Opinion ID: 329281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dismissal of Count I, the Petition for Review

Text: 16 In Count I of this complaint, plaintiff complained that the Third Division of the National Railroad Adjustment Board deprived him of due process of law because it arbitrarily and capriciously denied petitioner's claim without recognizing substantial evidence in the record   . The burden of proof allegedly applied by the referee was also attacked. The award was said to be reversible as outside the Third Division's jurisdiction because it is without foundation in reason or fact (and) wholly baseless and completely without reason. 17 In the opinion of the Board, Referee Lieberman properly observed that the crux of the matter was whether plaintiff's resignation was obtained through coercion and duress. Consequently, he decided that petitioner's guilt or innocence with respect to the alleged theft was immaterial. After excerpting Division Engineer Dangremond's, plaintiff's fellow-employee Krinakis' and plaintiff's own reports of the October 1st conversations in Dangremond's office, the Referee stated: 18 In our opinion, it is quite probable that all three versions of the conversation are correct; the employees' versions represent what they 'heard' that morning, under all the circumstances. The version by Claimant above is the only evidence presented to support the claim of coercion. 19 The referee then quoted from Third Division Award No. 18476 (1971), where an employee of the Union Pacific Railroad Company was attempting to rescind a written resignation that he signed rather than face a disciplinary charge. There the Board stated that the burden of proof rested with the employee's union to show beyond a reasonable doubt that he was coerced into signing a letter of resignation under duress, and that this cannot be established by inference or by the employer's threat of disciplinary action as an alternative to resignation. After thus quoting from Award No. 18476, Referee Lieberman concluded that nothing in the record indicated that petitioner's resignation was obtained through the use of coercion and duress except his unsupported statement. Therefore, the Referee was unpersuaded and the claim was denied. 20 In considering the judicial attack on this Third Division award, Section 3 First (q) of the Railway Labor Act is controlling. In pertinent part, it provides: 21 On such (district court) review, the findings and order of the division shall be conclusive on the parties, except that the order of the division may be set aside, in whole or in part, or remanded to the division, for failure of the division to comply with the requirements of this chapter, for failure of the order to conform, or confine itself, to matters within the scope of the division's jurisdiction, or for fraud or corruption by a member of the division making the order     (45 U.S.C. § 153 First (q)). 22 This statute shows that the findings of the Board are conclusive except in three instances. Count I of the complaint does not charge that the Third Division failed to comply with the requirements of the Railway Labor Act or that there was fraud or corruption by a member of the Third Division. Instead, plaintiff argues that the Board's order was not confined to matters within the scope of the Third Division's jurisdiction. We disagree. 23 (1, 2) While plaintiff's complaint and his briefs in this Court seem to have muddled the two issues somewhat, we take his attack on the Board's Court seem to have muddled the two issues somewhat, we take his attack on the Board's refusal to allow his claim to be twofold: (1) the proceedings before the Board were lacking due process and (2) the Board's decision was without foundation in reason or in fact. Lack of due process is recognized as a legitimate ground for objection. See Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Price, 360 U.S. 601, 616, 79 S.Ct. 1351, 3 L.Ed.2d 1460; Edwards v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co., 361 F.2d 946, 953-954 (7th Cir. 1966). There is also support for plaintiff's contention that the Board's order can be reversed by the courts if it is found to be actually and undisputedly without foundation in reason or fact (Laday v. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad Co., 422 F.2d 1168, 1171 (7th Cir. 1970); Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Central of Georgia Railway Co., 415 F.2d 403, 414 (5th Cir. 1969)) or wholly baseless and without reason (Gunther v. San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway Co., 382 U.S. 257, 261, 86 S.Ct. 368, 15 L.Ed.2d 308). If a Board decision can be so characterized, it is viewed as outside the matters within the scope of the division's jurisdiction under 45 U.S.C. § 153 First (q). The parties take issue over which of the two phrases is the proper standard, but that question is immaterial to a disposition of this case because, when examined under either of the essentially equivalent standards, the Board's decision must be upheld. 24 On analysis, plaintiff is essentially asserting that the Third Division disregarded evidence submitted to it or misinterpreted that evidence and misinterpreted the provisions of the labor contract. However, in Gunther v. San Diego & Arizona Eastern Ry. Co., supra at 263, 86 S.Ct. 368, the Supreme Court held that the courts may not open up the Board's finding on the merits because Congress intended minor grievances of railroad workers to be decided finally by the Railroad Adjustment Board. Likewise, this Court has already determined that a litigant cannot complain merely that an Adjustment Board award was based on insufficient evidence. Edwards v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co., supra at 952. Gunther and Edwards also make it clear that the interpretation of railroad collective bargaining agreements is for the Adjustment Board rather than the courts. 382 U.S. at 261-262, 86 S.Ct. 368 and 361 F.2d at 952. In view of these interpretations of the courts' power of review under Section 3 First (q), we cannot sustain plaintiff's attack on the merits of the award.
25 Plaintiff contends that the Referee's decision that Rules 21(a) and 59(b), supra n. 2, of the collective bargaining agreement had not been violated was clearly erroneous and deprived plaintiff of due process. 4 Under Gunther v. San Diego & Arizona Eastern Ry. Co., supra, at 261-262, 86 S.Ct. 368, and Edwards v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co., supra, at 952, the interpretation of railroad collective bargaining agreements is for the Adjustment Board rather than the courts. Furthermore, the Referee's interpretation of the two clauses was clearly reasonable. Rule 21(a) does not apply to resignations. In asserting its application in his brief, plaintiff begs the question by assuming the resignation was coerced and therefore characterizing the termination of plaintiff as an employer disciplinary action to which Rule 21(a) should apply. Neither does Rule 59(b) apply to the October 1st office conference, for the grievance machinery under the collective bargaining agreement had not yet commenced, the employer had no obligation to suggest representation, and plaintiff had not sought to have a union representative present on that occasion. He was represented by his union when the grievance was processed on the property and before the Adjustment Board. Plaintiff's attempt to convert these two rulings, which are clearly within the exclusive power of the Adjustment Board, into violations of due process because of his disagreements therewith is rejected by this Court. 26
27 Plaintiff contends that the Board ignored evidence in support of appellant's claim and that this evidence of coercion was unrebutted by any evidence of record. As noted earlier in this opinion, there were differing accounts of the crucial conversation in the record and the Referee found plaintiff's evidence of coercion unpersuasive. This is exactly the type of determination that Congress intended to be left to the Adjustment Board without judicial review. On the record in this case, it is impossible for us to say that the Board's decision was either actually and undisputedly without foundation in reason or in fact or wholly baseless and without reason and thus outside the matter of the Division's jurisdiction. See discussion supra at 575. Consequently, this claim of plaintiff must fail. 28 In his final attack under the without foundation argument, plaintiff asserts that the Referee wrongly chose to apply the beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof. 5 It is unclear from his opinion that the Referee actually employed that standard, but, as already noted, this would not be an unprecedented act. Furthermore, assuming that the preponderance of evidence test was not but should have been applied, our study of the record before the Board satisfies us that the Referee could properly find that plaintiff did not prove coercion. Congress clearly intended that the awards of the Adjustment Board be as unassailable as those of an arbitrator. The Board was expected to exercise its expertise in matters of railroad labor disputes, and Congress did not intend for the courts to maintain a check on each procedural and substantive ruling of the Board. Nowhere in the Railway Labor Act is the Board confined to a particular standard of proof. Therefore, it would have been improper for the district court on the facts before it in this case to have invaded the province of the Board on the possibility that a burden greater than plaintiff desires was imposed. 29
30 As to plaintiff's contention that the Adjustment Board award was a nullity for failure to provide him written notice of the Board's hearings under Section 3 First (j) of the Act (45 U.S.C. § 153 First (j)), 6 since Count I of the complaint does not attack the failure of the Board to give such notice and no such argument was made in the district court, it is not properly before us. Moreover, the record discloses that plaintiff knew his grievance had been submitted to the Adjustment Board and that he had authorized the union to represent him there. That satisfies the notice requirement. Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co. v. Burley, 327 U.S. 661, 666-667, 66 S.e heard either in person, by counsel, or by other representative as they may respectivee heard either in person, by counsel, or by other representative as they may respectively elect, and the several divisions shall give due notice of all hearings to the employee or employees and the carrier or carriers involved in any disputes submitted to them. 31