Court Opinion

ID: 9459914
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:35:19.530185+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:23.637793
License: Public Domain

TAMM, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I regret my inability to concur in my colleagues’ sincere effort to sound the tocsin on further effort of the Board to reach a fair, just and equitable rate agreement for North Atlantic fares among the sixteen nations .involved in IATA negotiations. Unfortunately the serious conflicts of interest among IATA members must be ultimately settled within the framework of an organizational structure which is not supremely equipped either for productive discussion or equitable compromise. This court’s prior exposures to IATA’s operations have disclosed a program which too frequently sinks into a mobocracy. The multi-tiered structure through which negotiations must be conducted not only prevents the real parties in interest from face to face negotiation, but also shackles the concerned parties with handcuffs of protocol and diplomacy. From this ponderous program it is no wonder that a little perseverance on the part of a few nations succeeds in building a multitude of nothings into the appearance of something.
In this difficult (if not impossible) situation, the Board’s only victory must be the obtaining for American carriers of part of something rather than all of nothing. That is exactly what has happened in the present case. My learned brethren are in the unrealistic position of the prize fight manager who challenges the technical qualifications of the referee without recognizing that “Our boy can’t fight.”
I would affirm the Board’s action.