Court Opinion

ID: 9637125
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:58:04.960968+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:53.748837
License: Public Domain

TREANOR, Circuit Judge
(concurring in result).
I concur in the result announced in the majority opinion but do not agree with the *401reasons stated therein. As to the sufficiency of the evidence I am convinced that the testimony of the various witnesses furnishes substantial evidence to support the findings of the Board. In view of the sharp conflicts in the testimony there were serious questions of credibility for the examiner; but the examiner having resolved conflicts in evidence against petitioner, I think that a reviewing court cannot say that there was not substantial evidence within the meaning of that term as defined in numerous decisions of the Supreme Court and of this Court. Indeed petitioner in its brief tacitly admits that the question of credibility of witnesses is the determining factor as respects substantiality of evidence. Under the heading “Credibility of Witnesses” petitioner complains of what petitioner considers the prejudice of the Board as evidenced by its uniform acceptance of the testimony of adverse witnesses and its complete disregarding of all testimony of petitioner’s witnesses. Petitioner states in its brief “that on not one controverted issue did the Board ever find that its witnesses were not telling the truth,” and petitioner further states that “such a uniform finding certainly makes the entire finding suspicious, as it hardly seems possible that the Board’s witnesses could always be right and petitioner’s could never be right.” The fact that we cannot say that we, if sitting as triers of the facts, would have appraised the testimony of witnesses as the trial examiner appraised it does not justify us, as reviewing judges, in disregarding the findings, if there were witnesses whose testimony furnished substantial evidence to support the findings. Substantiality of evidence and credibility of witnesses present distinct questions, and the question of credibility is exclusively for the trier of facts.
Also I am of the opinion that the employer and employee relation was not destroyed either by the conduct of the employees or by the act of the employer in announcing an indefinite lay-off of the employees. Whether the conduct of the men constituted a strike, or whether the act of the employer amounted to a lock-out the fact remains that the cessation of work was the result of a bona fide labor dispute. The petitioner, however, was justified in treating the action of the men as a voluntary cessation of their work and was within its right in attempting to get other men to take their places. I find nothing in the National Labor Relations Act which requires an employer to shut down his plant when the employees voluntarily quit their jobs, even though they quit as a part of a regularly organized strike. Under the facts of this case the “lay-off” order of petitioner did not constitute an unfair labor practice, and it is not charged that it did; consequently, the employer was not precluded from replacing the men by other individuals. In my opinion the termination of work under the facts of this case constituted a cessation in “consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute” within the terms of Section 2 (3) of the National Labor Relations Act.
The record shows that after the conclusion of the hearing before the examiner, and after the intermediate report had been filed, the Board, without notice to the petitioner, entered the following order: “It Is Hereby Ordered that the aforesaid Metal Polishers International Union, Local 77 be and hereby is granted permission to withdraw its charge and that the complaint herein be and hereby is dismissed without prejudice to the Board’s right to reinstate the complaint upon the petition of the aforesaid Metal Polishers International Union, Local 77, for good cause shown, and, with or without further hearing, to take such further proceedings as it may deem warranted.”
I am of the opinion that the Board was without power to make the foregoing order. There is no provision in the statute which purports to provide the details of procedure to be followed by the Board in the matter of dismissals and reinstatements, but unquestionably it has the power in that respect which is reasonably necessary to the exercise of its general power to hear and determine issues presented to it. Since there is no time limitation in the statute for reinstatement, the Board no doubt has the power to dismiss without prejudice to its right to reinstate a complaint within a reasonable period of time. No doubt the Board in the instant case could have continued the case for a reasonable length of time even at the stage of the hearing which existed on August 14, 1936. But it does not follow that the Board could authorize the withdrawal of the charges and dismiss the complaint after the hearing before the examiner had been concluded, and retain jurisdiction to reinstate at some *402indefinite time in the future for the purpose of taking “such further proceedings as it may deem warranted” and with the condition that such further proceedings should be “with or without further hearing.” There are many cases which hold that courts may dismiss pending causes without prejudice to a reinstatement, but I know of no decision which holds that a court may dismiss a case after all the evidence is in and preserve its power to reinstate at some indefinite time in the future for further proceedings on the basis of the evidence which was introduced prior to dismissal.
Undoubtedly the Board had the power to grant the request of the Union “to withdraw the charges without prejudice,” that is, without prejudice to the right of the Union to file its charges at a later time. But as I view it the Board was without power to grant the request to withdraw the charges and to dismiss the .complaint and yet retain jurisdiction to decide the cause on the basis of the hearing theretofore had. The petition to reinstate was not filed until May 8, 1937, and a supplemental petition was filed December 29, 1937. - The petitioner filed objections to the petition for reinstatement and the Board heard argument thereupon on January 25, 1938, and on May 21, 1938, the order of reinstatement was entered. Since I believe that the order of August 14, 1936 was ineffective, I also believe that the order of reinstatement of May 21, 1938 was without legal effect.
Even if the Board had the power to make such an order as was made on August 14, 1936, I think it was an abuse of discretion to reinstate the cause after the expiration of approximately two years over the objection of the petitioner and without providing for a further hearing. This is especially true in view of the fact that the only reason suggested for the attempt to retain jurisdiction for an indefinite period of time was that the decision of the Supreme Court in Carter v. Carter Coal Co. 298 U.S. 238, 56 S.Ct. 855, 80 L.Ed. 1160, occasioned some doubts as to the legality of the application of the National Labor Relations Act to the instant case, and although the applicability of the Act was upheld in other decisions of the Supreme Court in April, 1937, the order of reinstatement was not made until May 21, 1938.