Emery Air Freight Corp. v. Local Union 295

449 F.2d 586, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2466
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 24, 1971
DocketNos. 1098, 1099, Dockets 71-1561, 71-1621
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 449 F.2d 586 (Emery Air Freight Corp. v. Local Union 295) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Emery Air Freight Corp. v. Local Union 295, 449 F.2d 586, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2466 (2d Cir. 1971).

Opinion

FEINBERG, Circuit Judge:

Local Union 295 and its officers1 appeal from various orders of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Walter Bruch-hausen, J., which prohibit appellants from engaging in a strike and fine some of them $50,000 for contempt. The appeals arise out of a labor dispute between the Local and plaintiff-appellee Emery Air Freight Corporation. We conclude, first, that the court below lacked jurisdiction under the Norris-La-Guardia Act, 29 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., to order a preliminary injunction in this controversy and, accordingly, we reverse that order. Second, because the order holding appellants in contempt was entered without a proper hearing, we remand that issue to the district court for reconsideration. The case illustrates that haste in court often makes waste, particularly in the heated and urgent atmosphere that so frequently characterizes labor disputes that culminate in a strike. Cf. New York Telephone Co. v. Communications Workers of America, 445 F.2d 39 (2d Cir. 1971).

The controversy arises out of the negotiations between Emery and Local Union 295 for a new collective bargaining agreement covering outside employees (truck drivers, helpers and platform men). Local 295 represents various workers in the air freight industry, including those employed by Emery. Local 295 and Emery have had an established collective bargaining relationship for many years, and in the past the agreements with Emery have been the same as those reached with other employers. Indeed, the agreements in the industry have apparently been uniform. Emery’s last “outside contract” with Local 295 ran from November 30, 1967 to December 1, 1970, and contained a broad arbitration clause and a commitment by the parties not to strike or lock-out before exhausting the arbitration procedure. Negotiations for a new agreement began before the expiration date. In mid-December 1970, there was apparent agreement on basic economic terms, which were incorporated into a two-page supplemental agreement. The parties are in dispute over whether this document, together with the prior (1967-1970) contract, is the entire final agreement of the parties. Emery says that it is. Local 295 denies this. It claims that the parties had reached a basic understanding only on economic issues and that further negotiations were to come regarding language and non-economic provisions, including the grievance procedure which had been a source of trouble in the past between Emery and Local 295.

In any event, the new economic provisions were put into effect immediately and a few months later, Local 295 provided Emery with a complete printed final form of the agreement. Emery refused to sign it, claiming that it did not reflect the agreement of the parties. At a meeting on April 22 between the parties, Local 295 representatives pointed out that the contract in the printed form was being signed by other employers in the industry, of whom there were about 60, and threatened an immediate strike if Emery did not follow suit. The discussion degenerated into an impasse, and Local 295 called a strike. The parties continued to talk for a while on April 22 and apparently came close to, but did not achieve, agreement.

And so this litigation began. That same evening attorneys for Emery appeared before Chief Judge Mishler of the Eastern District and obtained a temporary restraining order enjoining defendants-appellants from engaging in a strike. The order referred to a verified complaint attached thereto, which alleged an action under section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, for damages and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief for alleged violations of the no-strike [588]*588clause of a collective bargaining agreement between Emery and Local 295.

I

Before recounting the events of the hectic next few days in this litigation, it is helpful to pause to examine the current vitality of some of the provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., since appellants rely upon that Act heavily. Only a few months ago, in New York Telephone Co., supra, we had occasion to scrutinize the Act. We pointed out, 445 F.2d at 49, that the “generality” of injunctions issued in labor disputes had been “one of the chief abuses that led to the Norris-LaGuardia Act.” We emphasized that the Act still applies to all labor disputes in which a federal court can issue an injunction, that nothing in Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerk’s Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970), is to the contrary, and that although that decision allows an employer injunctive relief in a labor dispute, such relief is “limited to vindicating the arbitration process. See Note, 71 Colum.L.Rev. 336, 342-44 (1971).” Id. Thus, before an employer in a dispute with a union can obtain an injunction, there are a number of conditions to be satisfied. Section 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 107, lists a good many of them, including the requirements that a temporary restraining order “shall be effective for no longer than five days” and that such an order should not be issued except upon “testimony under oath, sufficient, if sustained, to justify the court in issuing a temporary injunction upon a hearing after notice,” and upon the condition that:

[Cjomplainant shall first file an undertaking with adequate security * * * to be fixed by the court sufficient to recompense those enjoined for any loss, expense, or damage caused by the improvident or erroneous issuance of such * * * injunction, including all reasonable costs (together with a reasonable attorney’s fee) and expense of defense against the order or against the granting of any injunctive relief sought in the same proceeding and subsequently denied by the court.

Section 8 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 108, requires a showing by the complainant that he has made “every reasonable effort to settle” the dispute. Section 9, 29 U.S.C. § 109, limits the restraints of a temporary restraining order to those “specific act * * * expressly complained of in the * * * complaint.”

Similarly, in Boys Markets, the Court emphasized the conditions precedent to obtaining an injunction in a labor dispute. In overruling Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U.S. 195, 82 S.Ct. 1328, 8 L.Ed.2d 440 (1962), the Court held that a strike may be enjoined only in carefully defined circumstances. It emphasized, 398 U.S. at 253-254, 90 S.Ct. at 1594:

Our holding in the present case is a narrow one. We do not undermine the vitality of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. We deal only with the situation in which a collective-bargaining contract contains a mandatory grievance adjustment or arbitration procedure.

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Bluebook (online)
449 F.2d 586, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/emery-air-freight-corp-v-local-union-295-ca2-1971.