The Morning Telegraph, a Division of Triangle Publications, Inc. v. Bertram A. Powers, Individually and as President

450 F.2d 97
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedNovember 5, 1971
Docket1043-1045, Dockets 71-1494 to 71-1496
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 450 F.2d 97 (The Morning Telegraph, a Division of Triangle Publications, Inc. v. Bertram A. Powers, Individually and as President) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Morning Telegraph, a Division of Triangle Publications, Inc. v. Bertram A. Powers, Individually and as President, 450 F.2d 97 (2d Cir. 1971).

Opinion

OAKES, Circuit Judge:

The parties to this appeal have come down the now-familiar path which winds between state and federal labor law, with management trying to bypass the anti-injunction provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. § 107, and the union sidestepping the doctrine of Dowd Box Co. v. Courtney, 368 U.S. 502, 82 S.Ct. 519, 7 L.Ed.2d 483 (1962), and Local 174, Teamsters, etc., v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U.S. 95, 82 S.Ct. 571, 7 L.Ed.2d 593 (1962), that Section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), does not deprive the state courts of jurisdiction, even though the state court may be enforcing rights created by federal law. The quarrel here is whether, with Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U.S. 195, 82 S.Ct. 132, 8 L.Ed.2d 440 (1962), overruled and out of management’s way, Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970), permitting a strike to be enjoined when the labor-management contract contains a no-strike and a binding arbitration clause, presents an impassable roadblock to the union.

On March 1, 1971, the Morning Telegraph obtained an ex parte temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court of the State of New York, enjoining the defendant New York Typographical Union No. 6 (“Union”) from engaging in a work slowdown in the composing room of the Morning Telegraph, at its offices in New York City. The restraint was to continue in effect until a hearing scheduled for March 3, 1971, but was extended automatically by 28 U.S.C. § 1450 1 when removed by the Union to the federal district court under 28 U.S.C. § 1441 and Avco Corp. v. Aero Lodge 735, 390 U.S. 557, 88 S.Ct. 1235, 20 L.Ed.2d 126 (1968), permitting removal to federal court of a § 301 suit initially brought in state court.

*99 Judge Bonsai of the Southern District of New York heard the Union’s first motion to vacate the temporary restraining order on March 9, 1971. By order dated March 23, 1971, he denied the Union’s motion on the authority of Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970), finding that the collective bargaining agreement between the parties contained a no-work-stoppage clause and a corresponding provision for the settlement of grievances through arbitration. Judge Bonsai granted the union leave to renew the motion to dissolve if and when it saw fit to state the nature of the grievance which precipitated the work slowdown. Rather than take up Judge Bonsai on his invitation to specify the grievance, however, the Union renewed its motion to dissolve the restraining order, arguing, this time before Judge Metzner, that no hearing on preliminary injunctive relief had been held within the ten-day limit prescribed by Rule 65(b), Fed.R.Civ.P., and that the temporary restraining order therefore had necessarily expired. Judge Metzner ruled that the hearing on March 9, 1971, had satisfied the requirements of Rule 65(b), and that Judge Bonsai’s order of March 23, 1971, was in effect a renewed grant of preliminary injunctive relief with no ten-day limitation.

The Union subsequently appealed both the order of Judge Bonsai and that of Judge Metzner, and filed a third motion to vacate the restraining order, which was heard by Judge Motley on April 27, 1971. Judge Motley found the district court without jurisdiction while the two appeals were pending, and denied the Union’s motion from the bench. The Union then appealed Judge Motley’s ruling. The three appeals have been consolidated here.

At the outset, we must decide whether we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 to review the orders of Judges Bonsai, Metzner and Motley. We start, of course, from the premise that an appeal will lie from the grant or denial of a preliminary injunction but not from the grant or denial of a temporary restraining order. Grant v. United States, 282 F.2d 165 (2d Cir. 1960). The difficulty arises in characterizing a given order.

Neither Judge Bonsai nor Judge Metzner characterized his order as a preliminary injunction, but “in applying this distinction [between a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction] the label put on the order by the trial court is not decisive.” Wright, Federal Courts 459 (2d ed. 1970), quoted with approval in Belknap v. Leary, 427 F.2d 496, 498 (2d Cir. 1970). Here, the practical effect of the refusal to dissolve the temporary restraining order was the equivalent of a grant of preliminary injunctive relief. Peabody Coal Co. v. Barnes, 308 F.Supp. 902 (E.D.Mo.1969).

The primary distinguishing characteristics of a temporary restraining order, under the Federal Rules, are its availability as an ex parte remedy, and its propensity to self-destruct after twenty days, at the outside. A preliminary injunction, on the other hand, has no such time limit, as it is by force of law granted only after both sides have been heard. The Union was heard on the propriety of preliminary relief in this case not once but three different times. And Judge Metzner specifically stated that he was eliminating any time limit from the restraint. We will therefore treat Judge Metzner’s order as a preliminary injunction. Judge Motley’s order thus stands as a refusal to dissolve an injunction and is likewise appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a), but as we hold that Judge Metzner's order was appealable, the question is moot in a sense, for Judge Motley was correct that she had no jurisdiction to consider an order which had already been appealed. O’Brien v. Avco Corp., 309 F.Supp. 703, 705 (S.D.N.Y.), rev’d on other grounds, 425 F.2d 1030 (2d Cir. 1969).

The Union’s initial refusal to state its grievance, and its subsequent oblique *100 references to employee representation in the Morning Telegraph’s Hightstown, New Jersey, plant, have made the record in this case something less than illuminating, and the disposition, at either the trial or appellate level, something less than facile.

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Bluebook (online)
450 F.2d 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-morning-telegraph-a-division-of-triangle-publications-inc-v-bertram-ca2-1971.