Richardson v. Texas & New Orleans Railroad

140 F. Supp. 215, 37 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2779, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3437
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedMarch 28, 1956
DocketCiv. A. No. 9240
StatusPublished

This text of 140 F. Supp. 215 (Richardson v. Texas & New Orleans Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richardson v. Texas & New Orleans Railroad, 140 F. Supp. 215, 37 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2779, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3437 (S.D. Tex. 1956).

Opinion

INGRAHAM, District Judge.

This is a suit filed by four plaintiffs who allege that they are Negroes employed as yardmen by the defendant Railroad, suing for themselves and all other Negro yardmen as a class, against Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company, hereinafter referred to as T&NO, and Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated association, Bayou City Lodge, No. 145, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated association, L. Bradley, President, Bayou City Lodge, No. 145, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated association, G. M. Leach Lodge, No. 228, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated association, J. N. Hater> President, G. M. Leach Lodge, No. 28, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated association, Houston Lodge, No. 697, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated association, Elmer Moore, President, Houston Lodge, No. 697, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated asso' ciation, and W. T. Meredith, Chairman, General • Grievance Committee, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, an unincorporated association, hereinafter collectively referred to as BofRT.

Plaintiffs sue “to obtain redress for violation of rights vouchsafed to them by the Railway Labor Act [45 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq.],” joining T&NO with BofRT and certain lodges and officers of [216]*216that organization as co-defendants. The complaint alleges (a) that plaintiffs are Negro yardmen employees of T&NO who are represented for collective bargaining purposes by the BofRT; (b) that the BofRT has discriminated against plaintiffs in its representation of them, solely on account of color, and that plaintiffs were originally employees of H&TC and HE&WT Railroads, whose operations were consolidated with those of T&NO many years ago, since which time plaintiffs have been designated as “H&TC Protected Men” while yardmen employees of other companies in the merger were designated as “T&NO Protected Men”, the former group being all Negroes and the latter all white; (c) that during all the time since the merger “many years ago” an arrangement or practice existed whereby H&TC Protected Men acted as engine foremen of crews consisting of H&TC Protected Men only, but whenever a T&NO Protected Man was moved in on an H&TC Protected Man crew to fill a temporary vacancy, the T&NO man acted as foreman, even though of less seniority and no more qualification than the H&TC men; (d) that on September 25, 1952, the BofRT entered into a “collective bargaining agreement” with T&NO providing that such long standing past practice would be continued; and (e) that this practice, as “perpetuated” in the 1952 agreement is discriminatory and void, and the BofRT has not represented the plaintiffs as required by law. The prayer in the complaint is for a declaratory judgment that the 1952 agreement is void insofar as it discriminates, for injunction against all defendants from enforcing the agreement and against the BofRT from representing plaintiffs as long as it does so with discrimination, and for compensatory damages for plaintiffs against all defendants and punitive damages against the BofRT.

The case is now before the court on motions to dismiss (1) by T&NO and (2) by BofRT.

It is clear from the complaint, and even more so when reference is had to the facts established by supporting affidavits, that plaintiffs are contending that a practice of filling vacancies in the engine foreman classification, now carried into the written agreement between the carrier and the union representative, is discriminatory and therefore unlawful and void. A disposition of this contention calls for an interpretation of application of the agreement, and involves a dispute between employees and the carrier-employer under Section 3 of the Act. There is no allegation in the complaint that plaintiffs have ever, prior to the filing of the complaint in this case, complained to the BofRT or to T&NO of the application of the practice in question as being discriminatory to them. The affidavits on file negative any inference that such a complaint has been made to either the representative or the carrier. Plaintiffs say there is no administrative remedy available to them but they have not sought to process any alleged complaint or cause of action through any of the processes available to them under the Railway Labor Act. Any dispute alleged in the complaint is a dispute between the carrier and its employees which is clearly a matter for exclusive determination, at least in the first instance, by the National Railroad Adjustment Board.

The history of the Act is traced by the United States Supreme Court in General Committee, etc. v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company, 320 U.S. 323, at pages 328-333, 64 S.Ct. 146, at page 150, 88 L.Ed. 76, and the cases cited therein. The court there observed that, historically, the present Act and its predecessors placed great areas of dispute within the field of negotiation supplemented by mediation and conciliation, to enforce the Congressional policy. The court then observes, as follows:

“Congress established the National Railroad Adjustment Board for [217]*217the settlement of specific types of disputes or grievances between employees and the carrier. § 3. And Congress gave the courts jurisdiction to entertain suits based on the awards of the Adjustment Board. § 3, First (p). That feature of the Act, as well as § 2, Ninth, which placed on the Mediation Board definite adjudicatory functions, transferred certain segments of railway labor problems from the realm of conciliation and mediation to tribunals of the law. * * *
“In short, Congress by this legislation has freely employed the traditional instruments of mediation, conciliation and arbitration. Those instruments, in addition to the available economic weapons, remain unchanged in large areas of this railway labor field. On only certain phases of this controversial subject has Congress utilized administrative or judicial machinery and invoked the compulsions of the law. Congress was dealing with a subject highly charged with emotion. Its approach has not only been slow; it has been piecemeal. Congress has been highly selective in its use of legal machinery. The delicacy of these problems has made it hesitant to go too fast or too far. The inference is strong but Congress intended to go no further in its use of the processes of adjudication and litigation than the express provisions of the Act indicate.
“That history has a special claim here. It must be kept in mind in analyzing a bill of complaint which, like the present one, seeks to state a cause of action under the Railway Labor Act and asks that judicial power be exerted in enforcement of an obligation which it is claimed Congress has created.”

In the General Committee, etc. v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co. case, the court was confronted primarily with a question of a jurisdictional dispute under Sec. 2, Ninth of the Act and held that Congress did not select the courts to resolve them; rather, the court said, an administrative remedy is fashioned under the National Mediation Board and the administrative remedy is exclusive, 320 U.S. at page 336, 64 S.Ct. at page 152. In concluding, the court stated:

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Bluebook (online)
140 F. Supp. 215, 37 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2779, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richardson-v-texas-new-orleans-railroad-txsd-1956.