Source: https://m.openjurist.org/371/us/156
Timestamp: 2020-01-26 21:55:23
Document Index: 79840773

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 204', '§ 207', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 207', '§ 204', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 2', '§ 152', '§ 13', '§ 113', '§ 1007', '§ 1007', '§ 212']

371 US 156 Burlington Truck Lines Inc v. United States | OpenJurist
371 U.S. 156 - Burlington Truck Lines Inc v. United States
BURLINGTON TRUCK LINES, INC., et al., Appellants,
UNITED STATES et al. GENERAL DRIVERS AND HELPERS UNION, LOCAL 554, etc., Appellant, v. UNITED STATES et al.
The difficulty with the order arises in connection with the findings and conclusions relevant to the choice of remedy. The assumption of the Commission was that the deficiencies of service made either of two remedies available—additional certification or entry of a cease-and-desist order—and that it had unlimited discretion to apply either remedy simply because either might be effective. It is unmistakably clear from the opinion of the Commission and from the fact-findings it made or adopted,8 that the disruption in service resulted solely from refusals to serve, which in turn arose from union pressure applied to obtain union objectives. It is equally clear that absent union pressure there would have been no refusals to serve and that in such normal circumstances the facilities and the services of the existing carriers were adequate.9 Moreover, the trunk-line carriers were operating below capacity,10 were in a position and anxious to transport additional traffic11, and had been enjoying the previously interlined traffic which the grant would divert to Short Line.12 In this factual context we may put aside at the outset the authority which the appellees rely upon that holds that additional certification is the normal and permissible way to deal with generalized inadequacy in service. See, e.g., Davidson Transfer Co. v. United States, 42 F.Supp. 215, 219—220 (E.D.Pa.), aff'd, 317 U.S. 587, 63 S.Ct. 31, 87 L.Ed. 481.13 When, as here, the particular deviations from an otherwise completely adequate service (which has economic need for the traffic) consist solely of illegal and discriminatory refusals to accept or deliver traffic from or to particular carriers or shippers, the powers of the Commission under §§ 204, 212, and 216 bear heavily on the propriety of § 207 relief. And in such a case the choice of the certification remedy may not be automatic; it must be rational and based upon conscious choice that in the circumstances the public interest in 'adequate, economical, and efficient service' outbalances whatever public interest there is in protecting existing carriers' revenues in order to 'foster sound economic conditions in transportation and among the several carriers' (National Transportation Policy, 49 U.S.C. preceding §§ 1, 301, 901, 1001, 49 U.S.C.A. preceding §§ 1, 301, 901, 1001),14 and the other opposing interests.
There are no findings and no analysis here to justify the choice made, no indication of the basis on which the Commission exercised its expert discretion. We are not prepared to and the Administrative Procedure Act15 will not permit us to accept such adjudicatory practice. See Siegel Co. v. Federal Trade Comm'n, 327 U.S. 608, 613—614, 66 S.Ct. 758, 761, 90 L.Ed. 888. Expert discretion is the lifeblood of the administrative process, but 'unless we make the requirements for administrative action strict and demanding, expertise, the strength of modern government, can become a monster which rules with no practical limits on its discretion.' New York v. United States, 342 U.S. 882, 884, 72 S.Ct. 152, 153, 96 L.Ed. 662 (dissenting opinion). 'Congress did not purport to transfer its legislative power to the unbounded discretion of the regulatory body.' Federal Communications Comm'n v. RCA Communications, Inc., 346 U.S. 86, 90, 73 S.Ct. 998, 1002, 97 L.Ed. 1470. The Commission must exercise its discretion under § 207(a) within the bounds expressed by the standard of 'public convenience and necessity.' Compare id., at 91, 73 S.Ct. at 1002, 97 L.Ed. 1470. And for the courts to determine whether the agency has done so, it must 'disclose the basis of its order' and 'give clear indication that it has exercised the discretion with which Congress has empowered it.' Phelps Dodge Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 313 U.S. 177, 197, 61 S.Ct. 845, 854, 85 L.Ed. 1271. The agency must make findings that support its decision, and those findings must be supported by substantial evidence. Interstate Commerce Comm'n v. J T Transport Co., 368 U.S. 81, 93, 82 S.Ct. 204, 211, 7 L.Ed.2d 147; United States v. Carolina Freight Carriers Corp., 315 U.S. 475, 488—489, 62 S.Ct. 722, 729, 86 L.Ed. 971; United States v. Chicago, M., St. P. & P.R. Co., 294 U.S. 499, 511, 55 S.Ct. 462, 79 L.Ed. 1023. Here the Commission made no findings specifically directed to the choice between two vastly different remedies with vastly different consequences to the carriers and the public. Nor did it articulate any rational connection between the facts found and the choice made. The Commission addressed itself neither to the possible shortcomings of § 204 procedures, to the advantages of certification, nor to the serious objections to the latter. As we shall presently show, these objections are particularly important in the present context and they should have been taken into account.
It is said that attempted compliance by the unionized carriers might in some way 'so aggravate their labor difficulties as to cause a complete cessation of operations.' But this ignores the Commission's conclusion that carrier apprehensions of teamster reprisals were exaggerated and unwarranted. It further ignores the fact that, as the Commission was aware, the National Labor Relations Board had ordered the union to cease boycotting any of the stockholder carriers by appeals to the employees of any other carrier. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 554, 116 N.L.R.B.1891. To be sure, the Board had not ordered the union not to make appeals directly to the trunkline carriers. The union was free to make such appeals, absent inducement of employees, and, as far as the labor laws and the collective agreement16 were concerned, the employer was free to reject or accede to such requests. But it was precisely at this point that the Sand Door case (Local 1976 v. Labor Board, 357 U.S. 93, 78 S.Ct. 1011, 2 L.Ed.2d 1186) recognized the power of the Commission to enter cease-and-desist orders against the carriers' violating the transportation law and their tariffs.17 Thus, as the appellant union argues,18 there was no reason to have assumed that the ordinary processes of the law19 were incapable of remedying the situation.20
But discussion of the effectiveness of cease-and-desist orders in terms of the June 1959 status of hot cargo arrangements is now largely academic: Congress added § 8(e) to the Act four months after the Commission's decision in this case and over a year before the District Court sustained the Commission. Under this section Congress declared it to 'be an unfair labor practice for any labor organization and any employer to enter into any contract or agreement, express or implied, whereby such employer ceases or refrains or agrees to cease or refrain from handling, using, selling, transporting or otherwise dealing in any of the products of any other employer, or to cease doing business with any other person, and any contract or agreement entered into heretofore or hereafter containing such an agreement shall be to such extent unenforcible and void. * * *.' In the absence of authoritative judicial interpretation of § 8(e), however, the District Court was unwilling to attach any significance to the new law in the present case. In this the District Court erred. The plain words of the statute at the very least raised serious questions about the legality of direct union-employer agreements to boycott another employer. Not only would the delinquent interlining carriers in this case be subject to the injunctive and other processes of the National Labor Relations Board if their conduct violated s 8(e), but the unions themselves would be vulnerable21 and the pressures which generated the refusals to serve might well be effectively removed. These intervening facts so changed the complexion of the case that (even putting aside the considerations discussed above) the reviewing equity court, in the exercise of its sound discretion, should not have affirmed the order, as it did, but should have vacated it and remanded it to the Commission for further consideration in the light of the changed conditions. See Ford Motor Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 305 U.S. 364, 373—374, 59 S.Ct. 301, 307, 83 L.Ed. 221; State of Mo. ex rel. Wabash R. Co. v. Public Serv. Comm'n, 273 U.S. 126, 130—131, 47 S.Ct. 311, 313, 71 L.Ed. 575; Gulf, C. & S.F.R. Co. v. Dennis, 224 U.S. 503, 506—509, 32 S.Ct. 542, 543—544, 56 L.Ed. 860.22
Since it is my view that under the facts here the Commission has no power to grant a permanent certificate to a competitor, I see no reason to direct that this matter be referred back to the Commission for further proceedings. Such a remand assumes that there is some further action by way of a cease-and-desist order the Commission can or should take. My view is that the facts in this record provide no possible basis for permitting the Commission to order the carriers to cease and desist from carrying out their agreement with the unions. Nothing in the Interstate Commerce Act gives the Commission power to prohibit carriers or unions under the circumstances shown by this record from doing that which the Labor Act permits them to do. Moreover, as the Court points out, four months after the Commission's order Congress outlawed the kind of conduct which here interfered with transportation. Since Congress has, by this enactment, so clearly taken this matter in hand in a way that does not rely for enforcement on the Interstate Commerce Commission, the old Commission proceedings have all the earmarks of mootness, whether technically moot or not. If the union or the truck lines should hereafter violate this new law the Labor Board, backed by the courts, is vested with ample power to force both carriers and unions to obey that law. The Interstate Commerce Commission has enough to do within its congressionally appointed field without stepping over into the field of labor regulation. The Commission should no more than a State* invade regulatory territory Congress has preempted for agencies of its own choice.
Compare Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, 254 U.S. 443, 471—472, 41 S.Ct. 172, 178—179, 65 L.Ed. 349. But see National Labor Relations Act, §§ 2(3), 9, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 152(3), 159; Norris-La-Guardia Act, § 13(c), 29 U.S.C.A. § 113(c).
R. 87—89, 95.
R. 68—69.
And see Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co. v. Reddish, 368 U.S. 81, 91, 82 S.Ct. 204, 210, 7 L.Ed.2d 147, where the Court rejected the argument that complaint proceedings must be resorted to before additional operating authority could be had to replace a common carrier service inadequate for the shippers' particularized physical or economic needs. This case, like the many cases appellees cite in which the Commission granted throughroute certification to overcome inadequacy of existing joint-line service (e.g., Penn Ohio New York Exp. Corp. Ext.—N.Y., 27 M.C.C. 269; Malone Freight Lines, Inc., Ext.—Textiles, 61 M.C.C. 501; Dallas & Mavis Fwdg. Co. Ext.—Mont., 64 M.C.C. 511; Braswell Ext. Calif., 68 M.C.C. 664; Kenosha Corp. Ext.—Kenosha, 72 M.C.C. 289), is clearly inapposite here, where there is nothing inherently wrong with the appellant carriers' service, either because of its particular nature or because of lack of capacity, infrequency of pickups, delays in delivery, or the like.
Section 8(b), 5 U.S.C. § 1007(b), 5 U.S.C.A. § 1007(b), provides that all decisions shall 'include a statement of * * * findings and conclusions, as well as the reasons or basis therefor, upon all the material issues of fact, law, or discretion presented on the record.'
The union contends in its brief and we agree that the § 212(a) complaint procedure, if followed by the stockholder carriers, 'would have provided a more adequate remedy' at the time the case was before the Commission in 1956—1959.