Court Opinion

ID: 9448891
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:48:10.95226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:35.666099
License: Public Domain

KILEY, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result reached by the court. Petitioner had the burden of proving knowledge on the part of the respondent of Mrs. Ballard’s union activity. N. L. R. B. v. Shen-Valley Meat Packers, Inc., 211 F.2d 289, 292 (4th Cir.1954). She sought to prove this essential element by testimony that she passed union cards to her fellow employees in the plant, and that Personnel Director Lundman told her that the “real reason” that she was being fired was because she was a “union organizer.” ;
The testimony as to the union cards affords no basis for an inference that respondent had the essential knowledge. Her direct testimony as to Lundman’s statement is directly denied by him. And her direct testimony is so weakened by her entire testimony on this vital point that it was error for the trial examiner to “credit” her testimony and not “credit” Lundman’s and accordingly to find that the element of respondent’s knowledge had been proved. See Farmers Cooperative Co. v. N. L. R. B., 208 F.2d 296 (8th Cir. 1953), and Davis, Administrative Law Text § 29.06 (1959).