Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company v. National Labor Relations Board

222 F.2d 938, 36 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2227, 1955 U.S. App. LEXIS 4536
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 6, 1955
Docket4911
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 222 F.2d 938 (Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company v. National Labor Relations Board, 222 F.2d 938, 36 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2227, 1955 U.S. App. LEXIS 4536 (1st Cir. 1955).

Opinion

HARTIGAN, Circuit Judge.

The petitioner, Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company, pursuant to Sec. 10(f) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 61 Stat. 136, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., seeks review of an order of the National *940 .Labor Relations Board and the Board has filed an answer to this petition and also a cross petition, under Sec. 10(e), requesting enforcement of its order.

The Board ordered the petitioner to .cease and desist from unfair labor practices in violation of Sec. 8(a) (1) and (3)‘of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(a) (1) and (3). Affirmatively, the order requires petitioner to offer full reinstatement to James Gullotti and Alphonso Castagno, with back pay and to post the usual notices. The Board in its decision and order adopted the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the trial examiner and in addition found thát certain statements made by petitioner’s general superintendent and assistant general superintendent constituted violations of Sec. 8(á) (1) of the Act, the Board stating that the omission of such a formal finding in the trial examiner’s report was due to inadvertent failure.

The petitioner contends that it was denied a fair hearing and due process of law in that: (1) the trial examiner improperly denied petitioner’s request for postponement of the hearing on account of the illness of petitioner’s general- superintendent, (2) the Board erred in refusing • to., furnish petitioner with certain particulars and (3) the trial examiner was biased' and prejudiced against -the petitioner.

...The .petitioner further contends that the Board’s findings as to the discriminatory discharges of Gullotti and Cas-tagno were not .supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole; that the Board erred in holding that.-the conduct for which Gullotti and Castagno were discharged was protected activity ..under Sec. 7 of the Act, and that the Board’s finding that petitioner had interfered With, restrained and coerced its employees in violation of Sec. 8(a) (1) is not supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole.

The refusal of the trial examiner to postpone the hearing because of the illness of the petitioner's general superintendent was not an abuse of discretion and it did not result in prejudice to the petitioner nor in a denial of due process. See National Labor Relations Board v. Somerville Cream Co., 1 Cir., 1952, 199 F.2d 257; National Labor Relations Board v. Somerville Buick, 1 Cir., 1952, 194 F.2d 56. The weakness of petitioner’s contention that this action of the trial examiner resulted in prejudice to its case is indicated by the fact that it was petitioner’s counsel who originally requested that the general superintendent’s testimony be taken by deposition in order not to delay the hearing, and this was exactly the procedure that was subsequently followed by the trial examiner.

It is also apparent from the record that the petitioner was not prejudiced by the failure of the Board to furnish particulars with regard to the petitioner’s alleged questioning and threatening of employees concerning union activities in violation of Sec. 8(a) (1). Petitioner was informed of the month when these alleged violations occurred and also that its general superintendent and assistant general superintendent were the officials who took part in these violations. • Under these circumstances the information contained in the complaint was sufficient to acquaint the petitioner with the charges of the Board and- the issues which would be considered at the hearing. See National Labor Relations Board v. S. W. Evans & Son, 3 Cir., 1950, 181 F.2d 427, 431.

The petitioner's contention that the trial examiner was biased and prejudiced against it does not warrant extended discussion. The argument in support of this charge seems-to be principally centered upon the trial examiner’s acceptance • of the testimony of the Board’s witnesses rather than that of the petitioner’s witnesses. The Supreme Court said in National Labor Relations Board v. Pittsburgh S. S. Co., 1949, 337 U.S. 656, 659, 69 S.Ct. 1283, 1285, 93 L.Ed. 1602, that “* * * total rejection of an opposed view cannot of itself impugn the integrity or competence of a *941 trier of fact.” See also Judge Hut-cheson’s statement in National Labor Relations Board v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co., 5 Cir., 1947, 161 F.2d 798, 800, which was quoted with approval by the Supreme Court in Pittsburgh S. S. Co., supra, 337 U.S. at page 659, 69 S.Ct. at page 1285:

“The fact alone * * * of which Respondent makes so much, that Examiner and Board uniformly credited the Board’s witnesses and as uniformly discredited those of the Respondent, though the Board’s witnesses were few and the Respondent’s witnesses were many, would not furnish a basis for a finding by us that such a bias or partiality existed and therefore the hearings were unfair. Unless the credited evidence * * * carries its own death wound, that is, is incredible and therefore, cannot in law be credited, and the discredited evidence * * * carries its own irrefutable truth, that is, is of such nature that it cannot in law be discredited, we cannot determine that to credit the one and discredit the other is an evidence of bias.”

In the instant case the evidence presented by the Board was not incredible nor was the petitioner’s evidence of such a nature that it could not be discredited. Unlike Local No. 3, etc., v. National Labor Relations Board, 8 Cir., 1954, 210 F.2d 325, certiorari denied Local No. 3, etc., v. Wilson & Co., 348 U.S. 822, 75 S.Ct. 36, cited by the petitioner, there is not present in the instant case corroboration of the petitioner’s evidence by surrounding facts and circumstances such as would convince us that the trial examiner’s discrediting of the petitioner’s witnesses was caused by his bias and prejudice against the petitioner.

The petitioner’s charges that the Board’s findings of violations of the Act were unsupported by substantial evidence imposes on this court a duty to review the entire record and we must take into account in estimating the sub-stantiality of the evidence “* * * whatever in the record fairly detracts from its weight.” Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Board, 1951, 340 U.S. 474, 488, 71 S.Ct. 456, 464, 95 L.Ed. 456. Upon application of this standard we are of the opinion there is substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole that Gullotti and Castagno were discharged in violation of Sec.

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222 F.2d 938, 36 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2227, 1955 U.S. App. LEXIS 4536, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lloyd-a-fry-roofing-company-v-national-labor-relations-board-ca1-1955.