Stearns v. Commission of Public Docks

423 P.2d 748, 246 Or. 36, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 538
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1967
StatusPublished

This text of 423 P.2d 748 (Stearns v. Commission of Public Docks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stearns v. Commission of Public Docks, 423 P.2d 748, 246 Or. 36, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 538 (Or. 1967).

Opinion

HOLMAN, J.

Plaintiffs brought this proceeding for certain injunctions and a declaratory judgment. Defendants filed demurrers on the grounds that the complaint did not set forth a cause of suit or action and, if it did, it was not a controversy over which the court had jurisdiction. The demurrers were sustained. Plaintiffs appealed from a judgment dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint upon their refusal to plead further.

The plaintiff union is Hoisting & Portable Engineers, Local No. 701 (Engineers Local) and the individual plaintiffs are members of Engineers Local who work for the defendant Commission. The defendants are the Commission of Public Docks (Commission), a municipal subdivision of the City of Portland which operates Terminal No. 4 and other facilities for the loading and unloading of maritime vessels; the Matson Navigation Company (Matson), a corporation which operates maritime vessels; the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which is engaged in representing Matson and other operators of maritime vessels in their negotiations with organized labor; the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Hnion (International Longshoremen’s); and International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Local No. 8 (Longshoremen’s Local), which is the Portland branch of International Longshoremen’s, some of whose members also work for the Commission.

The complaint discloses a situation where for many [40]*40years the individual plaintiffs, as employees of the Commission, have been assigned by the Commission the work of operating and oiling the Commission’s cranes used in the loading and unloading of maritime vessels at Terminal No. 4. For this work they received additional compensation over their normal monthly salaries. Prior to the commencement of this proceeding the Commission notified the individual plaintiffs they would no longer be assigned these duties in the loading and unloading of maritime vessels belonging to Matson, and that this work would be assigned to members of the Longshoremen’s Local. The reason given for taking the work on the cranes away from the individual plaintiffs was that they were members of the Engineers Local and not members of the Longshoremen’s Local. Thereafter, the Commission did so use members of Longshoremen’s Local.

The complaint also discloses that Matson through PMA had entered into an agreement with International Longshoremen’s under which members of Longshoremen’s Local were given preferential rights to perform work engaged in by Matson, or stevedores acting on its behalf, in loading and unloading Matson vessels at Terminal No. 4.

Plaintiffs seek an injunction restoring the individual plaintiffs to their duties as crane operators and oilers in the loading and unloading of Matson’s ships, and an injunction restraining the Commission from discriminating against the individual plaintiffs on account of thier membership in Engineers Local and their nonmembership in Longshoremen’s Local. They also ask for a declaratory judgment that the Commission be prohibited from granting any preference to, or taking any discriminatory action against, any of its employees on account of their membership or non-[41]*41membership in any labor organization and for a judgment that the individual plaintiffs receive such damages for lost earnings and pension credits to which an accounting may show they are entitled.

The defendants first claim that plaintiffs’ complaint alleges a controversy involving activities arguably protected or prohibited by §§ 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 USC §§157 and 158, and, therefore, jurisdiction has been preempted by the NLRA to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Plumbers’ Union v. Borden, 373 US 690, 83 S Ct 1423, 10 L ed2d 638 (1963); San Diego Unions v. Garmon, 359 US 236, 79 S Ct 773, 3 L ed2d 775 (1959).

It should be noted at the outset that the complaint does not allege that any of the defendants other than the Commission is guilty of any discrimination or otherwise illegal or objectionable action nor does it seek any relief against anyone but the Commission.

Section 2(2) and (3) NLRA, 61 Stat 137 (1947), as amended, 29 USC §152(2) and (3) provides:

“The term ‘employer3 includes any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly, but shall not include the United States or any wholly owned Government corporation, or any Federal Reserve Bank, or any State or political subdivision thereof, * * (Emphasis ours.)
“The term ‘employe’ '* * * shall not include * * * any individual employed as a supervisor, or any individual employed by an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, as amended from time to time, or by any other person who is not an employer as herein defined.” (Emphasis ours.)

The individual plaintiffs, for whose benefit this action was brought and who are stated to have been offended [42]*42by the actions of the Commission, are alleged to be employees of the Commission. The Commission is alleged to be a political subdivision of the State of Oregon. On the face of the complaint neither the Commission nor the individual plaintiffs come within the definition of employer or employee under the NLRA. Defendants by various means seek to show that, in fact, the Commission and the individual plaintiffs do not respectively occupy the position of political subdivisions of the state and its employees. Whatever the facts may be, this court in considering a demurrer to the complaint is confined to the allegations thereof. The complaint alleges otherwise.

The complaint fails to disclose any alleged actions which are arguably prohibited or protected by §§7 or 8 of the NLRA.

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Bluebook (online)
423 P.2d 748, 246 Or. 36, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stearns-v-commission-of-public-docks-or-1967.