Court Opinion

ID: 9451891
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:26:32.078116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:57.584366
License: Public Domain

CHOATE, Senior District Judge
(dissenting) :
The issue before this court is whether a United States District Court has jurisdiction to enjoin railroad employees engaged in a labor dispute with their employer, which is not a party to this litigation, from interfering with the *656business and the legal duties1 of carriers and other persons in the railroad industry with whom those employees have no labor dispute.
If the use of the court’s injunctive powers is not forbidden by the Norris-LaGuardia Act §§ 4, 13, 47 Stat. 70, 73 (1932), 29 U.S.C. §§ 104, 113, the court below had jurisdiction to issue an injunction. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1337; Florida E. C. Ry. v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 328 F.2d 720 (5th Cir. 1964); Lakefront Dock & R. R. Terminal Co. v. International Longshoremen’s Ass’n, 333 F.2d 549 (6th Cir. 1962); Toledo, P. & W. R. R. v. Brotherhood of R. R. Trainmen, 132 F.2d 265 (7th Cir. 1943). Stated in Norris-LaGuardia terms, the issue is: whether this action is between persons involved in a labor dispute or; whether the subject matter of the litigation involves or grows out of a labor dispute in which appellants and appel-lees are participating or interested.
I would hold that the court below had jurisdiction to issue the injunction, since there is no labor dispute between these parties, nor does the subject matter of this case “involve” or “grow out of” any labor dispute.
Substituting the definition of “labor dispute,” provided by § 13(c) of the act (29 U.S.C. § 113 [c]), where appropriate in section 4 (29 U.S.C. § 104), the statute provides:
No court of the United States shall have jurisdiction to issue any restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction in any case involving or growing out of any controversy concerning terms or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating [etc.] * * * terms or conditions of employment,2 regardless of whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.
There is no controversy or even disagreement between appellees and appellants concerning terms or conditions of employment, or employee representation. No labor demands have been made on appellees, and at no relevant time has there existed any labor dispute of any nature between appellees and the striking-picketing employees of FEC or their unions, or between the appellees and their employees. The plain meaning of the statute does not give an anti-injunc-tive shield to one group of railroad employees, who are engaged in an unresolved labor controversy with their employer over terms and conditions of employment, when they unilaterally carry that controversy over to non-involved rail facilities.
The last phrase in the definition of labor dispute in section 13(c), “regardless of whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer or employee,” was inserted into the Norris-LaGuardia Act as a direct result of the holding in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, 254 U.S. 443, 41 S.Ct. 172, 65 L.Ed. 349 (1921), which construed the Clayton Act to withhold protection from labor unions that had no contractual relationship with the employer in question, and which, by their nature, could not be employees. A primary purpose of Congress in passing the Norris-LaGuardia Act was to broaden the definition of “dispute” so that *657the labor organization could act for employees by picketing an employer without being subject to injunction. 75 Cong.Rec. 4916 (1932) (remarks of Senator Wagner); Donnelly Garment Co. v. International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, 20 F.Supp. 767, 771 (W.D.Mo.1937). See also 75 Cong.Rec. 5489 (1932) (remarks of Congressman Celler concerning Dail-Overland Co. v. Willys-Overland, Inc., 263 F. 171, 192 [N.D.Ohio 1920] [wherein strikers were held to be no longer “employees” under the Clayton Act]). It is clear that “ * * * the statutory classification, however broad, of parties and circumstances to which a ‘labor dispute’ may relate does not expand the application of the Act to include controversies upon which the employer-employee relationship has no bearing.” Columbia River Packers Ass’n v. Hinton, 315 U.S. 143, 146, 62 S.Ct. 520, 522, 86 L.Ed. 750 (1942).
Subsection (a) of section 13 (29 U.S.C. § 113 [a]) defines the relationships of “persons” who may be parties to a “case” which arises out of a “labor dispute.” To take section 13(a) alone as a definition of “case involving or growing out of a labor dispute,” without regard to section 13(c) would be a patently incorrect approach to the interpretation of the statute here involved. Such a construction leads to the indefensible result that appellant-brotherhoods can picket and close down any terminal anywhere in the nation through which an FEC car passes. Merely because all parties to this action are either railroad employers or railroad unions and thus admittedly “engaged in the same industry,” does not justify the blind conclusion that they are therefore persons involved in a labor dispute or that any case to which they are parties grows out of or involves a labor dispute.
“If any intelligent meaning is to be gathered from section 13, it is necessary that the several provisions of the section be read together, although grammatically its parts are independent. * * * [I]t is clear that the definition of ‘labor dispute’ given in subdivision (c) must be read into subdivisions (a) and (b). There cannot then be a ‘labor dispute’ unless there is a controversy between the disputants either ‘concerning terms or conditions of employment’ or concerning the ‘association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment.’ ” Donnelly Garment Co. v. International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, 20 F.Supp. 767, 770 (W.D. Mo.1937).3
My brothers on the bench “would have assumed” that secondary boycotts are within the anti-injunction protection of the act, but nevertheless stated that they would examine the question. Propounding the rather uncertain economic self-interest test, they concluded that the test was met from two viewpoints — that of *658defendant-picketers and that of the “responding employees of the secondary employers.” However, it does not appear that appellants in the case have conflicting or competing interests4 in any labor dispute.
The court readily appreciates that appellee-railroads and FEC compete against each other in the market for freight and passenger customers. The logical evaluation of that competition, in basic terms of economic self-interests, supports the conclusion that appellees, FEC’s competitor railroads, would be benefited if affected at all by appellants’ prevailing over FEC. Hardly can appellee-railroads’ interest be said to be aligned against its competitor’s adversary.
“And ‘persons’ must be involved on both sides of the case, or the conflicting interests of ‘persons’ on both sides of the dispute.” United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 258, 275, 67 S.Ct. 677, 687, 91 L.Ed. 884 (1947) (Emphasis supplied.)
The “economic self-interests” of ap-pellee’s employees (not parties to this suit), upon which the court bases one of its viewpoints, is a finding not supported by the record — a conclusion that FEC operates at lower than union standards of employment. It has not been established that FEC’s employees’ working conditions are any better or worse than ACL’s or SAL’s. Can it be said that Congress intended to change the usual legal definition of a labor case by granting members of a very small union the right to use coercive methods directly against an innocent party who is helpless to give the laborers relief? Such a construction of the act would bring about inequitable results, and in the absence of clearly compelling language, should not be made. Gomez v. United Office Workers, 73 F.Supp. 679, 682 (D.C.Dist. 1947).
It should not be lightly assumed that Congress intended to embrace secondary boycott activity within the jurisdictional limitations of Norris-LaGuardia.5
The consistent theme reflected by the history of the act’s passage in both houses is the statement and re-statement by the lawmakers to the effect that the “bill does nothing more or less than put into actual effect what the Congress did years ago when they passed the Clayton Act”; that the act under consideration was necessary to save the Clayton Act from judicial misconstruction. E.g., 75 Cong.Rec. 5479, 5486, 5488, 5490 (1932). “There is not an underlying principle written into this bill which Congress did not enact into law back in 1914, when the Clayton Act was passed.” Id. at 5478 (remarks of Congressman LaGuar-dia).
In passing the Clayton Act, Congress had no intention of going so far as to allow the secondary boycott. Congressman Webb, who conducted the bill through the House, made the following remarks on the question of whether the bill would legalize the secondary boycott:
“[Tjhis section was drawn * * * with the careful purpose not to legalize the secondary boycott, and we do not think it does. * * * and it is not intended to do so.” 51 Cong.Rec. 9652 (1914).
This section “was drawn carefully, and those who drew this section drew it with the idea of excluding the secondary boycott. It passed the House * * * and the question of the secondary boycott was not raised then, because we understood so clearly it did *659not refer to or authorize the secondary boycott.” Id. at 9653.
“I should vote for the amendment offered * * * if I were not perfectly satisfied that it is taken care of in this section [§ 20]. The language the gentleman reads does not authorize the secondary boycott and he could not torture it into any such meaning. * * * I say again — and I speak for, I believe, practically every member of the Judiciary Committee — that if this section did legalize the secondary boycott, there would not be a man vote for it. It is not the purpose of the committee to authorize it, and I do not think any person in this House wants to do it. We confine the boycotting to the parties to the dispute * * Id. at 9658.
The abuses6 under the Clayton Act which Congress sought to remedy by Norris-LaGuardia did not involve injunctions in secondary boycott situations, especially those which might profoundly affect interstate commerce operations.
A protracted discussion in the House of Representatives centered around the contention that the limitation of injunctions provision would interfere with transportation in interstate commerce and Mr. LaGuardia’s assurances that no such results would follow.7
The extreme and harmful consequences of the construction of Norris-LaGuardia adopted by this court are not to be ignored. In appellant’s own words:
“The unleashing of the parties to engage in economic warfare has serious consequences to third parties to the dispute and to the public * * *. Interference with the mails, with the shipment of perishables and vital materials is the inevitable result when an impasse is reached. It is the aim of the striking organizations (appellants) to cause FEC operations to cease. * * * To accomplish this aim, the organizations have picketed wherever the FEC operates and have requested those persons who perform services for the FEC to cease performing such services.” Brief of Appellants, pp. 7-8 (filed May 23, 1966).
Since appellee’s yard lies astride of the northeast entrance to the Florida peninsula, manifestly the halting of the Terminal Company operations will: stop daily shipments of great quantities of baggage, express, freight, fresh vegetables, citrus, phosphate rock and other commodities in interstate commerce into and from Florida through Terminal Company facilities; eliminate all carriage and processing of United States *660mail by rail into the State of Florida, which is estimated to represent approximately 95 per cent of all mail coming into and carried from Florida; blockade ACL and SAL passenger service, consisting of 42 trains per day; block practically all ACL freight service to important seaport docking facilities and to the peninsula as a whole; obstruct freight service to military installations in Florida, including ACL and SAL traffic destined for the Cape Kennedy complex.
The Norris-LaGuardia Act should not have been interpreted as applicable to the type of situation presented by the instant case.
I would affirm the court below.

. Duties concerning car service and interchange of traffic are imposed upon appel-lees under: the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C. §§ 1, 3 (1952 ed.); Operating and Guaranty Agreement authorized and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission and by United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida; and the injunction (Case No. 63-16) referred to in the opinion.

. It is instructive to note that the definition of “labor dispute” as originally pre-seated to each house included, at the point indicated above, a controversy “concerning employment relations, or any other controversy arising out of the respective interest of employer and employee.” That phrase, which might support the finding of a “labor dispute” in the case at bar, was stricken from what is now section 13(c). 75 Cong.Rec. 5008 (1932) (Senate); Id. at 5510 (House of Representatives).

. In Marine Cooks v. Panama S. S. Co., 362 U.S. 365, 370, 80 S.Ct. 779, 4 L.Ed. 2d 1151 (1960), the court necessarily checked the status of the litigants and found, that the controversy did involve and was between persons who were engaged in the same industry. The court used the precise language of section 13(c) (which sets forth the requisites of “controversy”) in direct connection with the precise language of section 13(a) (which defines “case”).
Marine Coolcs cannot be authority for appellants’ contention that a person who is not involved in or interested in the labor dispute is nevertheless barred by Norris-LaGuardia from obtaining an injunction to protect his business. The plaintiffs in Marine Coolcs were the very persons who were primarily responsible for setting the wages and working conditions over which the dispute arose. This case goes no further than to hold that there may be a non-enjoinable labor dispute between an employer and a union (not the representative of the employer’s employees) which is designed to bring pressure on the employer to change wages and working .conditions of his employees. This case does not even relate to a situation wherein a non-disputant is picketed for the purpose of compelling that non-disputant to cease doing business with the employer of the pickets.

. Terminal Company is a separately operated Florida corporation, in which FEC is a minority stockholder. With the exception of some very minor passenger ticket service (% of 1%), all services presently furnished to FEC by the Terminal Company, are mandatory tinder the Interstate Commerce Act.

. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the central issues here involved. However, in Bakery Sales Drivers v. Wagshal, 333 U.S. 437, 68 S.Ct. 630, 92 L.Ed. 792 (1947), a secondary boycott was involved and the Court held that no labor dispute existed.

. Those abuses concerned “yellow dog contracts,” ex parte injunctions, and sweeping injunctions against unnamed and unknown persons. E. g., 75 Cong.Rec. 5488, 5489, 5491 (1932) (debates in the House of Representatives); 75 Cong.Rec. 4504-4506 (1932) (debates in the Senate).

. Question by Mr. Lankford of Virginia: “Does this make it possible for lack of an injunction to tie up railroads and prevent them from transporting milk, for instance?”
Mr. LaGuardia: “[T]he railroad labor act * * * takes care of the whole labor situation pertaining to the railroads. They could not possibly come under this for the reason that we provided the machinery there for settling labor disputes.”
Mr. Lankford: “It [Norris-LaGuardia bill] does not apply to the transporta-of * * • necessities that go in interstate commerce?”
Mr. LaGuardia: “Interstate traffic is entirely covered in the railroad labor act of 1926.” 75 Cong.Rec. 5499 (1932). To the same effect, see pages 5478, 5504.
Other congressmen argued in favor of specifically excluding the anti-injunction provisions “where a labor dispute involves the obstruction of any instrumentality of interstate commerce.” Id. at 5503. The amendment was rejected and the bill passed after the following remarks by Mr. LaGuardia:
“[T]he present bill refers only to disputes between employees and employer. The amendment offered * * * brings in the * * * provision for which there is adequate law and which it is not intended to repeal by the provisions of this bill. This is limited to matters between employees and employers.” Ibid.