Opinion ID: 295846
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: This Court's Duty to Assure Reasonableness and Fairness of Board Decisions

Text: 18 In Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, supra, 340 U.S. at 490, 71 S.Ct. at 466, the Supreme Court of the United States said: 19 We conclude, therefore, that the Administrative Procedure Act and the Taft-Hartley Act direct that courts must now assume more responsibility for the reasonableness and fairness of Labor Board decisions than some courts have shown in the past. Reviewing courts must be influenced by a feeling that they are not to abdicate the conventional judicial function. Congress has imposed on them responsibility for assuring that the Board keeps within reasonable grounds. That responsibility is not less real because it is limited to enforcing the requirement that evidence appear substantial when viewed, on the record as a whole, by courts invested with the authority and enjoying the prestige of the Courts of Appeals. The Board's findings are entitled to respect; but they must nonetheless be set aside when the record before a Court of Appeals clearly precludes the Board's decision from being justified by a fair estimate of the worth of the testimony of witnesses or its informed judgment on matters within its special competence or both. 20 Under this mandate, we believe there is an alternative and independent basis for denying enforcement of the Board's order. Our holding in I, supra, makes it unnecessary to remand this case to the Board. Had we found differently, we would nonetheless deny enforcement under Universal Camera until the Board, by remand to its trial examiner or in some other way, explained further the basis for the following actions of the trial examiner: 21 (1) Despite the facts — 22 (a) that Rose was dead and his version of the events was unavailable; 23 (b) that Davis had been involved as the charging party in numerous unfair labor practice cases; 24 (c) that Davis had an inability to recollect certain details; and 25 (d) that Davis was confusing his contacts with Rose, 26 the trial examiner credited all of Davis' testimony needed to make out a case against the company, even when it conflicted with testimony offered by the company (which was rejected in every case by the trial examiner), while he rejected part of Davis' testimony as implausible (App. 11). 8 27 (2) In evaluating the testimony of various witnesses for the employer, the trial examiner rejected the testimony of Davis' supervisor regarding Davis' allegedly unsatisfactory job performance in part because it was uncorroborated. The trial examiner also rejected Ellison's testimony regarding the last confrontation between Rose and Davis in part because it was uncorroborated. 9 The trial examiner also noted that none of the people who worked with Davis and who, according to the testimony of Davis' supervisor, complained about Davis' frequent absences from the job site were called to testify. Similarly, the trial examiner noted that the payroll clerk who made an entry on Davis' record, Discharged — Unsatisfactory Performance of duty, was not called to testify. This, of course, is a proper way of evaluating testimony. But it should be noted that, while none of Davis' testimony was corroborated, lack of corroboration was not held against Davis. This court has disapproved of causing an employer to prove that a discharge is for a proper reason rather than requiring the General Counsel to bear the burden of proof before the trial examiner. NLRB v. Rockwell Mfg. Co., 271 F.2d 109, 115 (3d Cir. 1959). In this case, the opinion of the trial examiner suggests that he effectively erected a presumption against the veracity of testimony offered by the employer and thereby improperly altered the burden of proof. 28 The Petition to enforce the Board's Order of May 8, 1969 will, therefore, be denied.