Brady v. Trans World Airlines, Inc.

401 F.2d 87
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJanuary 20, 1969
Docket16266-16268
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 401 F.2d 87 (Brady v. Trans World Airlines, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brady v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 401 F.2d 87 (3d Cir. 1969).

Opinion

401 F.2d 87

1 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 9865

Vincent P. BRADY
v.
TRANS WORLD AIRLINES, INC., and the International
Association of Machinists, Vincent P. Brady, Appellant in
No. 16266, Trans World Airlines, Inc., Appellant in No.
16267, The International Association of Machinists,
Appellant in No. 16268.

Nos. 16266-16268.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued Sept. 26, 1967.
Decided Aug. 13, 1968, Certiorari Denied Jan. 20, 1969, See
89 S.Ct. 680, 681, 684.

James Highsaw, Jr., Mulhoulland, Hickey & Lyman, Washington, D.C., for International Assn. of Machinists. (Bruce M. Stargatt, Wilmington, Del., Edward J. Hickey, Jr., Washington, D.C., Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor, Wilmington, Del., on the brief). Harold L. Warner, Jr., Chadbourne, Parke, Whiteside & Wolff, New York City, for Trans World Airlines, Inc. (Charles F. Richards, Jr., Richards, Layton & Finger, wilmington, Del., Edward R. Neaher, Richard S.Harrell, New York City, on the brief).

Francis L. White, Jr., Duane, Morris & Heckscher, Philadelphia, Pa., for Vincent P. Brady.

Before HASTIE, Chief Judge, and McLAUGHLIN and FORMAN, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

FORMAN, Circuit Judge.

This litigation, protracted over more than eleven years, concerns the suit brought by Vincent P. Brady against his union, The International Association of Machinists (IAM),1 for breach of its duty of fair representation, and his employer, Trans World Airlines, Inc. (TWA), for wrongful discharge violative of the Railway Labor Act.2 In an order filed November 4, 1963, the United States District Court of the District of Delaware found against TWA and IAM on the issue of liability. By its order filed September 6, 1966, Mr. Brady was awarded damages by way of back pay and reinstatement in both his former employment and in his union membership. From these and previous orders TWA2A and IAM2B appealed. Mr. Brady has cross-appealed maintaining that the District Court erred, among other things, in so far as it limited the recoverable damages.2C

The complicated factual background of this case has been amply set forth in the several opinions of the District Court.3 Therefore the particular facts will be adverted to herein only as they are necessary for a general understanding of the several issues raised in these appeals.

In 1951, Mr. Brady, who was previously employed by TWA, was rehired as a line mechanic and worked at the Philadelphia International Airport until May 15, 1956, the date of the alleged wrongful discharge. During this period he was a member of Local Lodge 1776 of IAM. In October 1955, a campaign was begun to raise the membership dues of Local 1776. At the November 1955 meeting the lodge members voted to raise the dues for persons in Mr. Brady's classification from $3.00 to $3.25 per month. Many members of the lodge who like Mr. Brady, had not been present, complained to him, as a shop steward, about the dues increase because they had not received sufficient notice of the time and place of the November meeting. At the December meeting, the members adopted Mr. Brady's motion that the prior dues increase be rescinded; that the issue be brought before the next general membership meeting after the posting of due notices. Nevertheless, notices were not posted and the general membership meeting was not held in January.4 In protest to what he considered to be an illegal dues increase, Mr. Brady refused to pay his monthly dues at the new rate. Frequently thereafter he tendered his dues at the old rate and since these tenders were always rejected the record indicates that his last dues payment was for November 1955.

In January 1956, Gerald C. Coleman became the financial secretary of Local Lodge 1776. Shortly after assuming his office, Mr. Coleman began a program to collect all back dues from members of the lodge. On February 15, 1956, he posted a list of the nine members who on that date still owed dues for two or more months. Mr. Brady was then listed as owing dues for December and January. This posted notice threatened the nine members with action rrom the district office unless the dues were paid within ten days. At the end of this ten day period, of those listed, only Mr. Brady, who continued to tender dues at the $3.00 rate, remained delinquent.

On March 3, 1956, Mr. Coleman cited Mr. Brady to Clifford Miller, General Chairman of District 142, which had jurisdiction over Local Lodge 1776, for his dues delinquency and sought discharge action. Mr. Brady received a letter dated March 13, 1956, from Mr. Miller advising him that he had not complied with the union security provisions of the TWA-IAM collective bargaining agreement and that unless he paid outstanding dues for four months including those of March, by March 28, he would be discharged from his employment by TWA. In response to this letter, on March 27, 1956, Mr. Brady tendered his dues book and a check for $10.50 to Mr. Coleman.5 On instructions structions from Mr. Miller, Mr. Coleman wrote Mr. Brady on March 28 rejecting his tender as insufficient. For the first time, he demanded payment by April 4 of a $25.00 reinstatement fee, allegedly due pursuant to the IAM Constitution, and $9.75 for three months dues.

Mr. Brady feared that if he paid a reinstatement fee he would lose the five year seniority that he had accumulated with TWA. On April 3, 1956, Mr. Brady filed his first appeal with the TWA-IAM System Board of Adjustment (Board). On April 7, 1956, Mr. Coleman wrote to Mr. Miller advising him of Mr. Brady's failure to make payment as demanded. Mr. Miller, on April 9, 1956 certified to TWA that Mr. Brady should be discharged for violating the union security provision of the collective bargaining agreement. On April 10, TWA notified Mr. Brady of this certification.

At this point, Mr. Miller realized that Mr. Coleman had misunderstood the instruction given him and had mistakenly demanded in the letter of March 28, 1956, both a reinstatement fee and outstanding dues. Mr. Miller immediately cancelled Mr. Brady's discharge certification and on April 11, wrote to Mr. Brady explaining Mr. Coleman's error and demanding only payment of the $25.00 reinstatement fee by April 26. Mr. Brady answered Mr. Miller's letter by offering to pay all dues outstanding but requesting that he should be permitted to forego the reinstatement fee. Mr. Miller rejected this offer and again demanded the reinstatement fee. On April 24, Mr. Brady filed his second appeal to the Board arguing that he had not violated the union security provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. This appeal was dismissed at a hearing on May 4 as premature since it had been filed prior to May 1, 1956, the date of a second certification for discharge which Mr. Miller had sent to TWA. On May 5, 1956, Mr. Brady made a third appeal to the Board protesting the May 1 certification. A hearing was held on May 14,6 and the Board ruled that the discharge was proper under the union security provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. Accordingly, Mr.

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