Court Opinion

ID: 9718657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:29:16.219311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:01.197107
License: Public Domain

TAMURA, Acting P. J.
I concur in the affirmance of the trial court’s order insofar as it denies the Agricultural Labor Relations Board’s request for enforcement of the expanded access required by the board’s decision and the administrative law officer’s (ALO) recommended decision. I respectfully dissent, however, from the affirmance of the denial of the requested injunctive order compelling two of the respondents to comply with the board’s prepetition list regulation contained in section 20910 of title 8 of the California Administrative Code. In my opinion the court abused its limited discretion under Labor Code section 1160.4 in denying that portion of the board’s requested relief.
The ALO and the board found respondents guilty of unfair labor practices in failing to comply with the requirements of regulation 20910. The board issued and the ALO recommended remedial orders which included an order that respondents “[c]ease and desist from: (a) Refusing to provide the ALRB with an employee list as required by section 20910(c) of the Regulations of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.” *683Although the board initially petitioned for judicial enforcement of all remedial orders, prior to the order to show cause hearing it filed a supplemental memorandum in which the requested relief was reduced to two items: (1) “[A]n injunction as to two of the seven respondents . . . ordering them to comply with the prepetition list regulation. 8 Cal.Admin.Code, § 20910(c)” and (2) that four of the respondents be required to provide expanded access. That this was the extent of the relief sought was reaffirmed by counsel for the board during the show cause hearing. That the judge must have so understood the board’s request is confirmed by his minute order which states: “Plff.’s request for Order Complying with Employee List Regulation and Expanded Access is Denied.”
Although the board appealed from the entire minute order, in its brief it has expressly “withdrawn” its appeal from that portion of the order pertaining to expanded access.1 Accordingly, the only issue on this appeal is whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying injunctive relief to compel the two respondents to comply with the requirements of regulation 20910. In my opinion there was a manifest abuse of discretion.
A fair review of the record demonstrates beyond question that the judge’s decision to deny the requested order to compel compliance with the regulation was based primarily, if not entirely, on his view that the regulation was invalid. The same judge had so expressed himself in an earlier proceeding when he denied the board’s application for an order to enforce compliance with a subpoena duces tecum issued by the board requiring respondents to produce records in connection with the board’s investigation of the unfair labor practice charges against respondents for failure to comply with regulation 20910. And, in his minute order denying a temporary restraining order in the instant proceeding, the judge set forth the following reasons why he thought the regulation was invalid: The federal law does not require an employee list until a valid petition for election has been filed; the board’s regulation is “not reasonably necessary”; and the regulation infringes upon the employees’ right of privacy. Those views permeate the judge’s comments during the order to show cause hearing. For example, he stated that he had been trying to follow the “NLRA” whereas the board has not; that under the “NLRA” a prepetition list requirement has not been found to be necessary; that the board, in his opinion, “jumped over NLRA to pick up any rules when they think it’s necessary”; that until an election petition *684has been filed, it is not necessary to require a list of employees; and that the regulation fails to take into account the right of privacy of the employees.
The judge’s statements quoted extensively by the majority in an attempt to show that the judge did not base his decision on the assumed invalidity of regulation 20910 were made in response to the request for an order compelling certain of the respondents to provide expanded access. The record shows that the quoted remarks were made after counsel for the board concluded her argument “as to expanded access for the four respondents” and before she addressed the issue of the requested injunctive order compelling two of the growers to comply with regulation 20910. When it came to that limited request, the judge stated that he would not grant such an order, that he had previously “gone over this with two or three” of the board’s attorneys and that he was not going to change his mind “unless you come in with some new law.” The judge was obviously referring to the prior occasions on which he had expressed the view that the regulation was invalid, including his denial of an order compelling compliance with the subpoena duces tecum and his denial of a temporary restraining order in the instant case. The judge’s comments which are quoted by the majority at the close of its opinion are consistent with the position he had taken throughout the proceedings that the prepetition list requirement was unnecessary and invalid. In the quoted comments, the judge vowed that he would see that the elections were held and that “lists that are properly required” would be required to be furnished, the clear implication being that prepetition lists are not properly required.
The conclusion is inescapable that the judge refused to compel compliance with the prepetition list requirement because he thought it was invalid. I, therefore, cannot agree with the majority’s refusal to decide the validity of the regulation on the ground the requested injunctive relief “was clearly not based on a determination that the regulation was invalid. . . .” Since the judge’s view that the regulation was invalid was the major, if not the decisive, reason for his decision to deny an order compelling compliance with the regulation, that issue is squarely presented on this case. This court (a different panel, with one member dissenting and with the same author writing for the majority) declined to pass on the validity of the regulation in a prior mandate proceeding brought by the board to set aside the trial court’s order refusing to compel compliance with a subpoena duces tecum (ALRB v. *685Superior Court (Laflin), 4 Civ. 19156). Continued refusal by this court under one pretext or another to pass on the validity of the regulation can only encourage disregard of its provisions. The board, the interested parties, and trial judges should not be left to speculate on the validity of the regulation. The issue is squarely before this court; it has been fully briefed by all parties; this court should decide it.
I, for one, have no doubts concerning the validity of the regulation. In Excelsior Underwear, Inc., 156 N.L.R.B. 1236, the NLRB adopted a requirement that after an election has been directed, the employer must file with the NLRB a list containing the names and addresses of all eligible voters, which list is then transmitted to the union’s managers to be used for organizational and comportment purposes. The validity of the Excelsior disclosure requirement was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in NLRB v. Wyman-Gordon Co., 394 U.S. 759 [22 L.Ed.2d 709, 89 S.Ct. 1426], on the ground that it prompted the fair and free choice of bargaining representatives. Unlike the Excelsior rule which was announced in a board decision, the ALRB rule was promulgated pursuant to a duly adopted administrative regulation based upon express statutory authority. Labor Code section 1157.3 provides: “Employers shall maintain accurate and current payroll lists containing the names and addresses of all their employees, and shall make such lists available to the board upon request.” The board’s power to adopt the regulation may also be implied from its general rule making power (§ 1144), the declaration of state policy set forth in section 1140.2, and the provisions of section 1152 enumerating employees’ rights to self-organization and collective bargaining. The prepetition list requirement regulation is in my opinion clearly valid.
Since it is apparent that the judge’s view respecting the validity of the regulation was a significant, if not the controlling, factor in his decision to deny the board’s request for an order requiring compliance with the regulation, his refusal to so order manifestly constituted an abuse of discretion. Judicial discretion must be grounded in “ ‘reasoned judgment’ ” complying with “ ‘legal principles and policies appropriate to the particular matter at issue.’ ” (Bullis v. Security Pac. Nat. Bank, 21 Cal.3d 801, 815 [148 Cal.Rptr. 22, 582 P.2d 109], quoting from People v. Russel, 69 Cal.2d 187, 195 [70 Cal.Rptr. 210, 443 P.2d 794].) A discretionary *686judicial decision grounded in substantial part on an erroneous legal premise cannot stand as a valid exercise of discretion.
I would reverse that portion, of the trial court’s order denying injunctive relief to compel two of the growers to comply with the prepetition list regulation. Otherwise, I would affirm.
Petitions for a rehearing were denied March 13, 1979. Tamura, J., was of the opinion that the petitions should be granted. The petitions of all the appellants for a hearing by the Supreme Court were denied May 17, 1979. Bird, C. J., did not participate therein.

The United Farm Workers’ brief on appeal makes but a token attack upon the court’s refusal to issue an injunctive order compelling respondents to grant expanded access.