Montgomery Ward & Co. v. National Labor Relations Board

103 F.2d 147, 4 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 679, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3524
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 3, 1939
Docket412
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 103 F.2d 147 (Montgomery Ward & Co. v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Montgomery Ward & Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 103 F.2d 147, 4 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 679, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3524 (8th Cir. 1939).

Opinion

STONE, Circuit Judge.

On an amended charge (dated June IS, 1937), the Regional Director filed a complaint (dated June 16, 1937) against Montgomery Ward & Company, Incorporated, charging unfair labor practices at its plant in Kansas City, Missouri. The complaint included allegations of improper discharge of Robert Green and of domination and support of an organization of the employees known as “Union of Ward Employees”. This organization was allowed to intervene under limitations to be -hereinafter noticed. After various pleadings, there was a hearing before an examiner. Near the end of the evidence introducd by the Board, the complaint was amended by advancing the date of the beginning of the alleged unfair practices and by adding the charge of improper refusal to hire Charles E. Hooper. The intermediate report of the examiner found improper discharge of Green; no proof of improper refusal to hire Hooper by anyone having authority to hire him; and domination, influencing and contributing financial and other support to the Union of Ward Employees (hereinafter called Union). ' Extensive and' detailed exceptions were filed to this report by the company. 1 The Board made findings of fact, stated conclusions of law and entered an order requiring the company (1) to “cease and desist” (a) from interfering with, restraining or coercing its employees in labor organization for collective bargaining; (b) from discouraging membership in. United Mail Order and Retail Workers of America (hereinafter called C. I. O.) or “any other labor organization of its employees at its Kansas City, Missouri, plant, by discharging, refusing to reinstate, refusing to hire, or otherwise discriminating”, etc.; (c) from dominating or interfering with the administration of or contributing support to the Union or “any other labor organization of its employees” at this plant; and (2) affirmative action as follows: (a) offer immediate reinstatement and reimbursement to Robert Green without loss of privileges; (b) place Charles- E. Hooper on preferential hiring iist and offer employment when available; (c) withdraw all ’ recognition' from the Union as the bargaining representative of its employees and completely “disestablish” it as such representative; (d) immediately post notices of compliance; and (e) notify the Regional Director of action in compliance. The company filed extended and detailed exceptions to the findings and order of the Board in the form of a “motion * * * for modification of findings of fact and order of National Labor Relations Board”. This “motion” was denied.

The company has filed here its petition for review. The Board answered this petition and, therein, prayed enforcement of its order. The Union was allowed to intervene and file “assignment of errors” to the decision and order of the Board in so far as its interests were involved therein. The matter has been presented upon briefs and oral argument of the parties and of the intervener.

The attacks upon the order • of the Board are of two kinds: first, that the “Trial Examiner’s conduct of the hearing and the Board’s treatment of the case operated to deprive this petitioner of a *149 full and fair hearing”; and, second, that there is no substantial evidence to sustain the findings of the Board as to any of the three matters involved in the hearing.

We think the petitioner has established its case upon the ground of unfairness of trial and, therefore, we do not determine the sufficiency of the evidence as to any of the matters involved. Ford Motor Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 305 U.S. 364, 59 S.Ct. 301, 83 L. Ed.-.

Every word of this extensive record has been carefully read and considered and very much of it re-read. We cannot escape the conclusion that, in the hearing, the company was denied that fairness which is required by due process of law.

The responsibility for this situation rests primarily upon the examiner. It was not recognized nor corrected by the Board. It sprang from the decided partisanship of the examiner. Rather loosely classified, it manifested itself by omissions from the record of occurrences at the hearing; by unfairly restricting examination and cross-examination by counsel for the company and for the intervener; by a hostile attitude toward witnesses (whether called by the Board or not) who might be supposed to favor the company or the intervener; and by an obvious attitude of bias in other instances. In discussing these actions and this attitude of the examiner, we shall not attempt to cover all instances but merely enough to illuminate the situation.

Omissions from record. This matter appeared, initially, at the beginning of the hearing. The footnote is a quotation of this portion of the record (the asterisks indicate omissions.) 2 During the cross- *150 examination, by counsel for the company, of a hostile Board witness, a somewhat heated discussion arose as to the proper lifnits- thereof. The record quoted in the *151 footnote 3 reveals further action by the examiner resulting in an imperfect record here.

Unfair Restriction of Examination of Witnesses. On May 21, 1937, a committee representing the Union, claiming that the Union included over fifty-one per cent of the employeés at the plant, visited the plant manager and demanded recognition as the bargaining representative. Not receiving recognition and being informed that C. I. O. claimed the right of representation, *152 the Union filed a petition of certification with the Regional Director on the next day, May 22, 1937. May 24, 1937, C. I. O. demanded recognition and, being refused called a strike, which began on May 25th and was yet in progress during the hearing. This strike was attended 'by considerable violence, destruction and intimidation in the plant by C. I. O. members. On May 26 and 27 there were meetings of about fifty officers and workers (called by the plant manager) in a downtown office building — there is some confusion as to whether this was the Lathrop Building or the Dierks Building, across the street from the Lathrop -Building. Two general officers of the company from Chicago (Mr. Harris and Mr. Bullock) were at one or both of these meetings. Very strong language was attributed, by some of the witnesses,'to the plant manager, to Mr. Harris and to Mr. Bullock, in which an offensive epithet was applied to ,the members of C. I. O. and it was stated that the city did not offer police protection, that the plant would not open under the C- I. O. but only if the company had its own way. Joe Collins (an engineer at the plant) had been one of the main forces in organization of the Union.

On ■ cross-examination of witness Thompson (called by the Board), who had testified to the above statements by Weaver, Harris and Bullock, and for the obvious purpose of offering an explanation for some of this extreme language, there occurred the following:

“Q. (By Mr. Ess) Do you recall, Mr. Thompson, the day you had this meeting that you say was in the Lathrop Building— that that was the day Joe Collins was slugged ? A. I couldn’t say.

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Bluebook (online)
103 F.2d 147, 4 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 679, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3524, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montgomery-ward-co-v-national-labor-relations-board-ca8-1939.