Samuelson v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 852

151 P.2d 347, 60 Wyo. 316, 1944 Wyo. LEXIS 15
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 5, 1944
Docket2282, 2283
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 151 P.2d 347 (Samuelson v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 852) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Samuelson v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 852, 151 P.2d 347, 60 Wyo. 316, 1944 Wyo. LEXIS 15 (Wyo. 1944).

Opinion

*325 OPINION

Riner, Justice.

These two cases are direct appeals from a judgment of the District Court of Laramie County and are based upon the same record. This judgment was in favor of M. A. Samuelson, plaintiff below, in certain particulars hereinafter to be stated, and against the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 852 of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, the Burlington Transportation Company, a Corporation, R. L. Abbott, D. G. Armstrong, L. L. Holliday, O. E. Bess, B. F. Longacre, Ed. Campbell, G. M. Ludtke, R. C. Selvidge, R. H. Phelps, and M. Shea, the defendants below. 'One C. B. Metz was also named in the amended petition as a defendant but no service of process was made upon him, and hence he is not a party to these proceedings. In certain other respects presently to be set forth the judgment was adverse to the plaintiff and in favor of the defendants above mentioned. Each of the parties are here complaining of those portions of the judgment which the Court entered against them and thereby result the two cases *326 on appeal. However, under the circumstances, these appellate proceedings being grounded upon the same record one opinion will suffice to dispose of both. Samuelson will be referred to subsequently herein either by surname or as the “plaintiff,” and for brevity the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen will usually be mentioned as the “Brotherhood,” the subordinate Lodge aforesaid as “Lodge No. 852,” the Burlington Transportation Company as the “Company” and the individual defendants by their surnames as may be necessary.

The plaintiff, at all the times herein involved, was and is a bus driver or operator in the employ of the Company, and the litigation was instituted by him to determine whether his seniority rights as such driver had been improperly ranked in view of the circumstances in which the several parties were placed and the rules by which they were governed.

The Brotherhood is an unincorporated association of railroad trainmen, switchmen, switchtenders, bus operators and others having a Grand Lodge and Subordinate Lodges holding their charters thereunder. The organization has as its purpose collective bargaining through its proper representatives and engaging in concerted activities for such bargaining and other mutual aid and protection. The Lodge No. 852, located at Denver, Colorado, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, is a duly organized and existing subordinate lodge of said Brotherhood. The Company is an Illinois corporation authorized to transact business in Wyoming and it owns and operates a bus line between Chicago, Illinois, and the Pacific coast, many of whose bus operators are members of the Brotherhood. The individual defendants listed above are all operators employed by the Company who have exercised seniority rights in *327 their work and who are interested in the controversy involved in this litigation and who may be affected by its outcome.

In the District Court the contentions of the parties were considered upon an agreed statement of facts supplemented by oral and written evidence submitted upon the trial. There is very little, if any, dispute about the controlling facts in the matter and, for the purpose of disposing of the proceedings now before us, they are substantially recited as follows:

From at least June, 1937, and sometime prior thereto, until about July 1, 1939, Samuelson was a member of the Brotherhood. He states that he was a charter member of Lodge No. 600 in Omaha, though the date when he became such member does not seem to be in the record. After July 1, 1939, his membership in the Brotherhood ceased on account of his non-payment of dues and assessments. He was first employed by the Company as a bus driver at Omaha, Nebraska, June 27, 1935. That date fixed the so-called seniority date as between him and other drivers for the Company in that locality for the bus trips or “runs” to which he was entitled.

About June 1, 1937, a bus driver previously employed by the Company at Cheyenne, Wyoming, was discharged and the Company Superintendent in control there applied to one F. D. Hite, Manager of the Company, with jurisdiction over the territory including Omaha and Cheyenne, to secure an operator to fill the vacancy.. Hite tendered to plaintiff the opportunity to make this transfer to Cheyenne and this offer the plaintiff accepted. In connection with this tender Hite told plaintiff that his seniority date at Cheyenne would be the same as he had held and used at Omaha, viz., June 27, 1935. Plaintiff was not compelled by Com *328 pany order to make this transfer but did so voluntarily, using his seniority date and rights thereunder to secure preference over other drivers at Omaha who might have wished to make such tansfer but who were junior to him in seniority rank.

Samuelson arrived in Cheyenne the night of June 4, 1937, to undertake bus driver work of the Company running out of that city. The first run he took after he arrived was an extra trip to Ft. Collins, Colorado, on June 5, 1937. The following day, June 6 he operated an extra trip to Loveland, Colorado.

Under date of June 8, 1937, W. A. Culver, as Chairman of the General Grievance Committee of the Brotherhood wrote to J. W. Brady, Superintendent of the Company at Cheyenne, as follows:

“Attached you will find the seniority roster that will be effective for the June 10th, bid on runs in the Cheyenne division.
The seniority question is not definitely settled as yet and until such time that it is definitely cleared up this will be the official roster. At the time the question is settled the men will have an opportunity to place themselves on the proper level.
Any mistakes made in the date that your men actually started work for the Company will be rectified as soon as possible.”

The roster sheet thus attached was entitled “Cheyenne Seniority Roster.” It gave the names of the drivers in'the employ of the Company at Cheyenne, their order of seniority numbered “1” to “20,” inclusive, and opposite each name was set the Company seniority date. Illustrating this arrangement is the following excerpt:

“Order Name Company Seniority
8 Howard, J. C. 6-17-35
9 Holliday, L. L. 6-28-35”

*329 In this connection it may be noted that this roster was in typewriting and the name of Samuelson did not thus appear on it. However, between the names of Howard and Holliday, arranged as above, there appears on this roster sheet the name of plaintiff written thereon in lead pencil, and between the two typewritten seniority dates, opposite the names of Howard and Holliday, is also written in pencil the date “6-27-35.” Plaintiff’s testimony is to the effect that he saw this roster list on Superintendent Brady’s desk and saw him write into the roster the pencil notation described above before the “runs” were “bid in” or selected by the several bus drivers about the 10th or 11th of June, 1937. Why Brady made the notation, or at whose direction, does not appear.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
151 P.2d 347, 60 Wyo. 316, 1944 Wyo. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/samuelson-v-brotherhood-of-railroad-trainmen-rocky-mountain-lodge-no-852-wyo-1944.