Thomas T. Schrader v. Selective Service System Local Board No. 76 of Wisconsin

470 F.2d 73
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedDecember 18, 1972
Docket71-1767
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 470 F.2d 73 (Thomas T. Schrader v. Selective Service System Local Board No. 76 of Wisconsin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas T. Schrader v. Selective Service System Local Board No. 76 of Wisconsin, 470 F.2d 73 (7th Cir. 1972).

Opinions

DUFFY, Senior Circuit Judge.

This is a suit by Thomas T. Schrader, a Wisconsin Selective Service registrant who sought, in District Court, a pre-in-duction judicial review of the refusal of his Local Board to grant him a III-A fatherhood deferment.

The Wisconsin District Court (Western District of Wisconsin) relying on a Michigan District Court’s purported class-action judgment in Gregory v. Hershey, 311 F.Supp. 1 (E.D. Mich., 1969), issued a restraining order against the induction of the plaintiff in this case.

Following the reversal of the Michigan District Court’s judgment by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Government moved the Wisconsin District Court for a dissolution of the restraining order. However, the Wisconsin District Court, instead of dissolving the restraining order, entered an order enjoining the induction of the plaintiff unless the Local Board first reopened his classification, 328 F.Supp. 891. It is from this order that the United States Government takes this appeal.

The facts are not in dispute. During the period from 1963 to June 1967, when plaintiff was an undergraduate student, he was granted a II-S student deferment. In September 1967 during his first year in law school, Schrader requested and received a II-S graduate student deferment.1 Upon the expiration of that deferment, he requested and received a III-A hardship deferment. This deferment was subsequently extended to June 1, 1970. In June 1969, the plaintiff became a father and in October 1969, so informed his Board. When his III-A deferment expired in June 1970, plaintiff requested a renewal thereof, and also requested a III-A deferment based upon his fatherhood status. These requests were denied following plaintiff’s personal appearance before the Board. He was subsequently classified I-A.2

Plaintiff appealed from the denial of the III-A fatherhood deferment but the State Appeal Board affirmed that classification. On November 23, 1970, plaintiff was informed by the Local Board that an order for him to report for induction was being placed in the mails.

In the Gregory (District Court) ease, the plaintiffs, as a class, had each been granted II-S graduate deferments under the Military Selective Service Act of 1967. They contended they were entitled to a III-A fatherhood deferment notwithstanding the language of 32 C. F.R. 1622.30(a) which denied fatherhood deferments to persons who had been “classified in Class II-S under the 1967 Act.”

Furthermore, in Gregory, the plaintiffs claimed their suit was a class action. The Michigan District Court agreed with plaintiffs’ claims, ruling plaintiffs must be classified as III-A instead of I-A as ordered by their representative Boards, and that the action was properly maintained as a class action.3 The Government promptly appealed, and the Sixth Circuit reversed. Gregory v. Tarr, 436 F.2d 513 (6 Cir., 1971). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. (403 U.S. 922, 91 S.Ct. 2229, 29 L.Ed.2d 701).

[75]*75The difference between the status of plaintiff Schrader in the instant case and the plaintiffs in Gregory is that here, Schrader sought a III-A fatherhood deferment after the District Court had decided Gregory but prior to the reversal of that decision by the Court of Appeals.

The Wisconsin District Court ruled that Gregory, which judgment was binding on the parties to that suit, was a class action, and that plaintiff herein was a membér of the Gregory class. Therefore, the District Court reasoned, the National Director of Selective Service was required to classify plaintiff in Class III-A although the plaintiffs in Gregory never had been thus reclassified.4

Evidently the Wisconsin District Court, in this action, was under the impression that the determination by the Michigan District Court in Gregory was res judicata with respect to the validity of the class action. The Gregory District Court ruled that “. [N] otification of members of the class is impractical because of the number of members and the absence of any reasonable way of identifying them. . . .” Thus, the Gregory court seemingly was under the impression that no notice to class members was required because of the permissive language of Rule 23(d) (2), F.R.Civ.P. However, we are of the opinion that the absolute failure to give any indicia of notice to absent members renders the purported class action in Gregory futile. The Michigan District Court in Gregory erred in not requiring notice to be given in some manner to absent class members, and the Wisconsin District Court erred applying the principle of res judicata to the Gregory ruling.

Certain authorities are of the opinion that notice is not required, as a matter of due process, when the class action is maintained under Rule 23(b) (1) or 23(b) (2), F.R.Civ.P. as was the Gregory action. However, the one Circuit Court of Appeals which has ruled on the requirement of notice when proceeding under the above-mentioned sections of Rule 23 held “. . . notice is required as a matter of due process in all representative actions, and 23(c) (2) merely requires a particularized form of notice in 23(b) (3) actions.” Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 391 F.2d 555, 564 (2 Cir., 1968).

We are of the opinion that the Eisen, supra, decision is the correct interpretation of the notice requirement for Rule 23(b) (1) and (b) (2). The more recent District Court opinions agree that pre-judgment notice is required in all representative actions. Pasquier v. Tarr, 318 F.Supp. 1350, 1353 (E.D.La., 1970), aff’d. 444 F.2d 116 (5 Cir., 1971); Zachary v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 52 F.R.D. 532 (S.D.N.Y.1971).

In our view, the District Court proceedings in Gregory was not a valid class action and was not binding upon anyone except the named plaintiffs to that action. See Pasquier v. Tarr, supra. The Wisconsin District Court improperly applied the Gregory case to the case at bar under the principle of res ju-dicata. We feel plaintiff is without standing to assert, with respect to his claim for a III-A deferment, that the National Director acted in a lawless [76]*76manner in failing to reclassify him and others similarly situated.

We now consider, absent the effect of the Gregory class action before the Michigan District Court, whether the plaintiff herein has overcome the bar of Sec. 10(b) (3) which, except for well-distinguished exceptions, precludes pre-induction judicial review.

The Supreme Court recently stated in Fein v. Selective Service System Local Board No. 7, Yonkers, N.Y., 405 U.S. 365, 92 S.Ct. 1062, 31 L.Ed.2d 298 (1972) with respect to the meaning and reach of See. 10(b) (3) and the recent Court decisions considering pre-induction judicial review, at page 374, 92 S.Ct. at page 1069:

“Thus Oestereich, Gabriel, Breen and Boyd [v. Clark, D.C., 287 F.Supp.

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Bluebook (online)
470 F.2d 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-t-schrader-v-selective-service-system-local-board-no-76-of-ca7-1972.