Albrecht v. National Labor Relations Board (Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, Intervenor)

181 F.2d 652, 26 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2158, 1950 U.S. App. LEXIS 3476
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMay 2, 1950
Docket10012_1
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 181 F.2d 652 (Albrecht v. National Labor Relations Board (Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, Intervenor)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Albrecht v. National Labor Relations Board (Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, Intervenor), 181 F.2d 652, 26 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2158, 1950 U.S. App. LEXIS 3476 (7th Cir. 1950).

Opinion

LINDLEY, Circuit Judge.

Petitioners, Foreman’s Association of America, Chapter 44, and 82 individuals formerly employed, as supervisory employees, by Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, hereinafter referred to as Carnegie, seek to- set aside, in part, an order of the National Labor Relations Board, which granted relief as to one petitioner and dismissed the complaint as to all others, the Board finding that there had been no unfair labor practices on the part of Carnegie in discharging the individual petitioners. The employer has been permitted to intervene and has filed a motion to dismiss the proceeding for want of jurisdiction.

Carnegie’s motion rests on its contention that petitioners are not “persons aggrieved by a final order of the Board,” within the meaning of Section 10(f) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(f), and that, consequently, this court is without jurisdiction to entertain their petition for review of the order dismissing the unfair labor practices complaint. Carnegie *654 urges that “persons aggrieved,” as that term is used in Section 10(f), includes only persons aggrieved-by a filial order prohibiting them from engaging in' unfair labor practices, and does-not embrace those aggrieved by a final order dismissing an unfair labor practice complaint. Petitioners, however, contending that the language conclusively negatives the existence of any such limitation, insist that they are “persons aggrieved,” within the meaning of the statute, and, as such, entitled to prosecute -in this-court their petition to review the order dismissing the complaint.

Section 10(f),, provides that “Any person aggrieved by a final order- of the Board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought may obtain a review, of-such order in the * * * Court of Appeals * * * by filing in such a court; a written petition praying that the order, of the Board be modified or set aside.” A literal interpretation of this language would seem to establish that the court has jurisdiction, for it is obvious that the Board’s dismissal of ‘the unfair labor practices complái-nt constitutes a “final order * * * denying * * * the relief sought” and that petitioners, Carnegie’s discharged employees, are “persons aggrieved” thereby. 1 The employer, however, insists that this interpretation would lead to results beyond the intention of Congress.

Carnegie urges that the Congress, when it enacted the law, did not thereby intend to bestow any private right of action upon employees as such, but rather to create only rights of a purely public nature; enforceable only by the Board. This argument is based largely on an excerpt from the House Committee Report, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., Report No. 1147, page 24, as follows: “No private right of action is contemplated. Essentially the unfair -labor practices listed are matters of public concern, by their, nature and consequences, present or potential; the proceeding is in the name of the Board, upon the Board’s formal complaint.” This quotation, however, considered in its relation' to the rest of the report, makes it clear that the Committee, when it said “No private right of action is contemplated,” was referring to the right to institute an unfair -labor practice proceeding, and did not mean that a person aggrieved by a final order of the Board entered at the conclusion of such a proceeding did not have a right to secure judicial review of that final order, as provided for in Section 10(f) of the Act. 2

Nor is this conclusion at ail inconsistent with the decisions of this court, in Blankenship et al., v. Kurfman et al., 7 Cir., 96 F.2d 450, 454, and Stewart Die Casting Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 7 Cir., 132 F.2d 801, to the effect that the Act does not create, for employees, rights-which are enforceable independently of Board action, for here the petitioners' are not acting independently of the Board but are seeking review of a final order entered by the Board. 3 And that the courts *655 have not accepted Carnegie’s contention is apparent from Amalgamated Utility Workers v. Consolidated Edison Co., 309 U.S. 261, 266, 60 S.Ct. 561, 564, 84 L.Ed. 738, in which the Supreme Court characterized the “opportunity afforded to private persons by Section 10(f)” as an “opportunity * * * to contest a final order of the Board, not to enforce it,” and the statement by this court, in Stewart Die Casting Co. v. N.L.R.B., 7 Cir., 132 F.2d 801, 804, that “The employee is, hy this section (Sec. 10(f)), given an opportunity to contest the order of the Board.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Similarly, the intervenor’s argument that the purpose of Section 10(f) was to provide for judicial review of orders prohibiting unfair labor practices but not of orders dismissing unfair labor practice complaints finds no support in the language of the Act itself. Indeed, Section 10(f) expressly provides that judicial review may be had of a final order granting or denying the relief sought. Since an order dismissing an unfair labor practices complaint is quite obviously a final order denying the relief sought, it is evident that to adopt Carnegie’s contention that such an order is not subject to review would be equivalent to striking the words “or denying” from the Act. The courts have accordingly taken the view that Section 10'(f) means exactly what it says, — that Section 10(f) gives them jurisdiction to review a Board order dismissing a complaint. Jacobsen v. N.L.R.B., 3 Cir., 120 F.2d 96, 100; Linoourt v. N.L.R.B., 1 Cir., 170 F.2d 306, 307; General Drivers, Chauffeurs and Helpers Local 886, A. F. L., v. N.L.R.B., 10 Cir., 179 F.2d 492. Typical of the attitude of these courts is that of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which stated, in the Jacobsen case, supra, that “The Board having * * * entered a final order dismissing the complaint, we are of the opinion that this court, pursuant to the provisions of Section 10(f) of the Act * * * has jurisdiction upon the petition of those aggrieved by that order to review it.” The Ninth Circuit, in Anthony v. N.L.R.B., 132 F.2d 620, has taken the contrary view, but its decision, which was rendered upon petitioner’s request for an order granting him leave to file a petition for review in forma pauperis, has not been followed in any other circuit.

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181 F.2d 652, 26 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2158, 1950 U.S. App. LEXIS 3476, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/albrecht-v-national-labor-relations-board-carnegie-illinois-steel-ca7-1950.