Schatte v. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators

84 F. Supp. 669, 24 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2316, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2726
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedMay 27, 1949
DocketNo. 7304
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 84 F. Supp. 669 (Schatte v. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schatte v. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators, 84 F. Supp. 669, 24 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2316, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2726 (S.D. Cal. 1949).

Opinion

HALL, District Judge.

The plaintiffs, individuals, are members of Carpenters Union Local 946, suing herein for damages. They sue as a class, as did some of the same individuals in case No. 6063 of this Court, decided by Judge Harrison on February 25th, 1947, Schatte v. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Emp., D.C., 70 F.Supp. 1008, affirmed percuriam without opinion, 9 Cir., 1948, 165 F.2d 216, certiorari denied 1948, 334 U.S. 812, 68 S.Ct. 1018, 92 L.Ed. 1743. The Union is not a party to either action.

The plaintiffs 'being members of the same class as in case No. 6063, are bound by the doctrine of res judicata under the decision in No. 6063, as to all matters adjudicated therein which are likewise involved in this case. Gregg v. Winchester, 9 Cir., 173 F.2d 512. Even if that were not so, the reasoned force of Judge Harrison’s, opinion would compel concurrence therein.

In case 6063, the thing involved was alleged to be the “right to work for wages”; here it is alleged to be not only that “right” but also, the “right to bargain collectively under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act as re-enacted in Section 7 of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 [29 U.S.C.A. § 157]”, as the complaint now reads after amendment by consent on the day of the argument. The value of such rights is asserted to be worth in excess of the jurisdictional amount of Three Thousand Dollars, as to each plaintiff.

Insofar as any claim for relief could be ferreted out of the 69 page printed complaint, under the Civil Rights Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 41 et seq., the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., and the 5th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution, which might arise from their “right to work”, nothing more need be said than to refer to Judge Harrison’s opinion.

It is first necessary to determine whether or not the additional allegations above mentioned confer jurisdiction not existing under the “right to work” allegations disposed of by Judge Harrison’s opinion. 1 cannot see that they do. The deprivation of the right to bargain collectively is an unfair labor practice. 29 U.S. [672]*672C.A. § 158(a) (1) ; Sec. 8, Wagner Act, Id., Taft-Hartley Act. The exclusive power to prevent unfair labor practices is given to the Board, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(a), Section 10, Wagner Act, Id., Taft-Hartley Act, and right of review lies not in this Court, but in United States Court of Appeals, Id. subdivision (2). See Amalgamated Workers v. Consolidated Edison Co., 309 U.S. 261, 60 S.Ct. 561, 84 L.Ed. 738; Amazon Cotton Mill Co. v. Textile Workers Union, 4 Cir., 167 F.2d 183; United Electrical Radio & Machine Workers, etc. v. International Brotherhood, etc., 2 Cir., 115 F.2d 488. This leads to the conclusions that the plaintiffs have in fact by said additional allegations removed any doubt as to the lack of jurisdiction of this court as to the first asserted cause of action, unless plaintiffs right to sue in this court exists ‘under either Section 301 or 303(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 185, 187(b).

Section 303(b) in its first clause is a broad grant of jurisdiction to any District Court for determination of-injuries to anyone — organization or individual, — regardless of amount, for injury to his or its business or property which may result from acts committed in violation of Section 303(a). That grant of jurisdiction is however limited by the condition expressly contained in subdivision (b) that it is “subject to the limitations and provisions of section 301 hereof.”

Whatever else may be said (and a great deal has been said in scores of pages of 'briefs and more than three full days of argument), any. right of recovery under Section 301 must rest upon a contract and its asserted violation. The whole Act relates to labor contracts, hence it must be a contract contemplated by the Act, i. e., a collective bargaining contract or contract relating to fair or unfair labor practices. If this were not otherwise clear it is made so by the language of Sec. 301, as it refers to “contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees * * * or between any such labor organizations”. And the plaintiffs have set -up or attempted to1 set up contracts between various labor organizations and employers. The question for decision then is whether or not jurisdiction of “suits for violation” of such contracts are limited to the employer and labor organizations, only, as parties, or may be brought in this court by individual members of a labor organization which is a party to a contract with an employer or with another labor organization.

The paucity of precedent permits recourse only to the language of the Statute and the legislative history, in the. decision of that question. Without reciting the legislative history, I think it is plain from it that Congress did not intend to grant jurisdiction to the District Court, without regard to amount or diversity of citizenship, of every suit in which an individual member of any union might wish to assert a violation of a labor contract, whether the contract be between an employer and a labor organization, or 'between labor organizations. To have done so would be to have placed upon the District Court a staggering burden of litigation without the incidental provisions for additional Judges, other personnel, and the court rooms to try them. The legislatve history indicates to me be7 yond dispute that the intention of Congress by Section 301 was to provide a forum, other than the street, for settlement of asserted violations of labor contracts by law suits, the parties to which could only be the parties to the contract involved, i. e., either the employer or the labor organization. And that it was intended that the labor organization alone could speak as a party to the suit on behalf of the employees it represented as a party to the contract. This conclusion is further borne out by the language of subdivision (c) of Sec. 301, which reads:

“(c) For the purposes of actions and proceedings by or against labor organisations in the district courts of the United States, district courts shall be deemed to have jurisdiction of a labor organization (1) in the district in which such organisation maintains its principal office, or (2) in any district in which its duly authorized officers or agents are engaged in representing or acting for employee members(Italics supplied.)

The provisions of subdivision (b) of 301 relating to suits by or against labor or[673]*673ganizations and the effect of judgments in such suits, while couched in permissive language instead of mandatory, did no more than to eliminate the confusion which existed concerning the right of a union to sue and be sued and the like, because of the various state laws under which a union might have 'been organized, and particularly to eliminate the fear that an individual member might be personally liable for the wrongs committed by his union in asserted violation of a contract.

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Schatte v. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE, ETC.
84 F. Supp. 669 (S.D. California, 1949)

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Bluebook (online)
84 F. Supp. 669, 24 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2316, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2726, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schatte-v-international-alliance-of-theatrical-stage-employees-moving-casd-1949.