Task: songer_exhaust

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals. You will be asked a question pertaining to some threshold issue at the trial court level. These issues are only considered to be present if the court of appeals is reviewing whether or not the litigants should properly have been allowed to get a trial court decision on the merits. That is, the issue is whether or not the issue crossed properly the threshhold to get on the district court agenda. The issue is: "Did the court determine that it would not hear the appeal for one of the following reasons: a) administrative remedies had not been exhausted; or b) the issue was not ripe for judicial action?" Answer the question based on the directionality of the appeals court decision. If the court discussed the issue in its opinion and answered the related question in the affirmative, answer "Yes". If the issue was discussed and the opinion answered the question negatively, answer "No". If the opinion considered the question but gave a mixed answer, supporting the respondent in part and supporting the appellant in part, answer "Mixed answer". If the opinion does not discuss the issue, or notes that a particular issue was raised by one of the litigants but the court dismissed the issue as frivolous or trivial or not worthy of discussion for some other reason, answer "Issue not discussed". If the opinion considered the question but gave a "mixed" answer, supporting the respondent in part and supporting the appellant in part (or if two issues treated separately by the court both fell within the area covered by one question and the court answered one question affirmatively and one negatively), answer "Mixed answer". If the opinion either did not consider or discuss the issue at all or if the opinion indicates that this issue was not worthy of consideration by the court of appeals even though it was discussed by the lower court or was raised in one of the briefs, answer "Issue not discussed".

PER CURIAM.
This appeal from dismissal of an action of a former railroad baggage-man for wrongful discharge, brought in the District Court for the Southern District of New York on the basis of diverse citizenship, again raises the issue of the preclusive effect of failure to exhaust remedies provided in a collective bargaining agreement between a union and an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. The present agreement, between The Pennsylvania Railroad Company and its clerical, office, station and storehouse employees, represented by the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes, became effective May 1, 1942, but was amended effective November 1, 1955, in a manner crucial to the issue here. Prior to 1955, it had provided only, so far as here relevant, that “An employee who considers that an injustice has been done him in discipline matters and who has appealed his case in writing to the Superintendent * * * within ten days, will be given a hearing” (Rule 7-A-l(a)); the agreement also had provision for discussion by the railroad’s Superintendent and the Brotherhood’s Division Chairman of claims “for compensation” which the Railroad had denied (Rule 7-B-l(e)), but it did not provide for appeal to the National Railroad Adjustment Board. 45 U.S.C. § 153, First (i). The 1955 amendment added a number of new subdivisions to Rule 7-B-l; these included a provision that monthly meetings should be held between each Superintendent of Personnel and Division Chairman “for the purpose of disposing, if possible, of disputes growing out of grievances, or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rules, rates of pay and working conditions, as well as discipline cases”; that additional monthly meetings on a system-wide basis should be held between the Railroad’s Manager of Labor Relations and the Brotherhood’s General Chairman “for the purpose of disposing of matters not settled with the Superintendents of Personnel”; and that “All claims or grievances involved in a decision by the Manager of Labor Relations shall be barred unless within one year from the date of said officer’s decision proceedings are instituted by the General Chairman before the Third Division of the National Railroad Adjustment Board.”
Satterfield was dismissed for alleged breach of company regulations in 1957, without, as he claimed, having received from the company a “fair and impartial trial” as required by Rule No. 6 of the agreement. The Brotherhood’s representative carried his complaint through the machinery provided in the contract, and the Adjustment Board directed that he receive a trial. This having been had, the Railroad renewed the notice of dismissal. On this occasion no further proceedings were taken pursuant to the agreement either by Satterfield or by the Brotherhood on his behalf; instead Sat-terfield brought this action for damages for wrongful discharge. Judge Sugar-man granted a motion by the Railroad for summary judgment, overruling Sat-terfield’s claim that the contract provisions for such proceedings were not mandatory but permissive only.
Although the Brotherhood’s agreement with the Pennsylvania is not so plain in requiring an employee aggrieved by a discharge to travel the road ending with the Adjustment Board as the contract in Larsen v. American Airlines, Inc., 313 F.2d 599 (2 Cir. 1963), was in requiring an appeal, we think the 1955 amendment had the effect of limiting discharged employees to the procedure for discussion and adjustment therein provided. See also Belk v. Allied Aviation Service Co., 315 F.2d 513 (2 Cir. 1963). If we entertained more doubts as to the interpretation of the agreement than we do, we should resolve them in favor of that construction in view of the custom in the industry and the policy embodied in the Railway Labor Act. Compare Pennsylvania R. Co. v. Day, 360 U.S. 548, 79 S.Ct. 1322, 3 L.Ed.2d 1422 (1959); Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 373 U.S. 33, 83 S.Ct. 1059, 10 L.Ed.2d 172 (1963).
Affirmed.

Question: Did the court determine that it would not hear the appeal for one of the following reasons: a) administrative remedies had not been exhausted; or b) the issue was not ripe for judicial action?
A. No
B. Yes
C. Mixed answer
D. Issue not discussed
Answer:

Answer: B