Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/300/386/346343/
Timestamp: 2019-11-21 13:00:18
Document Index: 239752672

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 504', '§ 201', '§ 1311', '§ 521', '§ 481', '§ 401', '§ 401']

Harry Serio, Appellant, v. Milton J. Liss, President of Local No. 478 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America; and Local No. 478 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America; and Arthur J. Goldberg, Secretary of Labor of the United States, 300 F.2d 386 (3d Cir. 1961) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Third Circuit › 1961 › Harry Serio, Appellant, v. Milton J. Liss, President of Local No. 478 of the International Brotherho...
Harry Serio, Appellant, v. Milton J. Liss, President of Local No. 478 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America; and Local No. 478 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America; and Arthur J. Goldberg, Secretary of Labor of the United States, 300 F.2d 386 (3d Cir. 1961)
US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit - 300 F.2d 386 (3d Cir. 1961) Argued June 9, 1961
Decided November 17, 1961
The Secretary of Labor was permitted to intervene as a party defendant by the court below. While no motion for summary judgment was filed, the case was treated by the court below as if cross motions for summary judgment had been made by the parties. The court below decided that Serio was holding office illegally. See 189 F. Supp. 358 (1960).1
The court below had jurisdiction of the suit at bar by virtue of Section 504(a) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 504(a),2 and Section 1337, Title 28 U.S.C.3 In our opinion the case at bar is one in which the cause of action "arises under" a law of the United States, inasmuch as Serio's claim for declaratory relief is based directly upon Section 504(a) of the Act. In so stating we have not over-looked the carefully reasoned opinions of Judge Clary in Strauss v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, et al., 179 F. Supp. 297 (D.C.E.D. Pa. 1959) and of Chief Judge Thomsen in Jackson v. Martin Co., 180 F. Supp. 475 (D.C.Md.1960), based in large part on Gully v. First National Bank, 299 U.S. 109, 112, 57 S. Ct. 96, 97, 81 L. Ed. 70 (1936). In Gully, Mr. Justice Cardozo stated: "How and when a case arises `under the Constitution or laws of the United States' has been much considered in the books. Some tests are well established. To bring a case within the statute, a right or immunity created by the Constitution or laws of the United States must be an element, and an essential one, of the plaintiff's cause of action." The court below, in declining to follow the reasoning of the Strauss and Jackson cases, draws support for the finding of jurisdiction from Starin v. New York, 115 U.S. 248, 257, 6 S. Ct. 28, 31, 29 L. Ed. 388 (1885). The Supreme Court said by Mr. Chief Justice Waite: "The character of a case is determined by the questions involved. * * * If from the questions it appears that some title, right, privilege, or immunity, on which the recovery depends, will be defeated by one construction of * * * a law of the United States, or sustained by the opposite construction, the case will be one arising under the * * * laws of the United States, within the meaning of that term as used in the act * * *; otherwise not." The Chief Justice cited Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 9 Wheat. 738, 6 L. Ed. 204 (1824), Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 5 L. Ed. 257 (1821), and numerous other authorities.
We think that the sound but contrasting principles of Gully and Starin are sometimes construed, respectively, too narrowly or too broadly, to reflect accurately the reach of federal question jurisdiction under Sections 1331 and 1337, Title 28 U.S.C. The Starin rule is not completely compatible with those decisions denying jurisdiction in which the plaintiff's claim is derived from or is dependent upon state law, even though the construction and constitutionality of a federal statute are the decisive issues in the case. See, e. g., Louisville & Nashville R. R. v. Mottley, 211 U.S. 149, 29 S. Ct. 42, 53 L. Ed. 126 (1908). Cf. Skelly Oil Co. v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 339 U.S. 667, 70 S. Ct. 876, 94 L. Ed. 1194 (1950). On the other hand, the Supreme Court has recognized exceptions to the Gully standard also. Thus, jurisdiction was not questioned in Jewell Ridge Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, 325 U.S. 161, 65 S. Ct. 1063, 89 L. Ed. 1534 (1945), or Tennessee Coal etc. Co. v. Muscoda Local, 321 U.S. 590, 64 S. Ct. 698, 88 L. Ed. 949 (1944), where the plaintiff employers sought a declaratory judgment negating the federal right asserted by the defendant employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.4 And, when the plaintiff voiced constitutional objections and attempted to enjoin the defendant from carrying out a federal duty prescribed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 1311-1314, the Court in Mulford v. Smith, 307 U.S. 38, 59 S. Ct. 648, 83 L. Ed. 1092 (1939), expressly bottomed jurisdiction on Section 1337. We think that the facts of the instant case are jurisdictionally indistinguishable from those in Mulford and that the court below had jurisdiction under Section 1337.
A further point requires brief discussion. It has not been raised by counsel nor was it considered by the court below. An examination of the record and the briefs will show that the adversary aspect of the litigation has been conducted entirely by the Secretary and that the original defendants filed an answer admitting in substance all of the allegations of the complaint. However, we do not see how they could have denied the verity of these allegations in good faith. The questions which remain are primarily those of law and they have been asserted most vigorously by the Secretary. Under the circumstances we are not inclined to treat the suit as a "collusive" one or as a nonadversary proceeding. Compare United States v. Lovett, 328 U.S. 303, 306, 66 S. Ct. 1073, 90 L. Ed. 1252 (1946), with United States v. Johnson, 319 U.S. 302, 63 S. Ct. 1075, 87 L. Ed. 1413 (1943). See "Judicial Determinations in Nonadversary Proceedings", 72 Harv. L. Rev. 723 (1959). We think that under Rule 24(b), Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 28 U.S.C., read in the light of Sections 601 (a) and 607 of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 521(a), 527, the Secretary, as the fundamental governmental officer charged with the effective execution of the Landrum-Griffin Act, was entitled to intervene and defend the action. To hold that a proceeding such as that at bar is a nonadversary one might limit lamentably future effective enforcement of the Act.
In such a situation we are bound by the repeated rulings of the Supreme Court that when a plaintiff's "cause of action" or "claim for relief" is based on state law, the case is not one "arising under any Act of Congress" merely because defendant probably will invoke an affirmative defense based upon a federal statute. See Skelly Oil Co. v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 1950, 339 U.S. 667, 672, 70 S. Ct. 876, 94 L. Ed. 1194; Gully v. First National Bank, 1936, 299 U.S. 109, 57 S. Ct. 96, 81 L. Ed. 70; Louisville & Nashville R. R. v. Mottley, 1908, 211 U.S. 149, 29 S. Ct. 42, 53 L. Ed. 126; Metcalf v. Watertown, 1888, 128 U.S. 586, 9 S. Ct. 173, 32 L. Ed. 543. The Court reaffirmed this doctrine only a few weeks before the argument of the present appeal. See Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. Superior Court, 1961, 366 U.S. 656, 663-664, 81 S. Ct. 1303, 6 L. Ed. 2d 584. Moreover, the language of the Pan American Petroleum case and the Skelly Oil case makes it clear that a plaintiff who asserts a right conferred by state law cannot bring his case within federal jurisdiction by pleading matter in anticipation of an affirmative defense that the defendant may assert under an Act of Congress.
On close examination the case at bar does not seem to be one apt for disposal on motion for summary judgment because of the very abbreviated record. No motions for summary judgment appear in the record before us. That record does not disclose the date of Serio's election. We therefore cannot tell whether or not he was eligible for election to the office of business agent at the time he was elected. Neither the constitution nor by-laws of the Local nor those of the International are in evidence. The record does not disclose whether the election at which Serio was elected business agent of the Local was one which falls within the purview of Section 401(e) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 481(e). The record does not show whether Serio was a member of the Local or of the International, though he is referred to in letters written by the International's house counsel as "Brother Serio". In this connection the court below stated: "While plaintiff's right to become a candidate for and to be elected to the office which he holds presumably arise from the constitution and by-laws of the labor organization of which he is a member, his right to continue to occupy and his immunity from removal from that office depends [sic] upon the construction of section 504(a) of the Act." 189 F. Supp. at p. 362. Nonetheless we think that the case can be disposed of on the present record.
The Landrum-Griffin Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 401-531, is an "Act of Congress regulating commerce" within the meaning of Section 1337. See Section 2(c) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 401(c); Jackson v. The Martin Co., 180 F. Supp. 475, 482 (D.C.Md.1960). The tests required by Section 1337 are the same as those demanded by Section 1331 except that no jurisdictional amount need be alleged. Peyton v. Railway Express Agency, 316 U.S. 350, 62 S. Ct. 1171, 86 L. Ed. 1525 (1942). See Moore's Federal Practice, 2d ed., Vol. I, p. 627.
See also E. Edelmann & Co. v. Triple-A Specialty Co., 88 F.2d 852 (7 Cir.), cert. denied, 300 U.S. 680, 57 S. Ct. 673, 81 L. Ed. 884 (1937); Mishkin, The Federal "Question" in the District Courts, 53 Colum. L. Rev. 157, 179 (1953)
See Shoshone Mining Co. v. Rutter, 177 U.S 505, 20 S. Ct. 726, 44 L. Ed. 864 (1900), and Mishkin, The Federal "Question" in the District Courts, 53 Colum. L. Rev. 157 (1953). Professor Mishkin stated, id. at p. 162, that the national interest in some suits is "negligible" and that "To bring all these suits into the federal courts would place upon them — and many of the litigants — an unnecessary burden."