Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Civil Aeronautics Board, Master Executive Council of Pilots of Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Civil Aeronautics Board, International Association of MacHinists v. Civil Aeronautics Board

345 F.2d 488
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMay 19, 1965
Docket6507_1
StatusPublished

This text of 345 F.2d 488 (Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Civil Aeronautics Board, Master Executive Council of Pilots of Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Civil Aeronautics Board, International Association of MacHinists v. Civil Aeronautics 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.

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Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Civil Aeronautics Board, Master Executive Council of Pilots of Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Civil Aeronautics Board, International Association of MacHinists v. Civil Aeronautics Board, 345 F.2d 488 (1st Cir. 1965).

Opinion

345 F.2d 488

NORTHEAST AIRLINES, INC., Petitioner,
v.
CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, Respondent.
MASTER EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF PILOTS OF NORTHEAST AIRLINES, INC., Petitioner,
v.
CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, Respondent.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, Petitioner,
v.
CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, Respondent.

No. 6220.

No. 6233.

No. 6445.

No. 6506.

No. 6507.

No. 6517.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

May 11, 1965.

On Motions for Stay May 19, 1965.

Before ALDRICH, Chief Judge, BREITENSTEIN,* Circuit Judge, and GIGNOUX, District Judge.

ALDRICH, Chief Judge.

Following our decision of April 13, 1965, remanding to the Board to permit Northeast to offer further evidence in the light of the evidence which the Board had taken, or noticed, sua sponte, 1 Cir., 345 F.2d 484, the Board entered a new order. This April 26 order revoked all outstanding decisions of the Board, both with respect to Northeast and as to whether there should be three permanently certificated carriers on the Florida route, stating that it "reopened [the] proceeding for a complete review of the issues" and "to consider those issues afresh in the light of the most recent data."1 It appropriately, Anchor Line, Ltd. v. Federal Maritime Commission, 1962, 112 U.S.App.D.C. 40, 299 F.2d 124, requested us to remand for that purpose, giving our assent, if we believe it necessary, and, preferably, relinquishing our jurisdiction.

There were pending on April 13 motions by Eastern and National to intervene. These we denied, sub silentio, to the extent that they applied to Northeast's limited petition to remand, so far as the formalities were concerned, but we did read and fully consider the extensive briefs which these carriers had filed on this issue before the Board, and which were in the record presented to us. It has been our position, which the Supreme Court has refused to disturb, cert. den. 376 U.S. 931, 84 S.Ct. 698, 11 L.Ed.2d 651 (1964), that so long as these carriers are precisely aligned with the Board, formal intervention is inappropriate. However, when the Board entered its April 26 order this alignment terminated. We accordingly entered an order to the effect that "without otherwise passing" on their motions to intervene, these carriers would be permitted to respond to the Board's present request.

Briefly, the positions of the various carriers2 are as follows. Northeast wishes us to grant such leave as may be necessary, but requests that it be "without prejudice to the pending proceedings for judicial review" and that this court "retain its jurisdiction and merely stay the pending judicial review proceedings." Eastern asserts that it was aggrieved by our April 13 order, that it wishes to be permitted to intervene, that it intends to petition for certiorari, and that it desires a stay of all further proceedings (not the stay of "review proceedings" that Northeast wishes) pending the Supreme Court's determination thereof. National's position is somewhat the same as Eastern's, except that it is undecided as to whether it will apply for certiorari, and as to whether it wants a general stay.

Although National appears to feel otherwise, the Board's order goes beyond our April 13 order. Nonetheless, we do not consider the Board's order inappropriate, and if necessary for us to assent thereto, we do so. Furthermore, we think its action fully within the Board's discretion and not subject to review. We do not, however, wish to stand in the way of Eastern and National, if they wish to seek review, and their motions to intervene are for that purpose allowed. We state, however, that any delay in the Board's further procedure is to be in its discretion, and that if, in connection with any petition for certiorari, whether with respect to our decision of April 13, or to our present decision, the petitioners wish the Board's further proceedings to be stayed, they must apply first to the Board, and next to the Supreme Court or to a justice thereof. We would not ourselves overrule a decision on the part of the Board to proceed during the pendency of such petitions.

We now turn to the question whether our assent to the Board's order, and consequent remand, should be accompanied by a retention, or a relinquishment, of our jurisdiction. None of the reasons asserted for the retention of our jurisdiction seems sound. It is not for us to supervise the manner in which the Board is to take evidence or otherwise conduct itself. It is true that in connection with our original remand, 1 Cir., 331 F.2d 579, we retained jurisdiction. That order did not necessarily involve a full retrial. Furthermore, it was imposed upon, in a sense, an unwilling Board, which might, not necessarily improperly, adhere to some or all of the matters it had originally decided with a so-to-speak closed mind. The Board has now renounced any such approach and states that it wishes to reconsider the case de novo. We also, naturally, assume that it recognizes the obligation to continue Northeast's temporary operations pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 1008(b).3 We see neither the need, nor the basis, for us to retain jurisdiction.

An order will be entered, to take effect ten days after the date of this opinion, approving the order of the Board of April 26, 1965, remanding the cause to the Board, and relinquishing our jurisdiction.

Notes:

*

By designation

1

The Board did not expressly state whether it would consider Northeast's alternative request to be certificated to Philadelphia and Washington, but nothing presently turns on this

2

There are before us petitions on behalf of certain of Northeast's employees, but these raise no further matters

3

If we have misconstrued the Board's position in any particular, it should promptly file a motion for reconsideration of this opinion and decision

Opinion of the Court

On Motions for Stay.

May 19, 1965

In our opinion of May 11, 1965 accompanying our order of like date recited to become effective May 21, 1965, we stated that any request for a stay should be made to the Board, then to the Supreme Court or a justice thereof, and not to us.

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