Court Opinion

ID: 9650532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:42:17.625431+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:23.109093
License: Public Domain

TREANOR, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result reached by the majority of the Court. Also ,1 agree that the affirmative allegations fail to state facts disclosing a denial of due process, and I agree that such deficiency affords sufficient reason for the sustaining of respondent’s objections to the propounded interrogatories. But I am of the further opinion that this Court is without authority to require the National Labor Relations Board to answer interrogatories. By statute this Court has power to review the National Labor Relation Board’s proceedings and to make a decree enforcing, modifying or setting aside the Board’s order. But the proceeding in this Court is upon the pleadings, testimony and proceedings set forth in the transcript which is certified by the Board. I do not believe that rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Procedure as promulgated by the Supreme Court applies, either directly or by analogy, to the National Labor Relations Board in a proceeding in this Court to review a proceeding of the Board.
The National Labor Relations Board is an administrative tribunal functioning as an agency of government under Congressional authority. The statute creating the Board and defining its powers and duties defines the scope of review of its decisions. The nature and scope of its powers and duties do not require the National Labor Relations Board to come before a reviewing court as an adversary or opposing party. The reviewing courts test the decisions of the Board on the basis of the pleadings, testimony and proceedings set forth in the transcript, and have no special inquisitorial powers over the official conduct of the members of the Board. It is true that the Supreme Court of the United States has declared that “all questions of the jurisdiction of the Board and the regularity of its proceedings, all questions of constitutional right of statutory authority are open to examination by the court” (Jones & Laughlin case), and that the court “may adjust its relief to the exigencies of the case in accordance with the equitable principles governing judicial action” (Ford Motor Co. case). But it does not seem to me to follow from the foregoing statements that this Court is vested with jurisdiction to entertain interrogatories addressed to the National Labor Relations Board. The foregoing statements of the Supreme Court apply as well to the power of this Court when it is reviewing proceedings of the District Court; but it does not follow that this Court can entertain interrogatories addressed to the District Court and require the District Court to answer.
In the first Morgan case (Morgan v. United States, 298 U.S. 468, 56 S.Ct. 906, 910, 80 L.Ed. 1288) the Supreme Court held that it was error for the District Court to strike out allegations of the bill of complaint in respect to the procedure followed by the Secretary of Agriculture. The suit in that case was to enjoin the enforcement of an order of the Secretary of Agriculture and had been brought in a three judge District Court, 8 F.Supp. 766, in accordance with statutory provisions which made all laws relating to the “suspending or restraining the enforcement” or the “setting aside” of the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission applicable to the “jurisdiction, powers, and duties of the Secretary” in enforcing the provisions of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 7 U.S.C.A. § 181 et seq. The District Court struck out certain allegations of the bill of complaint with respect to the Secretary’s alleged failure to conform his action to the standards of fair hearing. Upon appeal to the Supreme Court from the judgment of the District Court the Supreme Court held that the District Court *253erred in striking out the allegations, the Court stating that the “defendant should be required to answer these allegations, and the question whether plaintiffs had a proper hearing should be determined.”
The nature of the hearing in the Morgan case before the three judge District Court permitted the raising of an issue of fact respecting the procedure adopted by the Secretary of Agriculture. The Packers and Stockyards Act provides generally for a “full hearing” with no specific requirements as to procedure; and, consequently, there is no presumption that any particular course of procedure is followed by the Secretary of Agriculture. It would be a question of fact what course of procedure has been adopted in a particular proceeding, although, assuming a particular course of conduct in a hearing, it would be a question of law whether such conduct constitutes a “fair hearing.” In a suit to enjoin the enforcement of a rate order of the Secretary of Agriculture on the ground of denial of a “fair hearing” the District Court must be made cognizant of the procedure actually followed, and that requires a fact determination in the suit to enjoin, unaided by any presumption of law or fact.
The proceeding in the Circuit Court of Appeals to review the action of the National Labor Relations Board does not include a hearing on issues of fact. The National Labor Relations Board, no less than the Secretary of Agriculture, is under a legal duty to conform to the standards of a “fair hearing” in the conduct of its proceedings; but in view of the procedural provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, both in respect to the hearing by the Board and to the review by the Circuit Court of Appeals, it is my opinion that the Circuit Court of Appeals must determine the question of fair hearing from the transcript of the pleadings, testimony and proceedings which is certified by the Board, and cannot compel the Board, or its members, to testify respecting their conduct of the hearing, by requiring them to answer interrogatories. The National Labor Relations Act provides adequate procedural safeguards, and when the transcript, certified by the Board, shows that the proceedings have been conducted in accordance with the provisions of the statute, the Circuit Court of Appeals must presume, in the absence of anything in the record to the contrary, that there has been a “fair hearing,” that the Board’s conclusion is based upon a consideration of “all the testimony taken,” and that the findings stated by the Board are its findings.
Obviously, one who is seeking a review of a decision of the National Labor Relations Board is entitled to have the certified transcript accurately reflect the hearing ; and the reviewing court, upon a proper showing and when timely requested, is not without power, in aid of its own jurisdiction, to require the Board to correct any inaccuracies in the transcript and supply any material omissions. A review of a decision of the National Labor Relations Board cannot meet the requirements of judicial hearing unless the reviewing court has before it an accurate report of all material proceedings before the Board or unless the review takes the form of a de novo hearing, and it seems clear that the latter is not contemplated by the National Labor Relations Act.