Brogan v. Pennsylvania Railroad

211 F. Supp. 881, 51 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2463, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5779
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedOctober 8, 1962
DocketCiv. A. No. 62 C 1661
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 211 F. Supp. 881 (Brogan v. Pennsylvania Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brogan v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 211 F. Supp. 881, 51 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2463, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5779 (N.D. Ill. 1962).

Opinion

PERRY, District Judge.

Findings of Fact

1. The jurisdiction of this Court is invoked by the plaintiffs under Sections 28 U.S.C. § 1336, 28 U.S.C. § 1337, 49 U.S.C. § 5, 49 U.S.C. § 9, and 49 U.S.C. § 16, par. (12). The amount involved [882]*882in this controversy exceeds the sum of $10,000.00, exclusive of interest and costs. The plaintiffs are citizens and residents of the State of New York. The defendant The Pennsylvania Railroad Company is a Pennsylvania corporation and the defendant The Pullman Company is an Illinois corporation.

2. Plaintiffs are four conductors of the defendant The Pullman Company (hereafter called Pullman) working on the sleeping car lines of the defendant The Pennsylvania Railroad Company (hereinafter called the Pennsylvania). The plaintiffs sue for themselves individually and for all others similarly situated (hereafter called Pullman conductors).

3. The Pennsylvania and Pullman are corporations which do business in the State of Illinois and each has an office and place of business in Chicago, Illinois. Each is a common carrier engaged in interstate commerce and is subject to Part I of the Interstate Commerce Act.

4. The Pennsylvania and most other railroads in the United States own various numbers of shares of stock of Pull-man, representing in the aggregate all of the outstanding stock of Pullman, all of said stock having been acquired in 1947 pursuant to orders of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entered in Civil Action No. 994, in United States of America v. Pullman Company et al., 64 F.Supp. 108. These orders were entered after the Court had theretofore entered Findings of Fact, among which were the following:

“65. The Pullman Company furnishes sleeping cars and sleeping car service. Its cars are hauled by the railroads, and its patrons are the passengers of the railroads on whose lines its cars are operated. Sleeping car service is a service that the railroads must render or have rendered by others in connection with their passenger transportation service. “66. The Pullman Company has always held itself out as a company furnishing complete sleeping car service, which consists of furnishing the necessary facilities, supplies and equipment, as well as supervision and the personal service of attendants. It has never held itself out to perform service in sleeping cars owned by others.”

5. The Pennsylvania owns 118,298 shares of the total of 731,350 shares of Pullman now outstanding.

6. The contractual, financial, and other arrangements between the railroads and Pullman are governed by Orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission (hereafter called the Commission) entered in Docket 29592. The Commission, in its Report and Order in said docket, dated May 6, 1947, provided for the conduct of sleeping car service on a uniform and nondiscriminatory basis and approved and authorized a pooling of service and earnings subject to the conditions set forth in said Order. The Report of the Commission referred to in said Order is reported in 268 I.C.C. 473.

7. By a Supplemental Application dated June 3, 1947, the railroads, including the Pennsylvania, sought a revision in the pooling of service and earnings then existing and prayed that the Commission approve and authorize a proposed “Uniform Service Contract” and the pooling of service and earnings to result therefrom. On August 22, 1949 the Commission filed and entered an Order in said docket approving a pooling of service and earnings, as modified under the proposed Uniform Service Contract, subject to the conditions prescribed in its prior Report. The Report of the Commission referred to in said Order is reported in 276 I.C.C. 5. Except as modified by an Order of the Commission entered on or about April 29, 1955, reported in 294 I.C.C. 703, the Orders of the Commission aforesaid are still in full force and effect. Pullman now operates substantially all of the sleeping car services performed on the lines of the Pennsylvania and on most other rail[883]*883roads under and in accordance with the Uniform Service Contract, dated March 23,1949, effective July 1,1949, as amended and revised from time to time.

8. Pullman has not been a party, as applicant or otherwise, to the proceedings before the Commission in I.C.C. Docket No. 29592 concerning the pooling of service and of gross or net earnings by certain common carriers by railroad under and pursuant to the Uniform Service Contract.

9. No officer or director of Pullman is now, or has been since the year 1947, also an officer or director of the Pennsylvania or any other railroad company offering sleeping car service to the public on its lines.

10. The duly designated and authorized representative of plaintiffs and the Pullman conductors, under the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, is the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, the successor organization of the Order of Railway Conductors of Ameri-ca, (hereafter called the Organization), and said Organization is not the duly designated and authorized representative of any craft or class of employees of the Pennsylvania under said Act.

11. In July of 1962 the Organization heard rumors that the Pennsylvania and Pullman had entered into an agreement, to become effective October 1, 1962, whereby pullman cars would be operated without the services of a Pullman conductor or a Pullman porter, but with all other services being furnished by Pullman. Officials of the Organization wrote to Pullman for details, but none was furnished.

12. After the filing of the Complaint herein on August 29, 1962, the submission by the plaintiffs pf interrogatories, the taking by the plaintiffs of depositions, and’ the filing by the defendants of Answers, the plaintiffs learned the details of a new arrangement scheduled to begin October 1, 1962, by the Pennsylvania and Pullman, which had been requested by the Pennsylvania on May 29, 1962, for the operation of sleeping car service on the lines of the Pennsylvania, as follows:

“Joint-lines sleeping car service”, that is, service which begins, is performed, and ends, on the lines of the Pennsylvania and one or more additional railroads will not be affected;
On “local sleeping car lines,” that is, service which begins, is performed, and ends on the lines of the Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania and Pullman each will perform a portion of the service, as follows:
Pullman to furnish the sleeping cars, properly equipped, and to furnish with linen and other supplies;
Pullman to perform electrical and air conditioning repairs on the cars and other yard and shop repairs; and
Pullman to perform the cleaning of the interior of the cars.
Pennsylvania to provide the porter, to arrange for the train conductor to collect sleeping car tickets, to handle collections, and to handle the control and distribution of sleeping car revenues;

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211 F. Supp. 881, 51 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2463, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5779, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brogan-v-pennsylvania-railroad-ilnd-1962.