Court Opinion

ID: 9447199
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:28:32.720375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:56.363152
License: Public Domain

SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
With reluctance I dissent.
As is admitted in the majority opinion, Cawley violated the rules laid down in the sales manual furnished to him as a salesman, in that he at times failed to rotate merchandise, he did not use the petitioner’s samples and advertising material, and he failed to inform customers concerning the petitioner’s discount policy. It is also conceded that for these violations petitioner had a right to discharge him. The sworn testimony of sales manager Millsop of petitioner before the examiner was that it was not possible for Cawley to do his work properly unless they had the sales supervisor accompany him; and that was why it was decided to discharge Cawley. There was no testimony in contradiction. Petitioner states that it discharged Cawley only because of his inefficiency, and no one knows better than petitioner the reason for the discharge1 However, the board found that the discharge of Cawley was because of his union activity. There is no evidence that petitioner had a policy under which it discharged any employee for union activity. There is no pattern of discharges for that reason. These facts corroborate petitioner's evidence as to why Cawley was discharged.
The majority opinion rests on the premise that, petitioner having two reasons for discharging Cawley, one legal and one illegal, the board had a right to *743discard the legal reason and to select the illegal reason, i. e., that with a discriminatory motive, thus constituting a violation of Sec. 8(a) (3) and (1) of the Act. I do not conceive that the board has such a choice. Unless we concede that the examiner and the board members have occult powers, it is apparent that they are not readers of the employer’s mind. Vesting the employer’s acts with illegality, rather than legality, is an arbitrary choice with no support in the evidence. No administrative officers have a right to search subjectively when the objective evidence in the record lies before them.
What the fifth circuit Court of Appeals said in N. L. R. B. v. Birmingham Publishing Company, 262 F.2d 2, 9, is axiomatic :
“If a man has given his employer just cause for his discharge, the Board cannot save him from the consequences by showing that he was pro-union and his employer anti-union. We have no doubt that the Birmingham Publishing Company was glad to get rid of Edwards. But the Company has a right to operate its plant efficiently. If an employee is both inefficient and engaged in union activities, that is a coincidence that does not destroy the just cause for his discharge. We cannot say, and the evidence does not support the conclusion that the Board can say: Edwards was fired because the Company’s officials had an anti-union animus against Edwards.
“The evidence shows beyond a doubt that Edwards left his presses during working hours. * * * ”
The determination reached in this case results in a strange situation so far as Cawley is concerned. It is held that he is not only entitled to be made whole for his loss of compensation, but he is also entitled to reinstatement as an employee of petitioner. Thus he is frozen into a job, because, if he is again discharged, presumably an examiner could again look into a crystal ball and determine that he was discharged for union activity and should be reinstated again with reimbursement for further lost compensation.
I would set aside the board’s decision.

. In addition to tlie admitted evidence showing that petitioner had a valid right to discharge Cawley for inefficiency, petitioner made offers of proof (which were rejected by the examiner) to the effect that from 1955 to 1956 Cawley’s sales increased $4309 on an annual basis, while the sales of the other salesmen increased on an average of $6404.