Opinion ID: 1502804
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Petitioner is a Colorado corporation, having its principal office and place of business at Pueblo, Colorado. It is a subsidiary of the Standard Gas and Electric Company of Delaware, a public utility holding corporation. It is engaged in the business of generating, buying, transmitting, selling and distributing electric energy. It operates a street railway system in Pueblo, Colorado, and also purchases, sells and distributes electric appliances and equipment at retail. It operates steam plants in Pueblo and Canon City, Colorado, and a hydro-electric plant at Skaguay, Colorado. All coal used in the steam plants is produced in Colorado and all water for the hydro-electric plant originates within Colorado. Its property is situated entirely in Colorado, extending over four counties. It supplies electric energy to the Western Public Service Corporation, operating entirely in Colorado. Petitioner serves a population of approximately 104,000 persons in an area covering about 7,000 square miles in the southeastern part of Colorado. No competing source of electrical power exists in the territory served by petitioner. During 1937, petitioner generated 84,508,360 kilowatt-hours and purchased 2,390,600 kilowatt-hours of electric energy. Of this amount, 758,630 kilowatt-hours were sold to interstate transportation and communication agencies; 4,141,692 kilowatt-hours were sold to manufacturing concerns selling part of their products outside of Colorado; 250,637 kilowatt-hours to newspapers of general circulation in Colorado and other states; 70,701 kilowatt-hours to radio broadcasting stations; and 56,997 kilowatt-hours to United States postoffices. Petitioner employed 399 persons and had an annual payroll of $732,669.90. In 1937 petitioner purchased material and supplies used for construction purposes in the operation of its business, amounting to $564,283.92, 35.6% of which was shipped to petitioner from points outside Colorado. In 1937 it also purchased electrical merchandise, equipment and supplies of a gross value of $122,484.91 for resale, approximately 10% of which came from points outside Colorado. Petitioner furnishes electricity to three railroads engaged in interstate commerce, and used by the roads for the lighting of railroad stations, for power purposes in repair shops, and in the operation of block signal devices, all in Colorado. It supplies energy to the Western Union and Postal Telegraph systems, both receiving and transmitting messages in and out of Colorado. The energy furnished is used by these companies in lighting their offices and stations and in transmitting messages, both local and interstate. Energy is also supplied to the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company, which has telephone lines extending from the state of Colorado into other states. It also furnishes electric energy to a radio station at Pueblo, Colorado, to supply the power for the operation of the broadcasting station. This station broadcasts programs originated by the National Broadcasting Company. It supplies energy to Airway Radio Service at Pueblo, Colorado, to its airport, used by local airplanes and by planes engaged in carrying United States mail. The daily papers served by petitioner receive Associated Press or United Press Association service and carry a large amount of national advertising originating outside of Colorado. A large number of industries, such as manufacturing industries, situated in the area served by petitioner, are engaged in transporting commodities in interstate commerce and are dependent upon petitioner for electrical power and light, which are essential to the operation of their plants. Seven of the larger of these firms, which ship portions of their finished products in interstate commerce, alone purchased from petitioner in 1937, 4,141,692 kilowatt-hours of electric energy for lighting and power purposes. Some of the concerns furnished electric energy by petitioner had emergency equipment which could be used in the event that the supply of power from petitioner was interrupted. Others had no such emergency equipment. The scope of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., and the jurisdiction of the Board in its administration are limited to interstate and foreign commerce, to the exclusion of operations which are essentially intrastate in character and which do not have an effect upon interstate commerce. Where federal control is sought to be exercised over activities which, separately considered, are intrastate in nature, it must appear that there is a close and substantial relation to interstate commerce in order to justify federal intervention for its protection. Unless these facts exist, the Board has no jurisdiction in a controversy between employer and employees. Santa Cruz Fruit Packing Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 303 U.S. 453, 58 S.Ct. 656, 82 L.Ed. 954; Consolidated Edison Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 305 U.S. 197, 59 S.Ct. 206, 83 L.Ed. 126. The question whether operations do or do not affect interstate commerce in such a close and intimate fashion as to confer jurisdiction upon the Board must be determined by the facts as they exist in each case. National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 57 S.Ct. 615, 81 L.Ed. 393, 108 A.L.R. 1352; Consolidated Edison Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, supra. It is urged that here the percentage of sales to interstate railroads and communication agencies amounts to less than 1% of the total out-put and that the percentage of all sales to concerns engaged in interstate commerce amounts to only 6%. The percent of out-put of any business which goes into interstate commerce is not the true test. If the sale of only a fractional part of 1% of the total out-put of a business going to interstate commerce substantially affects such commerce, then jurisdiction attaches. The question in each case is not the percent of out-put of a business going into interstate commerce, but the effect thereof. National Labor Relations Board v. Fainblatt, 306 U.S. 601, 59 S.Ct. 668, 83 L.Ed. 1014; Santa Cruz Fruit Packing Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, supra. Evidence was adduced that a labor dispute between petitioner and the office and accounting forces would not in any manner affect the production and distribution of electric power unless a strike of the office and accounting forces extended over a period of ten months, and that there would be no difficulty in replacing office and accounting employees who went out on strike. If the discontinuance of a certain department of a business would have no effect upon interstate commerce, then the Board has no jurisdiction over a labor dispute between such a department and the company. But here it clearly appears that a labor disturbance in this department would affect interstate commerce if it continued for ten months, or unless others could be found to replace those in the department. Under such conditions it cannot be said that the discontinuance of such a department or labor dispute therein does not affect interstate commerce. An analysis of the testimony as set out above leaves no room for doubt that the nature, kind and quantity of the business of petitioner, the extent and volume of the equipment and supplies shipped to it by manufacturers from outside the state of Colorado, the relationship between the business of petitioner and interstate commerce agencies and the effect upon such agencies by an interruption of the relationship between them and petitioner's business, would substantially affect interstate commerce within the pronouncements of the Supreme Court. National Labor Relations Board v. Fruehauf Trailer Co., 301 U.S. 49, 57 S.Ct. 642, 81 L.Ed. 918, 108 A.L.R. 1352; Santa Cruz Fruit Packing Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, supra; National Labor Relations Board v. Fainblatt, supra. The findings of the National Labor Relations Board as to its jurisdiction in the instant case are based upon substantial testimony and are approved.