Court Opinion

ID: 9446686
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:16:19.958812+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:44.822100
License: Public Domain

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.
The judgment from which this appeal has been taken is an order dismissing a complaint for failure to join a party deemed indispensable within the meaning and requirement of Rule 12(b) (7), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.
In their complaint appellants allege that they are employees of the defendantappellee, Spector Freight System, Inc. as a result of the absorption of the business of their former employer, Mid-States Freight Lines, Inc., in the Spector system. They also are members of Local 478 of the Brotherhood of Teamsters. When Mid-States was absorbed by Spector, Local 478 had a two year labor contract with Mid-States which fixed the terms and condition of appellants’ employment. There was a similar contract between Local 478 and Spector. The Mid-States contract contained certain seniority provisions which appellants say remained in full force and effect after they became Spector employees. Nevertheless, according to the complaint, Spector wrongfully disregarded the seniority requirements of the Mid-States contract and, in collusion with Local 478, established an unlawful seniority listing, alternating the names of former Mid-States employees thereon with the names of persons who had been Spector employees before as well as since the merger.
It is further alleged that the union and Spector conspired to breach their duty under the Mid-States labor contract by submitting the question of seniority to arbitration and by deceiving and misleading the arbitrator. This is said to have resulted in an award which wrongfully sanctioned the denial of appellants’ seniority rights under the Mid-States contract and gave those whose employment has been continuously with Spector improperly high seniority ratings. All *877of these transactions occurred in New Jersey. On the basis of these allegations the complaint prays for “setting aside and vacating the alleged award of arbitration as illegal, exceeding the powers of the arbitration, and the result of a fraudulent conspiracy against” appellants. There is an additional prayer for specific enforcement of seniority rights under the labor contract.
Neither Local 478 nor the Spector employees who gained senioritjr rights at appellants’ expense have been brought into this litigation. Yet, no more than the foregoing statement of the claim here asserted is necessary to make it obvious that the relief sought seriously and intimately affects and concerns them. Appellants cannot have the arbitration award set aside or their contract enforced as they ask unless the court shall deprive the union and certain union members of the benefit of a favorable arbitration award and impose a contrary interpretation of the controlling contract, in derogation of seniority benefits now being enjoyed. Cf. McMurray v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 3 Cir., 1931, 54 F.2d 923. Any such effect on interested persons makes their presence or representation essential to the litigation. Cf. Shields v. Barrow, 1854, 17 How. 129, 15 L.Ed. 158; State of Washington v. United States, 9 Cir., 1936, 87 F.2d 421.
From another approach the arbitration award as won by the union, unless and until invalidated, creates or authoritatively declares rights even as a judgment does. See Behrens v. Skelly, 3 Cir., 1949, 173 F.2d 715, 720; Dahlberg v. Pittsburgh & L. E. R. Co., 3 Cir. 1943, 138 F.2d 121, 122. This principle was recognized very early in New Jersey. Hoff v. Taylor, 1820, 5 N.J.L. 957. Yet one who was not even a party to the arbitration proceeding seeks relief which requires the invalidation of the award in a suit in which the beneficiaries of the award are not present or in any way represented. Cf. Washington Terminal Co. v. Boswell, 1941, 75 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 124 F.2d 235, affirmed by an equally divided court, 319 U.S. 732, 63 S.Ct. 1430, 87 L.Ed. 1694; Order of Railroad Telegraphers v. New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Ry. Co., 8 Cir. 1956, 229 F.2d 59, certiorari denied 350 U.S. 997, 76 S.Ct. 548, 100 L.Ed. 861.
We conclude that the court below properly dismissed the action for failure to join the union or its members who were the beneficiaries of the arbitration award.
The judgment will be affirmed.