Court Opinion

ID: 9443434
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:20:03.666624+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:29.040043
License: Public Domain

RIDDICK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
My disagreement with the majority in this case follows from my conclusion as to the character of the action and the basis of the jurisdiction of the District Court.
Appellant was employed by appellee, a carrier subject to the Railway Labor Act, under a collective bargaining agreement between appellee and a union representing its employees. The contract provided that appellant could not be discharged without a fair hearing before an officer of the appellee other than the one bringing the charge against him, that at a reasonable time prior to the hearing the appellant would be given notice in writing of the precise charge against him and a reasonable opportunity to secure the presence of necessary witnesses, and that if the appellant was not satisfied with the decision of the hearing officer he had the absolute right of appeal to the highest executive officer of appellee.
Appellant was charged with violation of the appellee’s sick leave rule set out in the contract of employment, was tried, found guilty, and discharged. He brought this *125action against appellee for damages, actual and punitive, for an alleged breach of his contract of employment.
The only breach of the contract alleged in the complaint is that “plaintiff was discharged without a fair hearing, that he was not notified in writing of the precise charge against him, and that he was not given a reasonable opportunity to secure the presence of witnesses at a hearing prior to the time of his discharge.” Appellant alleged that if given notice and opportunity he would have produced witnesses and would have proved that he was not guilty of the charge against him; and that as the result of appellee’s breach of the contract of employment, appellant was damaged by the loss of wages and of his seniority and pension rights and other benefits to which he was entitled under the contract.
At the trial in the District Court there was evidence on behalf of appellant from which the jury might have found that he did not receive notice in writing of the precise charge against him; but the evidence also shows without dispute that appellant was interviewed at length by the officer who preferred the charge against him, that he was fully apprised of the nature of the charge, that he understood it, that his trial before the hearing officer was set for a day which appellant requested, that it lasted for five hours with an adjournment for lunch, that appellant was present at the trial and testified, and that ■he not only called no witnesses, although they were readily available, but concealed the identity of one witness who was familiar with the facts on which the charge was based.
The record also shows without dispute that at the conclusion of the trial the hearing officer announced a verdict of guilty on the charge, ruled that cause for appellant’s discharge was stated in the charge, advised the appellant of his absolute right to appeal to a higher officer of the company; and that appellant, refusing to appeal, brought this action for damages. In the District Court there was a jury verdict for the appellant which on motion of the appellee the court set aside and entered judgment for appellee. This appeal followed.
I think it follows from what has been said that on the pleadings the only and controlling issue to be submitted to the jury was whether appellant had received a fair trial of the charge against him to which he was entitled under his contract of employment. The jury in the District Court was not entitled to substitute its judgment for that of the tribunal provided in the contract of employment on the question whether the charge against appellant stated grounds for discharge, or upon the question whether the evidence before the appointed tribunal was sufficient to sustain its verdict, since there was substantial evidence to support it. To this extent I agree with Judge JOHNSEN, as well as with his disposition of appellant’s request for a ruling on the correct measure of damages for the alleged breach of contract.
As I read the record I find no evidence to sustain appellant’s charge that he was denied a fair trial in accordance with the contract on which he relies. The District Court could have granted the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on that ground alone. But tire District Court, being of the opinion that the substantive law of Missouri controlled, gave as his reason for granting the appellee’s motion the appellant’s admitted failure to appeal from the adverse decision of the hearing officer and thus to exhaust the remedies provided by the contract on which he sued. And it is this ruling which the court now finds erroneous and for which it reverses and remands the case.
Ordinarily an appellate court is not concerned with the reasons which a trial court gives for a correct decision. But because of the question now to be discussed, which goes to the very character of the action and the jurisdiction of the District Court, I think it not improper for me to state my reasons for the conclusion that the District Court was correct in applying local law in the action before it.
This action is not one arising under the laws of the United States of which the District Court has jurisdiction under Title 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The action is one of which the District Court has jurisdiction solely because of diversity of citizenship and the *126sum in controversy. Burke v. Union Pac. R. Co., 10 Cir., 129 F.2d 844; Starke v. New York, Chicago & St. Louis R. Co., 7 Cir., 180 F.2d 569. Appellant, a ¡citizen of Kansas, sued the appellee, a citizen of Delaware, in a District Court sitting in Missouri to recover damages in excess of $3,000 for appellee’s alleged ¡breach of a contract of employment of appellee executed and to be performed in Missouri. Nothing in the Railway Labor Act is controlling or even pertinent to the question to be decided. The District Court was correct in holding that the controlling substantive law was that of Missouri concerning which there is no dispute. Reed v. St. Louis, Southwestern R. Co., Mo.App., 95 S.W.2d 887; Harrison v. Pullman Co., 8 Cir., 68 F.2d 826.
There is nothing in Moore v. Illinois Central R. Co., 312 U.S. 630, 61 S.Ct. 754, 85 L.Ed. 1089, which requires or even suggests any other conclusion. In the Moore case the Supreme Court sustained the exclusive jurisdiction of a District Court in a diversity suit brought by an employee against his employer to recover damages for an alleged breach of a collective bargaining agreement entered into- pursuant to the Railway Labor Act, even though it was necessary to decision that the District Court construe the collective bargaining agreement. Marchitto v. Central R. Co. of New Jersey, 9 N.J. 456, 88 A.2d 851. The Court of Appeals was reversed for its refusal to apply State law, and in a later case brought by Moore against the same employer, arising out of the same transaction as the first, the Court of Appeals applied the law of the State in which the action arose and was brought. Moore v. Illinois Central R. Co., 5 Cir., 136 F.2d 412, 413.
It is true that in the Moore case the Supreme Court said that the right of an employee to sue an employer for damages for breach of a collective bargaining agreement of employment was not dependent upon the prior exhaustion of the employee’s administrative remedies under the Railway Labor Act. But to give that statement the meaning which the majority attribute to it is to lift it out of context and to ignore the difference in character between rights and remedies available to an employee before the Adjustment Board under a contract made pursuant to the Railway Labor Act, and those available to him in a common law action for damages for the breach of such a contract. This distinction is made plain in the opinion of the Supreme Court in Slocum v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 339 U.S. 239, 244, 70 S.Ct. 577, 94 L.Ed. 795, and in Order of Railway Conductors v. Southern R. Co., 339 U.S. 255, 70 S.Ct. 585, 94 L.Ed. 811, and is recognized in the decision of this court in Priest v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 8 Cir., 189 F.2d 813, 815.
In the Slocum case the action was by a railroad company for a declaratory judgment interpreting collective bargaining agreements with two unions of its employees. The Supreme Court held that the jurisdiction of the Adjustment Board under the Railway Labor Act of grievances arising under the bargaining agreements was exclusive, but it expressly held that the decision was not in ¡conflict with the Moore case, saying 339 U.S. at page 244, 70 S.Ct. at page 580:
“Moore was discharged by the railroad. He could have challenged the validity of his discharge before the Board, seeking reinstatement and back pay. Instead he chose to accept the railroad’s action in discharging him as final, thereby ceasing to be an employee, and brought suit claiming damages for breach of contract. As we there held, the Railway Labor Act does not bar courts from adjudicating such cases. A -common-law or statutory action for wrongful discharge differs from any remedy which the Board has power to provide $ jfc H? »
Since a proceeding under the Railway Labor Act before the Adjustment Board and an -action at law in a District Court for damages for breach of contract are wholly different in character, assert different rights, and seek different remedies, in separate tribunals of mutually exclusive jurisdiction, it can not be said that before resorting to one action the litigant must first resort to the other. Where either action is available, the litigant has his choice. That is all the Moore -case stands for. It certainly does not stand for the proposition that in an action for damages for breach of a Missouri *127contract, tried in a District Court in Missouri whose jurisdiction is based solely upon diversity of citizenship and the sum in controversy, the substantive law of Missouri is not controlling.
I would affirm the judgment of the District Court.