Opinion ID: 353799
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the district court has jurisdiction over the invalidation claim

Text: 22 The claim to invalidate the November agreement of necessity is based on the same facts on which the unfair representation claim rests. We therefore decide the question of the extent of district court jurisdiction over the invalidation claim preliminarily. 23 The plaintiffs contend the November agreement is invalid for two separate reasons: first, that the applicable collective bargaining agreements 7 between the Union and the employer do not permit the November agreement and second, that the November agreement was improperly executed because of the failure to obtain ratification from the affected Union membership. 8 The district court held that it was without jurisdiction to hear claims attacking the validity of the November agreement (t)o the extent that the complaint against the Railroad avers a breach of the provisions of the collective bargaining agreements in effect between the parties . . . . Goglowski v. Penn Central Transp. Co., supra, 423 F.Supp. at 903. It held that jurisdiction over all such claims is primarily and exclusively with the National Railroad Adjustment Board, see Andrews v. Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co., 406 U.S. 320, 92 S.Ct. 1562, 32 L.Ed.2d 95 (1972); Slocum v. Delaware, Lehigh & Western R.R. Co., 339 U.S. 239, 70 S.Ct. 577, 94 L.Ed. 795 (1950), under the terms of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 153 First (i) (1970). 9 24 The district court has correctly stated the law, but we believe it did not properly interpret plaintiffs' complaint and Rule 56(e) affidavits which aver two separate invalidation claims. Consequently, it erroneously sent both claims to the Board. We assess the district court's opinion first as it relates to the invalidation claim based on contractual impermissibility and second, as it relates to the failure to obtain ratification. 25 Plaintiffs' contractual impermissibility claim asserts that the November agreement was an unauthorized extension of the collective bargaining agreements pertaining to seniority. 10 The defendants counter that the prior agreements between them confer authority to enter into the November agreement and that this dispute is clearly a minor dispute; that is, one which involves the interpretation or application of a collective agreement. Baker v. United Transp. Union, 455 F.2d 149, 154 n. 11 (3d Cir. 1971). 11 As such, they claim it is subject to binding interpretation by the Railroad Adjustment Board. Id. 26 We agree with the district court that this part of the invalidation claim is for the Board. No doubt may be entertained that this claim requires close examination of the pertinent collective bargaining agreements between the Union and the Railroad. We defer to the expertise of the Board in construing railroad labor contracts. See REA Express, Inc. v. Brotherhood Ry., Steamship, & Airline Clerks, 459 F.2d 226, 231 (5th Cir. 1972); United Transp. Union v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 458 F.2d 354, 357 (8th Cir. 1972); Slagley v. Illinois Central R.R. Co., 397 F.2d 546 (7th Cir. 1968); Chicago, M., St. Paul & P. R.R. Co., 397 F.2d 541 (7th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1022, 89 S.Ct. 630, 21 L.Ed.2d 566 (1969). 12 That the Union is joined as a defendant does not alter the basis of the claim which primarily involves contractual interpretation. Roberts v. Lehigh & New England Ry. Co., 323 F.2d 219, 222 (3d Cir. 1963). 13 The claim that the November agreement is invalid for failure to obtain ratification by the affected union membership stands on substantially different footing. The district court in essence regarded this claim only in connection with plaintiffs' effort to establish union liability under the unfair representation claim. The court held that the employer was justified in relying on the Union's apparent authority to negotiate the November agreement and that the Union's liability to its members for failure to obtain ratification could not be imputed to the Railroad. We believe that this is error, for under principles of agency, one party to a contract may not rely on an agent's authority to enter into it on behalf of his principal, when the party has knowledge of limitations placed on that grant by the agent's principal. As we later develop, the employer may be implicated in the Union's failure to obtain ratification, 14 and the ratification claim is an independent basis for attack on the November agreement. 27 Essentially, the claim that the November agreement is invalid for failure to obtain ratification involves a simple contractual principle attacking the formation of a contract. The law applicable to such a claim is ordinary common law. Thus, it appears that no interpretation of any provision of any collective bargaining agreement is called into question and that the Board's expertise need not be invoked. 28 As in Glover v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., 393 U.S. 324, 89 S.Ct. 548, 21 L.Ed.2d 519 (1969), this is essentially a suit brought by employees against their own union which does not call for judicial interpretation of the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. 393 U.S. at 328, 89 S.Ct. 548. This case is similar to Felter v. Southern Pacific Co., 359 U.S. 326, 79 S.Ct. 847, 3 L.Ed.2d 854 (1959), in which the Supreme Court held that an employee challenge to the validity of an agreement negotiated by the railroad and a union was for the courts, because no question of interpretation or application of the collective agreement was raised. 359 U.S. at 327 n. 3, 79 S.Ct. at 850. Similarly, when employees challenged a provision of their collective bargaining agreement as invalid because of its permanent duration, the Second Circuit held that the courts had jurisdiction to enjoin the clause's enforcement and decide the question of its legality. Seaboard World Airlines, Inc. v. Transport Workers Union, 425 F.2d 1086, 1091 (2d Cir. 1970) (Friendly, J.) (the question of the legality of the long prohibition . . . should be determined in the first instance by the district court.). 29 This circuit has not previously faced the question of whether the district court has jurisdiction over a claim challenging the validity of the formation of the railway labor contract. In Roberts v. Lehigh & New England Ry. Co., supra, however, a case in which we sent plaintiff's claims to the Board, we stated that a Federal district court has jurisdiction to determine the validity of a contract under the guarantees of the Act. 323 F.2d at 222 (emphasis supplied). Following that line, we hold that when employees challenge a contract between their union and their employer on the basis that it was invalidly executed, and no interpretation of the basic collective bargaining agreement between them is implicated, the district court has jurisdiction over the claim 15 and we should not defer to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board. 16 30