Court Opinion

ID: 9470157
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:58:22.870985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:45.572354
License: Public Domain

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
My disagreements with Judge Posner’s majority opinion are not serious.
Since the jurisdictional issue considered by Judge Posner was not raised, briefed or argued by the parties in the district court or in this court I hesitate to embrace his discussion of that issue although it may very well be a correct analysis. If I saw a serious question about our jurisdiction apparently overlooked by the parties, as I do not in this case, I would prefer to give the parties some additional opportunity to be heard on the issue before resolving it in a precedential opinion.
Judge Posner also reads Count I as possibly alleging a tort under federal or state law, and therefore vacates its dismissal and remands. Plaintiff, however, had not made that suggestion. In his complaint he alleged that he “was prevented from exhausting his administrative remedies as against” the railroad because of the Union’s failure to timely appeal his dismissal. Plaintiff’s own approach has been to tie the fate of Count I to Count II. Since it appears to me that the plaintiff narrowly viewed his own complaint, as did the other parties and Judge Grady, I would not endeavor to re-characterize it for him as sounding in tort at this stage. I would affirm the dismissal of Count I alternatively under Andrews v. Louisville and Nashville R. Co., 406 U.S. 320, 92 S.Ct. 1562, 32 L.Ed.2d 95 (1972) which I believe compels parties to discharge cases arising under the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 153, by arbitrating their disputes before the Adjustment Board. That was not done.
Therefore I would affirm on all issues, respectfully dissenting from the partial disposition of Count I.