LAW.coLAW.co

FERGUSON-STEERE MOTOR COMPANY, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WARE-HOUSEMEN, AND HELPERS, LOCAL NO. 577, Appellee

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit1955-06-24No. No. 15353
223 F.2d 842

Summary

Holding. The judgment is reversed with directions to dismiss the suit for want of federal jurisdiction. Federal courts lack jurisdiction under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act over a declaratory judgment action concerning contract renewal and modification, as Section 301 applies only to suits for violation of contracts between employers and labor organizations, and such matters fall within the exclusive competence of the Labor Board.

Ferguson-Steere Motor Company sued Local 577 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in federal court seeking a declaration that a collective bargaining agreement had automatically renewed due to the union's failure to provide proper notice of intent to modify the contract within the required timeframe. The company relied on federal question jurisdiction under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act. The district court denied the union's motion to dismiss and proceeded to hear the case on the merits.

The appellate court reversed, finding that the district court lacked federal jurisdiction over the dispute. The court interpreted Section 301 narrowly, concluding that it applies only to suits for breach of contracts between employers and labor organizations, not to declaratory judgment actions concerning renewal or modification of contracts. The court further noted that such disputes fall within the specialized jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board under Section 158(d), making federal district court jurisdiction inappropriate.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Scope of federal jurisdiction under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act
  • Whether declaratory judgment actions regarding contract renewal fall within Section 301
  • Allocation of jurisdiction between federal courts and the National Labor Relations Board

Procedural posture

The company appealed from a district court order denying the union's motion to dismiss for lack of federal jurisdiction and proceeding to hear the case on the merits.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

HUTCHESON, Chief Judge.

Asserting jurisdiction under paragraph (d) of Section 8 and paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of Section 185, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(d) and § 301, Labor Management Relations Act, plaintiff brought this suit against defendant, a labor union, for a declaratory judgment, that a bargaining contract entered into between plaintiff and defendant Feb. 8, 1952, had been automatically renewed for an additional term of two years.

The claim was that the union had failed, prior to sixty days before the expiration of the agreement, to give notice as provided for in the contract of its desire to modify the existing agreement and to submit simultaneously therewith its desired amendments, and that, because of such failure, the contract had been automatically renewed.

Defendant moved to dismiss for want of federal jurisdiction and, subject thereto, joined issue with plaintiff’s claim of automatic renewal.

The district judge, of the opinion, for the reasons given and upon the authorities cited by him, that there was federal jurisdiction, denied the motion to dismiss and heard on their merits the issues tendered.

We think that in so doing he erred. Whatever, in the conflicting state of the authorities, might have been thought as to the state of the law at the time the district judge made his decision, we are of the view that, in the light of the quite recent decision in Association of Westinghouse Salaried Employees v. Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 348 U.S. 437, 75 S.Ct. 488, 501, the law is otherwise. There, where the suit was brought by their union on behalf of employees for accrued wages due them, the Supreme Court, in a full scale opinion, canvassing the meaning and scope of Section 301 of the Labor Management Act, held that congress did not intend thereby to, and did not, clothe federal courts with general jurisdiction in all suits by and against labor unions. So holding, it affirmed a judgment of the Court of Appeals, directing the dismissal of the suit for want of jurisdiction.

Here appellant urges upon us that; as shown by the concurring opinions, a great deal of the discussion in the main opinion was beside the mark of the decision; that it is authority for and only for the view announced in the concurring opinion of Mr. Chief Justice Warren and Mr. Justice Clark, that “the language of § 301 is not sufficiently explicit nor its legislative history sufficiently clear to indicate that Congress intended to authorize a union to enforce in a federal court the uniquely personal right of an employee for whom it had bargained to receive compensation for services rendered his employer”, and that the decision is not authority for the view that the section does not confer jurisdiction of the instant suit.

We cannot agree with this view. The invoked section does not in terms refer to issues of the kind litigated here. We do not think it extends to such issues. Indeed subsection (a) deals expressly with and only with suits “for violation of a contract * * * ” between an employer and a labor organization. We think that nothing in the language and structure of the section or in its context and history authorizes the view that either its purpose or its scope contemplates the bringing in federal courts of suits of the kind dealt with here for a declaratory judgment as to a controversy which, under Sec. 158(d) (1), (2), (3) and (4), Title 29 U.S.C.A., is peculiarly within the competence and jurisdiction of the Labor Board.

The judgment is reversed with directions to dismiss the suit for want of federal jurisdiction.

. “§ 185. Suits by and against labor organizations — Venue, amount, and citizenship

“(a) Suits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees in an industry affecting commerce as defined in this chapter, or between any such labor organizations, may be brought in any district court of the United States having jurisdiction of the parties, without respect to the amount in controversy or without regard to the citizenship of the parties.

“Responsibility for acts of agent; entity for purposes of suit; enforcement of money judgments

“(b) Any labor organization which represents employees in an industry affecting commerce as defined in this chapter and any employer whose activities affect commerce as defined in this chapter shall be bound by the acts of its agents. Any such labor organization may sue or be sued as an entity and in behalf of the employees whom it represents in the courts of the United States. Any money judgment against a labor organization in a district court of the United States shall be enforceable only against the organization as an entity and against its assets, and shall not be enforceable against any individual member or his assets.

“Jurisdiction

“(c) For the purposes of actions and proceedings by or against labor organizations in the district courts of the United States, district courts shall be deemed to have jurisdiction of a labor organization (1) in the district in which such organization maintains its principal office, or (2) in any district in which its duly authorized officers or agents are engaged in representing or acting for employee members.”

. Cf. cases cited in notes to Sec. 185, 29 U.S.C.A., particularly notes 3, 4, 4a, 4b and 5a.