Surprenant Mfg. Co. v. Alpert

219 F. Supp. 867, 52 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2697, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7055
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJanuary 31, 1963
DocketCiv. A. No. 62-948
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 219 F. Supp. 867 (Surprenant Mfg. Co. v. Alpert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Surprenant Mfg. Co. v. Alpert, 219 F. Supp. 867, 52 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2697, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7055 (D. Mass. 1963).

Opinion

WYZANSKI, District Judge.

This case is before the Court upon plaintiff’s request for a mandatory injunction to compel the defendant Regional Director to open and count certain impounded ballots and to issue a tally of the results of the balloting in a representation proceeding before the Regional Director, and upon defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint, or, alternatively, for summary judgment. The undisputed facts established by the complaint and the exhibits attached thereto, as well as by the exhibits attached to the motion to dismiss, may be summarized as follows:

On October 5, 1962, the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, filed a representation petition pursuant to Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act with the defendant Regional Director requesting that a representation election be held among the production and maintenance employees of plaintiff, Surprenant Manufacturing Co., at its plant in Clinton, Massachusetts. On October 22, 1962, the Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO, and the International Molders and Allied Products Workers Union, AFL-CIO, intervened in the representation proceeding. On the same day, all parties interested in the election (plaintiff, representatives of Steelworkers, Communications Workers, and Molders and Allied Products Workers) entered into a Stipulation for a Consent Election which was subject to the approval of the Regional Director. The Stipulation waived a hearing upon the election petition, designated the appropriate collective bargaining unit, and provided for an election to be held among plaintiff’s employees in its plants in Clinton, Massachusetts, on November 9,1962. The Stipulation further provided that “Said election shall be held in accordance with the National Labor Relations Act, the Board’s Rules and Regulations, and the applicable procedures and policies of the Board”. On October 23, 1962, defendant Regional Director approved this Stipulation.

On November 7, two days before the scheduled election, the Steelworkers Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Regional Director alleging that plaintiff had engaged in conduct violative of Section 8(a) (1) of the Act. Specifically, the Union charged that the employer “has interrogated its employees, directly and/or indirectly threatened to close down its plant if the union were successful and has otherwise orally and in writing intimidated them with the object of interfering with their rights as guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act.” Because the preparations for the election were then well underway, the Regional Director decided to permit the balloting to be conducted but to impound the ballots pending the investigation of the unfair labor practice charges. After investigation, the Regional Director, being of opinion that the charges had “merit” in the sense not that they were found to be true, but that they were bona fide and plausible, issued an Order on December 5, 1962, withdrawing his approval of the consent election agreement, declaring “the incompleted election of November 9, 1962 null and void,” and ordering the destruction of the impounded ballots on December 12, 1962. This order further stated, as a basis for the foregoing actions, that the unfair labor practice “charges have since been investigated by the [Regional Director] who has reached the conclusion that they have merit and that a complaint should issue absent other satisfactory disposition of said charges”. Upon plaintiff’s request for reconsideration of this Order, the Regional Director postponed the destruction of the ballots until December 19, and scheduled a hearing with all the parties for December 12.

[869]*869On December 20, on the basis of his investigation of the unfair labor practice charges, the Regional Director issued a complaint alleging that plaintiff, by interference, restraint and coercion of its employees in their exercise of rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act, had violated Section 8(a) (1) of the Act. More specifically, plaintiff was charged with threatening its employees with loss of regular and overtime work opportunities “if the Union won the election,” warning them that those opposed to unionization would meet with violence in the event that the Union won, threatening to discontinue all existing benefits and “bargain from scratch” if it was forced to deal with the Union and threatening “to close the plant if the Union got in”. A hearing on these charges is currently scheduled for February 19, 1963.

On December 14,1962, plaintiff filed its complaint seeking to have this Court: (1) “restrain the defendant Alpert * * from destroying the 'ballots cast * * ”; (2) “issue a mandatory injunction requiring the defendant Alpert to count the said ballots and announce the results of the said election * * * ”; and (3) “direct the defendant Alpert to postpone the hearing upon the unfair labor practice charges * * * pending an adjudication in this proceeding as to the right of this plaintiff to have said charges •consolidated with any objections which may be made to the validity of said election following the furnishing of a tally of the ballots by the defendant Alpert”. The Regional Director has moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that: (1) the Court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter; and (2) the complaint fails to state a claim warranting relief. Alternatively, the Regional Director has moved for summary judgment in his favor.

The threshold question is whether this Court has jurisdiction of this case.

Plaintiff alleges that jurisdiction exists under § 24(8) of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 1337 conferring “original jurisdiction of any civil action or proceeding arising under any Act of Congress.” The argument is that, in the last sentence of § 9(c) (1) of the NLR Act, Congress directed the NLRB to certify the results of an election, that impliedly Congress prohibited the NLRB from sacrificing the employer’s right to know those results, and that, no other procedure being specially provided by the NLR Act, an employer, being threatened with a deprivation of that alleged right, has a right to relief in this Court. For this argument support is said to be found in Leedom v. Kyne, 358 U.S. 184, 79 S.Ct. 180, 3 L.Ed.2d 210.

The basic ground for rejecting plaintiff’s argument and for concluding that this District Court is without jurisdiction of this complaint is that Congress intended that (except perhaps where an employer is deprived of a right specifically created for such employer’s immediate benefit)1 review of alleged errors of the NLRB can be had by an employer only after a Board order had issued to the employer, and then only in a court of appeals. The following paragraphs spell out the reasoning behind this conclusion.

The original National Labor Relations Act of 1935 did not give an employer any right to seek review in any court of any aspect of a proposed election until the NLRB issued an order and required the employer to do something predicated upon the result of an election. National Labor Relations Board v. Falk Corp., 308 U.S. 453, 459, 60 S.Ct. 307, 84 L.Ed. 396. Congress rejected numerous proposals to allow judicial review at an earlier stage. It set itself firmly against a provision for early judicial review because “such provision would permit dilatory tactics in representation proceedings.” See H.R. Conf.Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. pp.

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Bluebook (online)
219 F. Supp. 867, 52 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2697, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7055, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/surprenant-mfg-co-v-alpert-mad-1963.