Campbell v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad

133 So. 2d 396, 241 Miss. 777, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 398, 49 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2036
Mississippi Supreme Court·Decided October 9, 1961·No. No. 41953·Published

Opinion

Rodgers, J.

This suit originated in the Second Judicial District of Jones County, Mississippi, where a declaration was filed by the appellant in a suit against the appellee, Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company, a corporation. The appellant alleges that he worked for the defendant up to and including December 31, 1958, and that he retired January 1, 1959. He alleges that he was a foreman mechanic under a contract between the Culf, Mobile and Ohio Eailroad Company and the union to which the appellant belonged, to-wit: “The American Railway Supervisors’ Association.” The appellant alleges that under this contract the appellant was to be paid time and one-half for all work performed as a working foreman mechanic on days known as “rest days”; that from January 1, 1954, to December 31, 1958, appellant worked 87 rest days each year and that he should have received for said work a total of “$16,449.36, plus interest of $3,092.74, or a total of $19,542.10.” The appellant further contends that by virtue of an addition or an adjustment clause to the above contract which was attached to and became a part of the contract as a “cost of living adjustment”, the appellant became entitled to fifteen days vacation and for which he should have been paid the sum of $26.66 per day, or a total of $319.90. The defendant Railroad Company demurred to this declaration upon the ground among others that: (1) “The Court does not have jurisdiction of this cause, jurisdiction being’ vested exclusively in the National Eailroad Adjustment Board, pursuant to 45 U.S.C.A., Section 153,” and (2) that the agreement filed as an exhibit to the declaration bars this action because the action was not filed with the proper officers within 30 calendar days from the date of the occurrence upon which such claim is based. The demurrer also claims that the court does not have jurisdiction of the party and that the declaration does not state the cause of action.

[780] The demurrer was submitted to the Circuit Judge and from a judgment sustaining the demurred this case has been appealed to this Court.

This case brings into focus Section 153, U.S.C.A., Title 45, in which the Congress established a board known as the National Railroad Adjustment Board and vested this Board with the power to hear and determine “disputes between an employee or group of employees and a carrier or carriers growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning* rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, * *

It will be noted that this suit at bar is a suit for unpaid wages claimed to have been due to the plaintiff under the contract for work done on “rest days”, and for vacation said to be due under the contract and adjustment thereto. It is apparent, therefore, that this case is based upon a contract between the appellant’s union and the railroad. In the case of Moore v. Illinois Central Railroad Company, 180 Miss. 276, 176 So. 593, this Court held in a case where a trainman brought a suit for wages, that the Court had jurisdiction to entertain such a suit after the trainman had been arbitrarily discharged by the railroad company.

In the case of Illinois Central Railroad Company v. Bolton (Miss. 1961), 126 So. 2d 524, Judge Arrington, speaking* for the Court, said: “Appellee relies on Moore v. Illinois Central Railroad Company, 312 U. S. 630, 61 S. Ct. 754, 85 L. Ed. 1089. In the first place, the Moore case, if not overruled, has been restricted and narrowed in its effect by a number of decisions which are discussed and cited in Illinois Central Railroad Company v. Nelson, 218 Miss. 896, 57 So. 2d 321. We think the Nelson case is decisive of the question now before the Court. Appellee was not wrongfully discharged from his position as was the fact in the Moore case. Appellee bases his suit solely on the union contract, and the loss of his seniority under that contract, and his suit is to recover the wages that have been paid others who, he claims, occupied the [781] •position he should have occupied if appellant had properly applied the union contract as to seniority rights.”

The Nelson case mentioned above is a case where Nelson claimed that he was wrongfully withdrawn from the service and deprived of wages he should have earned because the Eailroad violated his seniority rights and he asked for a money judgment for such wages and the Court stated in that case that “Congress has specifically provided for a tribunal to interpret contracts such as these in order finally to settle a labor dispute.” The Court further stated that: “We are of the opinion in the case at bar that the questions are so intricate and the rights of the National and Local unions and their members, as well as those of plaintiff and defendant, are so intertwined and affected, depending upon the construction and interpretation of the rules and regulations of the Unions, and determination of their powers, and the effect of such interpretation upon the present and future policy of such Unions, that the lower court had no jurisdiction of these matters, and they should be determined by the Eailroad Adjustment Board if determined at all.”

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Campbell v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad, 133 So. 2d 396, 241 Miss. 777, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 398, 49 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2036 (Mich. 1961).

133 So. 2d 396 (Campbell v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Moore v. Illinois Central Railroad
312 U.S. 630 (Supreme Court, 1941)
Pennsylvania Railroad v. Day
360 U.S. 548 (Supreme Court, 1959)
Moore v. Illinois Cent. R. Co.
176 So. 593 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1937)
Illinois Central R. R. v. Nelson
57 So. 2d 321 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1952)
Illinois Central Railroad v. Bolton
126 So. 2d 524 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1961)