Ross M. Madden, Regional Director, Etc. v. International Hod Carriers', Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, Local No. 41, Afl-Cio

277 F.2d 688, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2181, 1960 U.S. App. LEXIS 4601
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 1960
Docket12743
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 277 F.2d 688 (Ross M. Madden, Regional Director, Etc. v. International Hod Carriers', Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, Local No. 41, Afl-Cio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ross M. Madden, Regional Director, Etc. v. International Hod Carriers', Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, Local No. 41, Afl-Cio, 277 F.2d 688, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2181, 1960 U.S. App. LEXIS 4601 (7th Cir. 1960).

Opinion

CASTLE, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the District Court granting temporary injunctive relief against the respondent-appellant Union. 1 The order restrained picketing pending final disposition of an unfair labor practice proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board in which it was charged that the picketing violated Section 8(b) (4) (C) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (C).

The order was entered following a hearing on a petition invoking the District Court’s jurisdiction under Section 10 (l) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(l) and filed on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board by petitioner-appellee, Regional Director of its Thirteenth Region. The petition alleged, inter alia, that the Board had investigated the unfair labor practice charge and “upon the basis of the evidence disclosed as a result of such investigation, petitioner has reasonable cause to believe, and believes, that respondent has engaged in, and is engaging in, acts and conduct in violation of Section 8(b) (4) (C) of the Act”.

The Union’s appeal presents two main issues :

1. Whether on the evidence adduced on the hearing before it the District Court was clearly erroneous in finding and concluding that there is reasonable cause to believe that the picketing had induced and encouraged employees to engage in concerted refusals to perform services, and that an object thereof was to force or require any employer to recognize or bargain with the Union as representative of his employees although another labor organization was the representative of such employees certified by the Board, and
2. Whether the District Court erred in refusing to permit inquiry by the Union into the scope, nature *690 and extent of the Board’s preliminary investigation.

In resolving each of these issues we must be guided by the fundamental proposition, expressly recognized in the language of Section 10(l), 2 that the parties be given opportunity to present “any relevant testimony”, 3 and the further consideration that in a Section 10 (Í) adjudication it is not the function of the District Court to determine whether, in fact, an unfair labor practice has been engaged in, but only if reasonable cause exists to believe such violation occurred.

The injunctive relief provided for in Section 10 (Í) is interlocutory to a final disposition by the Board of the unfair labor practice charge. The ultimate determination on the merits as to whether a violation occurred is reserved exclusively for the Board, subject to judicial review by the Court of Appeals.

In Madden v. International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots of America, Inc., 7 Cir., 259 F.2d 312, 313, certiorari denied 358 U.S. 909, 79 S.Ct. 236, 3 L.Ed.2d 229 we pointed out in this connection:

“In this appeal by respondents from the order below granting an interlocutory injunction, they could not have cast their nets more widely, for they misconstrue the functions of the district judge when he is.passing upon a petition for temporary relief under § 10(i). By its express terms that provision is aimed at an injunction pendente lite i. e., pending the final adjudication of the Board based upon its hearings; subsequently judicial review at the Court of Appeals level comes into play. Congress has expressly authorized district courts to grant temporary injunctive relief pending administrative decision. Clearly a district judge proceeding under § 10(l), as here, looks to the statutory yardstick of ‘reasonable cause’ required as the basis for the petition and he is certainly not deciding which party, petitioner or respondent, is ultimately to prevail, nor do we now. In this incipient stage the district court was asked to aid the Board by preserving the status quo until it could ascertain by hearings, whether it had statutory jurisdiction, and if unfair labor practices existed. We, on the other hand, are simply reviewing discretion exercised below in a § 10 (l) setting. Douds v. Milk Drivers and Dairy Employees Union, 2 Cir., 1957, 248 F.2d 534, 537. The finding of reasonable cause is not clearly erroneous under Rule 52, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C., and respondents by their motions admitted all facts well pleaded in Madden’s petition.”

And, as then Chief Judge Duffy so aptly observed in Cosentino v. United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL-CIO, et al., 7 Cir., 265 F.2d 327, 330, 331:

“Section 10 (l) expresses the determination of Congress that unfair labor practices proscribed by Section 8(b) (4) (A) gave, or tended to give, rise to such serious interruptions to commerce as to require their discontinuance, pending adjudication by the Board.
“The injunctive relief contemplated in Section 10(i) is interlocutory and is limited to such time as may expire before the Board’s final disposition of the unfair labor practices charged. In order to justify such relief, there must be a finding by the District Court that there is reasonable cause to believe that a violation of the Act as charged, has been committed and that equitable relief would be just and proper. The District Court made such findings. On this appeal this Court is not called upon to decide whether in fact the charges are true.”
*691 *******
“In equity suits a district judge has a wide discretion to issue or withhold a temporary injunction, and ordinarily an appellate court will not interfere. Federal Trade Commission v. Rhodes Pharmacal Co., 7 Cir., 191 F.2d 744. The section we are considering provides: ‘ * * the district court shall have jurisdiction to grant such injunctive relief * * * as it deems just and proper, notwithstanding any other provision of law * * Such a grant of power by Congress to a district judge is a very broad one limited only by the exercise of sound legal discretion. Schauffler v. United Association of Journeymen, etc., 3 Cir., 218 F.2d 476, 480.”

The petition for temporary injunctive relief in the instant case was predicated on a charge filed with the Board on April 1,1959 by George DeJong and the Calumet Contractors Association 4 alleging that the Union had and was engaged in unfair labor practices proscribed by Section 8(b) (4) (C). From the record it appears that in 1958 the Christian Building Trades Local 12, Christian Labor Association of the United States, 5

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277 F.2d 688, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2181, 1960 U.S. App. LEXIS 4601, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ross-m-madden-regional-director-etc-v-international-hod-carriers-ca7-1960.