Court Opinion

ID: 9451131
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:07:44.737405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:35.214299
License: Public Domain

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) .
This appeal arises out of a complaint by the Board on the charge of the union involved that respondents are guilty of unfair labor practice. Virtually all of respondents’ records from 1961 to and including 1964 were subpoenaed by the Board at the request of the General Counsel for the hearing before the Trial Examiner. It developed that these were not intended at that time for specific trial use. The admitted purpose of having the records brought in was to permit the union attorneys, experts and other union personnel to examine them prior to trial at their private leisure in the hope of obtaining information desired by the union. That practice was objected to by respondents who have unqualifiedly agreed to turn all their records over to the Board and its staff for their private inspection prior to trial. The Board refused to agree to this on the ground that it had no experts of its own capable of *549making the records examination. Respondents offered to pay for any outside accountants and other people hired by the Board for the purpose. The astounding answer to this by the Board down into the present was and is that there is no one in the United States other than the union employees possessing the necessary expertise. The court opinion would broaden this to include also those who work for appellants and their competitors'. However, at the argument of this appeal there was no such broadening of the expert group by either the attorney for the Board or the attorney for the union. Actually the suggestions that there were numerous accountants in the specialized field and that the vast reservoir of experts in the other various Government agencies might be called upon were brushed aside.
In any event the question of enforcement of the subpoena came before the district court. There the judge recognized that the procedure which would be permitted by the Board exposed the businesses of the respondents to the investigative ex parte scrutiny of the union for its private objectives. The court made some attempt to protect respondents but a reading of its order shows the utter failure to help at all. Union personnel are allowed full right to examine every record there is of respondents. They are prohibited from making copies or revealing the contents of documents or using the information they obtain for other than the trial of this cause. And who would ever know if they violated that prohibition? As a practical proposition there would be no locking of the barn at all, even after the horse was stolen.
These respondents do not question the investigatory authority of the Board or the latter’s right to examine their entire operations generally or for a specific reason. The Board does not want that. It, the designated expert body for, inter alia, exactly that type of alleged management problem, refuses to designate its own people or to hire outside help or to obtain same from other federal sources. It insists upon turning over its public investigative power to a private adversary litigant for the latter’s own undisclosed motive. There is no statute or case law sanctioning that sort of performance. The subpoena involved is “ * * * too broadly or oppressively drawn * * * ” and is being enforced “ * * * capriciously or oppressively, * * * ”. Jackson Packing Co. v. N.L.R.B., 204 F.2d 842, 844 (5 Cir. 1953). The “protection” in the district court order is neither real nor apparent. The net result is abuse of the Board’s high power which should be more care fully guarded. See also N. L. R. B. v. Anchor Rome Mills, Inc., 197 F.2d 447 (5 Cir. 1952); N. L. R. B. v. United Aircraft Corporation, 200 F.Supp. 48, 50 (D.C.Conn.1961); Adams v. Federal Trade Commission, 296 F.2d 861, 866 (8 Cir. 1961). Mr. Justice Jackson in the Morton Salt opinion, 338 U.S. 632, 651— 652, 70 S.Ct. 357, 368 (1949), cited by the majority, while upholding the investigative powers of Federal administrative bodies (as to which there is no disagreement in this case) makes it very clear that corporations’ rights under the Fourth Amendment extend “ * * * to the orderly taking under compulsion of process” and that they should have protection from unlawful demands made in the name of public investigation. Again it should be emphasized that the respondent corporations before us seek no mandate to conduct their labor affairs in secret from the Board. All they want is to be protected from unwarranted invasion by the union concerned. In the Kingston Trap Rock opinion, 222 F.2d 229, 302 (3 Cir. 1955) we clearly held that transmittal of employer material to the union litigant by an employee of the Board would be “a wrongful act”. In that suit there was only a self-conjured groundless suspicion of a danger that such an act would be committed. In this appeal we have that frankly conceded fact. The district court abused its discretion in making the order before us. That order should be reversed and these respondents given their proper day in court.