Case Name: INTERNATIONAL UNION OF MINE, MILL & SMELTER WORKERS, LOCALS NOS. 15, 17, 107, 108 and 111, (C. I. O.) et al. v. EAGLE-PICHER MINING & SMELTING CO. et al.
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1945-05-28
Citations: 325 U.S. 335
Docket Number: No. 337
Parties: INTERNATIONAL UNION OF MINE, MILL & SMELTER WORKERS, LOCALS NOS. 15, 17, 107, 108 and 111, (C. I. O.) et al. v. EAGLE-PICHER MINING & SMELTING CO. et al.
Judges: Me. Justice Black, Mr. Justice Douglas and Mr. Justice Rutledge join in this dissent.
Reporter: United States Reports
Volume: 325
Pages: 335–356

Head Matter:
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF MINE, MILL & SMELTER WORKERS, LOCALS NOS. 15, 17, 107, 108 and 111, (C. I. O.) et al. v. EAGLE-PICHER MINING & SMELTING CO. et al.
No. 337.
Argued January 31, 1945.
Decided May 28, 1945.
Mr. Louis N. Wolf, with whom Mr. Sylvan Bruner was on the brief, for petitioners.
Mr. Alvin J. Rockwell, with whom Solicitor General Fahy, Mr. A. Norman Somers and Miss Ruth Weyand were on the brief, for the National Labor Relations Board; and Mr. John G. Madden, with whom Messrs. A. C. Wallace, H. W. Blair, James E. Burke and Ralph M. Russell were on the brief, for the Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelting Co. et al., respondents.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Roberts
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question presented is whether the National Labor Relations Board after seeking and obtaining a court order of enforcement of its own order, in the absence of fraud or mistake induced by the respondent, and after expiration of the term, is entitled to have the provisions of the decree prescribing the nature of the remedy set aside and the case remanded to it, for the prescription of relief it deems more appropriate to enforce the policy of the National Labor Relations Act.
In a proceeding instituted by the petitioner unions the Board found that the respondent companies had been guilty of unfair labor practices in violation of Sections 8 (1) and 8 (3) of the Act. The hearings were protracted both as to the alleged discrimination and as to the remedy which should be adopted. With all relevant data open to it, the Board ordered the employers to cease and desist from certain practices and to reinstate 209 employees with back pay. Based on the Board's understanding as to the opportunity for reinstatement of the 209 men in question and all others eligible for reemployment, it devised a for- muía for the calculation of back pay for the members of the class to whom the award was made.
The employers were dissatisfied with the order and sought a review by the Circuit Court of Appeals. Thereupon the Board filed a transcript of the record in the same court and sought enforcement of its order. The Unions, who are petitioners in this court, were permitted to intervene and were heard in support of the Board's order. The court modified the order as to matters not here relevant and decreed enforcement. Two paragraphs of the decree thus obtained by the Board with the assistance of the present petitioners specified the method of computing back pay to the claimants whom the Board had found entitled. This decree was entered June 27, 1941. The companies proceeded to compute back pay due the claimants in accordance with the terms of the decree and tendered the amount they ascertained to be due thereunder. The Board, by its agents, examined the corporate records and reached the conclusion that a different method of compensation to the claimants should have been adopted in the original proceeding.
February 4,1943, nearly two years after the final decree, and after attempted compliance by the employers, the Board petitioned the Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate that portion of its decree which dealt with the award of back pay and to remand the cause to the Board. The petitioner labor unions were permitted to intervene and to support the Board's petition.
It is somewhat difficult to characterize the allegations of the petition. It does not accuse the companies of fraud, but indicates that certain evidence produced by them created a wrong impression on the mind of the Board which could have been corrected had they gone into greater detail and disclosed certain facts within their knowledge, and it avers that the Board prescribed its remedy in. reliance upon a mistaken understanding of conditions touching possible reemployment of the claimants. To this petition the employers replied challenging the jurisdiction of the court to vacate its decree, moved to dismiss the petition, and answered on the merits, categorically denying the averments of the petition. Thereupon the Board moved for judgment on its motion. The matter was heard. The court held that there had been no showing that the order and decree were obtained by misrepresentation or wrongful conduct of the employers or that any mistake of the Board had resulted in a decree which was unfair, and consequently held that there was no justification for revocation or remand of the portion of the decree involved. The petition of the Board was accordingly dismissed. The Board did not apply for certiorari but the intervening unions whose petition had also been dismissed applied for the writ. The Board was made a respondent in this court but appeared in support of the petition.
The employers made a persuasive showing that, as respects material elements of the problem of back pay, the record of the Board's hearing, and the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals enforcing the Board's order, demonstrate that all the facts now relied upon by the Board for revocation and reformation of its order sufficiently appeared prior to the entry of the order. -In the view we take, it is unnecessary to consider this matter.
They also attack the standing of the petitioners to seek review by this court when the Board, the body charged with the enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act, has elected not to seek review. We think that, in the circumstances disclosed, the petitioners, though they could not have instituted enforcement proceedings, had stand ing to seek review of the order denying the Board's petition.
The important question presented is whether, despite a decree entered at the Board's- behest, prescribing the method of enforcement of the relief granted by the Board, that body retains a continuing jurisdiction to be exercised whenever, in its judgment, such exercise is desirable and may, therefore, oust the jurisdiction of the court and recall the proceeding for further hearing and action.
It will be noted that this is not a bill of review based upon fraud or mistake. If it were to be treated as such obviously the relief prayed could not be granted without a trial, in view of the issues made by the employers' answer. The Board's insistence is that, upon its petition, the averments of which are denied, it is entitled to an opening of the decree and the remand of the cause upon its mere statement that it now thinks the relief orginally granted was inappropriate to the situation as the Board now conceives it.
We are not dealing here with an administrative proceeding. That proceeding has ended and has been merged in a decree of a court pursuant to the directions of the National Labor Relations Act. The statute provides that if, in the enforcement proceeding, it appears that any further facts should be developed the court may remand the cause to the Board for the taking of further evidence and for further consideration. (§ 10 (e). ) But it is plain-that the scheme of the Act contemplates that when the record has been made and is finally submitted for action by the Board the judgment "shall be final." It is to have all the qualities of any other decree entered in a litigated cause upon full hearing, and is subject to review by this court on certiorari as in other cases. (§10 (e) supra.) The position of the petitioners is, and necessarily must be, that, while the court's decree is final as respects the matter of the alleged unfair labor practices found by the Board, it is never final as respects the relief prescribed by the Board. It must follow that at any time, however remote, and for any reason satisfactory to the Board, it may recall the proceeding from the Circuit Court of Appeals insofar as concerns the relief granted and start afresh as if an enforcement decree had never been entered.
Finality to litigation js an end to be desired as well in proceedings to which an administrative body is a party as in exclusively private litigation. The party adverse to the administrative body is entitled to rely on the conclusiveness of a decree entered by a court to the same extent that other litigants may rely on judgments for or against them. The petitioners' contention is that the nature and extent of the back pay remedy are primarily and peculiarly matters lying within the administrative discretion of the Board (see Phelps Dodge Corp. v. Labor Board, 313 U. S. 177, 194; Labor Board v. Link-Belt Co., 311 U. S. 584, 600), and that a court's function is limited to imparting legal sanction to the back pay remedy once it has determined that the Board has acted within the confines of its authority, since a court is prohibited from exercising the discretion reposing exclusively in the Board; and it can, therefore, neither affirm nor reverse a Board order relating to back pay on the basis of its own conception of effectuating the policies of the Act.
All this is true, and we have allowed the Board great latitude in devising remedies which it deems necessary to effectuate the purposes of the Act. But it is not we who essay to interfere with the discretion of an administrative body; it is the Board which is seeking to vacate a court order. The Board had exercised its discretion and devised a remedy. It gave long consideration to the problem of adequate relief for the employees discriminated against, and now asserts that it made a mistake. That is all that it asserts — not even the Board claims that the court below is usurping its functions. What the Board complains of is that it is not permitted to exercise its admittedly wide discretion a second time, or any number of times it may choose.
Administrative flexibility and judicial certainty are not contradictory; there must be an end to disputes which arise between administrative bodies and those over whom they have jurisdiction. This does not mean that the Board could not frame an order which by its terms required modification should conditions change. But here the order was definite and complete; it contemplated only arithmetical computation. The conditions remained the same; what had changed was the Board's awareness of them. Discussion of the Board's peculiar administrative ability serves no end where the matter is one of simple mistake. It rings hollow' when it refers to what on the whole is little more than a mistake in arithmetic, and, in one instance, is just that.
Not only has this Court allowed large scope to the discretion of administrators, but the National Labor Relations Act specifically gives the Board wride powers of modification. Until the transcript of a case is filed in court, the Board may, after reasonable notice, modify any finding or order in whole or in part. After the case has come under the jurisdiction of the court, either party may apply to the court for remand to the Board." There is no dearth of discretion or opportunity for its exercise, but opportunities should not be unlimited. If the petitioners are right, it must follow that in any case in which the court refuses to remand, the Board need merely wait until the "final" decree is entered and then proceed to resume jurisdiction; ignore the court's decree, and come again to it, asking its imprimatur on a new order.
Petitioners place great reliance on American Chain & Cable Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 142 F. 2d 909, but far from supporting them, that case emphasizes the lack of statutory authority here for what was permitted there. There, the court ordered the Federal Trade Commission to consider a petition that the Commission ask the court to vacate its enforcing decree because of war conditions. But the statute in that case reads: "After the expiration of the time allowed for filing a petition for review, if no such petition has been duly filed within such time, the Commission may at any time, after notice and opportunity for hearing, reopen and alter, modify, or set aside, in whole or in part, any report or order made or issued by it under this section, whenever in the opinion of the Commission conditions of fact or of law have so changed as to require such action or if the public interest shall so require." This statute specifically allows the Commission to modify its order after it has become final. And the court merely held that it was reasonable to suppose that Congress intended the Commission's power to extend to cases where its order had become final by court decree as well as to cases where the order had become final by failure to appeal. The National Labor Relations Board is vested with no such power. Section 10 (d) of the Act provides: "Until a transcript of the record in a case shall have been filed in a court, as hereinafter provided, the Board may at any time, upon reasonable notice and in such manner as it shall deem proper, modify or set aside, in whole or in part, any finding or order made or issued by it."
There is no question that the Act intended to vest exclusive jurisdiction in the courts once the Board in the exercise of its discretion had reached its determination and applied for enforcement. This prevents conflict of authority. Ford Motor Co. v. Labor Board, 305 U. S. 364. In the Ford case, we said, "The authority conferred upon the Board by § 10 (d) of the National Labor Relations Act, to modify or set aside its findings and order, ended with the filing in court of the transcript of record." 305 U. S. 364, 368. But the petitioners and the Board contend that although the court has entered its decree, the Board may resume jurisdiction in the same case when it pleases, disregarding the court's decree. This would, indeed, be a peculiar scheme of jurisdiction, devised to prevent interference with the court while it is deliberating to determine what its decree shall be, but allowing the decree to be ignored after it is entered.
The circumstances of the case show how unfair it would be to hold with the petitioners. The employers challenged the Board's order in the original enforcement proceeding, not only as it affected the charged unfair labor practices, but as touching the appropriate relief. When the Circuit Court of Appeals modified and affirmed the order, the companies had an opportunity to apply to this court for review, or to comply with the decree as modified by the court. They elected to follow the latter course only to be confronted, years later, with an attempt to rewrite a portion of that decree at a time when their right of review of other portions of it had expired.
We are dealing here with a decree of a court entered in a judicial proceeding. The term at which the decree was entered has long since expired. The only recourse open to the Board is the same that would be open to any other litigant, namely, a bill of review. If the petition disclosed any basis for such a review the answer of the employers sharply raised issues of fact which required resolution before any relief in the nature of a review could be granted. Unless the National Labor Relations Act so requires, the Board was not entitled, as of right, to have the decree it had procured set aside in part and the cause remanded for trial de novo in part. There is nothing in the Act to indi cate that such a decree is dual in character; part of it final and part of it subject to vacation and reexamination by the Board regardless of the showing made to the court and regardless of the view the court holds as to the propriety of such vacation.
The judgment is
Affirmed.
49 Stat. 449; 29 U. S. C. 151 ff.
29 U. S. C. 158 (1), (3).
16 N. L. R. B. 727; 18 N. L. R. B. 320.
119 F. 2d 903.
141 F. 2d 843.
Amalgamated Utility Workers v. Consolidated Edison Co., 309 U. S. 261; National Licorice Co. v. Labor Board, 309 U. S. 350, 362-363; Phelps Dodge Corp. v. Labor Board, 313 U. S. 177, 193.
Consolidated Edison Co. v. Labor Board, 305 U. S. 197, 218; Williams v. Morgan, 111 U. S. 684.
29 U. S. C. 160 (e).
29 U. S. C. 160 (d).
29 U. S. C. 160 (c).
15 U. S. C. 45 (b).
29 U. S. C. 160 (d).