Court Opinion

ID: 9455361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:19:56.954684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:34.155344
License: Public Domain

FAIRCHILD, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I assume that the question whether an award requires interpretation before it can be enforced is often a threshold question in an enforcement proceeding brought under paragraph (p). In the enforcement proceeding in Minnesota in this instance, there is doubtless a critical question whether the term “all subsequent analogous claims” requires interpretation before enforcement is appropriate.
In deciding that the carrier has a right to an interpretation by the board, *1195enforeible by mandamus, we are necessarily deciding that the award requires interpretation before enforcement. I think this decision is the responsibility of the court in Minnesota, and that the district court in Illinois properly declined to enter the field. Should the court in Minnesota decide that interpretation is required, and the board fail to comply, it would then be appropriate for the district court in Illinois to use its power to compel action. Should the court in Minnesota enforce the award without obtaining an interpretation from the board, its decision would be subject to review on appeal.
I concede, of course, that the language of paragraph (m), read separately, supports the view of the majority, but it seems to me that when the statute is read as a whole, there must be an accommodation between the right of a party to obtain an interpretation and responsibility of a court in an enforcement proceeding.