v. Phillips, 319 U.S. 182 , 63 S.Ct. 1019, and authorities cited.
'... respondent had reached the point where its only recourse was to request an impartial body, namely: an emergency board, to hear the evidence and decide the issues involved.
'There is no presumption that this governmental agency would be fair, just and impartial, in the conduct of the arbitration, and with the experience which the respondent had had in the mediation, it could not be charged with bad faith in refusing to sign an arbitration agreement, where the arbitration proceedings were to be conducted under the same atmosphere.
[ Footnote 23 ] Cf. note 10 supra; note 24 infra.
[ Footnote 24 ] When the Mediation Board terminated its services, respondent first suggested submission to 'some impartial fact-finding commission,' but for advisory action only. Later it repeatedly urged appointment of an emergency board under Section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. 160, 45 U.S.C.A. 160, 44 Stat. 586, 587, 48 Stat. 1198. Under the section, if a dispute not adjusted threatens in the Board's judgment substantially to interrupt interstate commerce, the Board shall notify the President who, in his discretion, may create a board to investigate and report concerning the dispute.
[ Footnote 25 ] Frankfurter and Greene, The Labor Injunction (1930) 215.
[ Footnote 26 ] Cf. 75 Cong.Rec. 5478.
[ Footnote 27 ] Cf. note 16 supra; 75 Cong.Rec. 5508.
[ Footnote 28 ] Cf. 75 Cong.Rec. 5478.
[ Footnote 29 ] Cf. note 16 supra; 75 Cong.Rec. 5508.
[ Footnote 30 ] Cf. note 17 supra and text.
[ Footnote 31 ] Cf. 75 Cong.Rec. 4688, 5471, 5508, setting forth the objections of opponents to the bill, with the replies of its sponsors at 4760, 5508.

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