Court Opinion

ID: 9448493
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:37:36.581547+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:27.255843
License: Public Domain

GRIFFIN B. BELL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent, not from the rationale of what the majority holds on the present findings, but because of what I consider to be inadequate findings with regard to the reason for discharge of the employee involved.
The employee reported to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations and to the wage and hour division of the United States Department of Labor that the employer was backing up or jamming the time clock in order to get additional work out of the employees without additional pay. This charge, although there is no finding to this effect, was apparently false, as the employer contended it to be, for after investigation by the Department of Labor the only charge filed was for discharging this one employee.
The evidence in this matter is such as to require remand of the case for a finding as to whether or not the employer carried the burden of showing that the charge of the employee was false, wholly unwarranted, and maliciously made. My view is that the sine qua non of § 15(a) (3) of the Act is a complaint for which there is reasonable basis as distinguished from a false complaint, wholly unwarranted and maliciously made. Should this finding be in the affirmative, the trial court should then make a further finding as to whether or not the discharge was because of such false complaint. We would then be in position to determine, not the propriety of the injunction for the employer did not appeal from the entry of it, but the merits of the appeal seeking reinstatement and back pay.
I am unwilling to render final judgment where the probability of the charge by the employee having been false, wholly unwarranted, and maliciously made is so inherent in the record, and yet so ignored in the findings because I do not believe that Congress intended by the proscription of the statute to reach any such factual situation, if it does indeed exist. The teaching of De Mario, supra, does not indicate otherwise. The charge on the other hand, if not false, would indicate a gross violation of the rights of this employee and my final judgment on appeal as to the relief sought would be decidedly governed accordingly. We should retain jurisdiction pending clarification of these questions by additional findings on the present record. Cross v. Pasley, 8 Cir., 1959, 267 F.2d 824, 827.