294 F.

2d 60

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.
John A. CALLAHAN, Commissioner of Labor and Industries
of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, et al.,
Defendants, Appellees.
No. 5775.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Aug. 24, 1961.

Lawrence S. Fordham, Boston, Mass., with whom Lewis H. Weinstein,

Loyd M. Starrett, Boston, Mass., Roland C. Radice, Lynn, Mass., and
Foley, hoag & Eliot, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for appellant.
Joseph T. Doyle, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom Edward J. McCormack, Jr.,
Atty. Gen., and Theodore R. Stanley, Legal Assistant to the Attorney
General, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for appellees.
Before WOODBURY, Chief Judge, and HARTIGAN and ALDRICH,
Circuit Judges.
WOODBURY, Chief Judge.

The appellant, General Electric Company, is a New York corporation engaged

in the business of manufacturing a great variety of electrical machines and
devices. There can be no doubt whatever that it is engaged in 'commerce' as
defined in 2(6) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U.S.C.A.
152(6) and is therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor
Relations Board. It has manufacturing plants in several Massachusetts
communities, including Lynn, West Lynn and Medford, where it employs
approximately 620 draftsmen, apprentices, designers, detailers and tracers. For
years Local 142, American Federation of Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO, has
been the Board certified representative of these employees for the purposes of
collective bargaining.

On August 10, 1960, representatives of the appellant, G.E. hereinafter, and the
Union commenced negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement to
follow one due to expire on October 1, 1960. Engotiations dragging on
unsuccessfully, the parties, on November 10, 1960, entered into a
'Memorandum of Agreement Concerning Strike Truce' effective as of that date
which re-established substantially all of the terms and conditions of the expired
contract and terminated a strike of some six weeks duration.

By letter dated November 22, 1960, the Governor of Massachusetts requested

the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in the Department of Labor and
Industries of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for brevity the State Board
hereinafter, to 'investigate and report upon the controversy' between the Union
and G.E. in accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 150 3 quoted in material part in the margin.1 This letter followed by six
days a letter of November 16, 1960, from the attorneys for the Union asking
the State Board to 'make inquiry into the cause of the controversy' between
G.E. and the Union, 'to hear all persons interested in the controversy who may
come before it' to 'advise' the parties 'what ought to be done or submitted to by
either or both to adjust' the controversy and 'make a written decision thereof;
and in the performance of the foregoing functions to take such action as is
required under G.L. Ch. 150, Sections 5 and 6' also quoted in material part in
the margin.2

The State Board responded to these letters by scheduling a hearing for

December 2, 1960, postponed at the appellant's request to December 13 and
subsequently again postponed, for the purpose of investigating the controversy
between G.E. and the Union and taking the action thereon required of it by
statute. It gave notice thereof to the Union and G.E.

In the meantime, on December 9, Counsel for G.E. had filed a verified

complaint in the court below against the Commissioner of Labor of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the three members of the State Board, all
of whom are naturally citizens of Massachusetts, asking for temporary and
permanent injunctions against any action under the sections of the
Massachusetts statute quoted above on the ground that the State Board was
without jurisdiction for the reason that Congress had 'pre-empted the field' of
labor disputes in industries affecting 'commerce' as defined in the federal
legislation on the subject. Federal jurisdiction was alleged to rest upon diversity
of citizenship and an adequate amount in controversy and it was also asserted
that the action arose under Article VI, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the
United States (the so-called Supremacy Clause), and the Fourteenth
Amendment.3 Jurisdiction in equity was rested on the assertion that the plaintiff

was threatened with irreparable injury and had no adequate remedy at law.
6

The plaintiff's application for a temporary injunction came on for hearing

before the court below on December 12 at which time, without taking any
evidence, the court gave an opinion from the bench concluding with the
announcement: 'The relief prayed for is denied,' supplemented after colloquy
with counsel for the appellant by the statement: 'The Complaint is dismissed.'
Later on the same day the court below endorsed on the complaint: 'Denied for
lack of Equity Jurisdiction.'

On the same day, December 12, the State Board issued summonses to
representatives of G.E. directing them to appear before it on December 15 to
give evidence of what they knew about the controversy. At that hearing
counsel for G.E., appearing specially for the G.E. officials summoned to
appear, petitioned the State Board to quash the summonses for lack of
jurisdiction and supported their contention with a brief and oral argument. The
State Board immediately denied the petition and G.E. on the same day appealed
to this court from the action taken on December 12 by the court below.4
Subsequently counsel for G.E. again unsuccessfully argued the same
jurisdictional point before the State Board. But before the State Board took any
further action this court entered an order granting the appellant relief pending
appeal.

The basis for the District Court's action is not altogether clear from its
extemporaneous opinion. It seems to have rested its conclusion in part upon
Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., 1938, 303 U.S. 41, 58 S.Ct. 459, 82
L.Ed. 638, and in part upon the assertion that a court of equity 'must not act to
enjoin' an administrative agency 'from conducting hearings and making
findings, embarrassing as they may be, merely because such agency is acting
without any warrant of law and contrary to the Constitution,' which it
immediately elaborated with the statement: 'Those who engage in such conduct
in a quasi-official or official capacity run such risk as there may be of private
action against them if it be found that what they have done is tortious, and
malicious, and undertaken with a full awareness that they are without power,
and with the mere purpose of creating political or other embarrassment.'

Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., supra, is not in point. The Court in

that case held that the district courts lacked jurisdiction to enjoin the National
Labor Relations Board from conducting hearings on charges of unfair labor
practices for the reason that Congress had vested 'exclusive' power to prevent
unfair labor practices in the Board subject to judicial review only by the United
States Courts of Appeals and on certiorari by the Supreme Court of the United

States. The case is not in point on the question of adequate legal remedy, for no
federal court has power to review actions of the State Board and it is
established doctrine that the adequacy of relief available to G.E. at law is to be
measured by the character of the relief which may be had in the federal courts.
American Federation of Labor v. Watson, 1946, 327 U.S. 582, 594, 66 S.Ct.
761, 90 L.Ed. 873; Di Giovanni v. Camden Fire Insurance Ass'n, 1935, 296
U.S. 64, 69, 56 S.Ct. 1, 80 L.Ed. 47. And a suit in equity will lie where the
remedy at law is not clear or as adequate and complete as that which equity can
afford, Terrace v. Thompson, 1923, 263 U.S. 197, 214, 44 S.Ct. 15, 68 L.Ed.
255.
10

Nor is Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. authority for application of the

rule of judicial abstention pending exhaustion of administrative remedies. The
basic question for decision being one of federal law, as will be developed
hereinafter, that is, a question of the interpretation of federal statutes and
decisions, it is one that the State Board was not established and is not qualified
to decide and can hardly be expected to entertain. Cf. Public Utilities
Commission of State of California v. United States, 1958, 355 U.S. 534, 539,
540, 78 S.Ct. 446, 2 L.Ed.2d 470.

11

Neither do we see any merit in the suggestion that G.E. has an adequate remedy
at law in a civil action sounding in tort, presumably in the federal courts,
against members of the State Board. Such actions would lie at common law, as
the court below indicated, only if G.E. could prove that the member or
members of the State Board had not acted in good faith or maliciously or for
some improper purpose. An in the absence of such conduct, G.E. probably
would not have an action against the members of the State Board under Title 42
U.S.C.A. 1983 even if it could be proved that State Board action had deprived
it of some federally guaranteed right, privilege or immunity. Cf. Francis v.
Lyman, 1 Cir., 1954, 216 F.2d 583, 586-588, and cases cited therein at page
587; Nelson v. Knox, 6 Cir., 1958, 256 F.2d 312; Hoffman v. halden, 9 Cir.,
1959, 268 F.2d 280, 298-300.

12

We are satisfied that G.E. has no adequate remedy at law. And for reasons
which will presently appear, we are also satisfied that G.E., or perhaps the
Union, since the State Board wields a two-edged sword, will suffer irreparable
injury if the steps initiated by the State Board pursuant to its duties under
Chapter 150 are allowed to proceed to completion.

13

We turn now to the appellee's challenge to the jurisdiction of this court on the
ground that G.E.'s application for injunctive relief should have been submitted
to and heard by a statutory threejudge court composed in accordance with Title

28 U.S.C. 2284 from which appeals lie not to this court but only to the Supreme
Court of the United States under Title 28 U.S.C. 1253.
14

Clearly under Title 28 U.S.C. 2281, quoted in the margin,5 a single judge may
not entertain applications for temporary or permanent injunctions in suits to
restrain state officials, boards or commissions grounded on the
unconstitutionality of the state statute under which the official, board or
commission proposes to act. But surely the district judge before whom a
complaint is presented must decide in the first instance whether it is one that
requires the convening of a three-judge court. And if he errs in ruling that it
does not then certainly appeal lies to the appropriate court of appeals. Cf.
Jacobs v. Tawes, 4 Cir., 1957, 250 F.2d 611, 614; Carrigan v. Sunland-Tujunga
Telephone Co., 9 Cir., 1959, 263 F.2d 568, certiorari denied 359 U.S. 957, 79
S.Ct. 893, 3 L.Ed.2d 841. In the exercise of our appellate jurisdiction we
conclude that the court below was quite correct in proceeding as it did instead
of invoking the procedures for convening a three-judge district court.

15

It is true that one basis for federal jurisdiction asserted in the complaint is that
the cause of action alleged arises under the Fourteenth Amendment. But we
regard this assertion as surplusage, for the complaint also alleges that the cause
of action arises under the Supremacy Clause and it is evident from reading the
complaint in its entirety that the claim is not that the Massachusetts statute
establishing the State Board and defining its functions violates any provision of
the Constitution of the United States, but that the provisions of the
Massachusetts statute cannot be invoked with respect to the controversy
between G.E. and the Union because federal legislation has pre-empted the
field of collective bargaining in industries engaged in 'commerce' as defined in
federal legislation.

16

Clearly valid federal legislation prevails over conflicting state statutes by force
of the Supremacy Clause of the federal Constitution. In a sense, therefore, a
provision of the federal Constitution is involved in declaring state action under
a local statute invalid on the ground that the state statute authorizing the action
conflicts with a federal act. But a long line of cases hold that the mere fact that
the 'declaration of the supremacy clause gives superiority to valid federal acts
over conflicting state statutes' does not constitute a sufficient basis for holding
that cases involving a conflict between state and federal legislation present a
question of the 'unconstitutionality' of the state statute within the meaning and
for the purposes of Title 28 U.S.C. 2281. Ex Parte Bransford, 1940, 310 U.S.
354, 358-359, 60 S.Ct. 947, 84 L.Ed. 1249, and cases cited. For further
discussion and citation of cases see Penagaricano v. Allen Corp., 1 Cir., 1959,
267 F.2d 550, 554-556; Bell v. Waterfront Commission, 2 Cir., 1960, 279 F.2d

853, 858-859. The question is whether federal legislation has 'pre-empted the
field' which the State Board acting under the Massachusetts statute proposes to
enter. The answer depends upon the construction of federal legislation and this,
of course, is a function of the federal courts. And it is a function the federal
courts must perform even though state action is involved.
17

The Court in a somewhat different but nevertheless analogous context clearly

stated the general principle applicable to the situation presented in the case at
bar in Capital Service, Inc., v. N.L.R.B., 1954, 347 U.S. 501, 504, 74 S.Ct. 699,
702, 98 L.Ed. 887, in which, citing cases, the Court said:

18

'Federal courts seek to avoid needless conflict with state agencies and withhold
relief by way of injunction where state remedies are available and adequate.
See Alabama Public Service Commission v. Southern R. Co., 341 U.S. 341, 71
S.Ct. 762, 95 L.Ed. 1002. But where Congress, acting within its constitutional
authority, has vested a federal agency with exclusive jurisdiction over a subject
matter and the intrusion of a state would result in conflict of functions, the
federal court may enjoin the state proceeding in order to preserve the federal
right.'

19

The question is twofold. It is whether Congress has legislated comprehensively

with respect to collective bargaining in industries affecting 'commerce' as it has
defined the word, and if it has, whether intrusion by the State Board acting
pursuant to the Massachusetts statute into the field covered by federal
legislation would result in an irreconcilable conflict with the specific terms or
the general policy fairly attributable to the provisions of the federal legislation.

20

There can remain no doubt whatever that Congress has seen fit to regulate labor
relations 'to the full extent of its constitutional power under the Commerce
Clause.' Amalgamated Association etc. (Bus Employees) v. Wisconsin
Employment Relations Board, 1951, 340 U.S. 383, 391, 71 S.Ct. 359, 363, 95
L.Ed. 364. Congressional occupation of the field has been recognized over and
over again in a great many cases culminating in San Diego Building Trades
Council v. Garman, 1959, 359 U.S. 236, 79 S.Ct. 773, 3 L.Ed.2d 775, which
states and makes clear from the cases cited in footnote 1 on page 243 on page
778 of 79 S.Ct. and footnote 2 on page 144, on page 779 of 79 S.Ct. that all that
is left to the states is power to regulate activities of 'a merely peripheral concern
of the Labor Management Relations Act' or conduct touching interests 'deeply
rooted in local feeling and responsibility,' meaning by that we understand
'conduct marked by violence and imminent threats to the public order,' on page
247 of 359 U.S. on page 781 of 79 S.Ct. Since the state legislation involved in
the case at bar is not confined to those areas, and there is no evidence of

violence or threat to public order which state action might possibly be invoked
to prevent, we turn to the question whether intrusion by the State Board into the
labor controversy would result in a conflict of state and federal functions, for,
as Mr. Justice Harlan pointed out in his concurring opinion in the San Diego
Building Trades Council case, 'conflict is the touchstone of pre-emption.'
21

The underlying theory of federal legislation with respect to labor relations was
stated by the Court in N.L.R.B. v. American National Ins. Co., 1952, 343 U.S.
395, 401-402, 72 S.Ct. 824, 828, 96 L.Ed. 1027, as follows:

22

'The National Labor Relations Act is designed to promote industrial peace by

encouraging the making of voluntary agreements governing relations between
unions and employers. The Act does not compel any agreement whatsoever
between employees and employers. Nor does the Act regulate the substantive
terms governing wages, hours and working conditions which are incorporated
in an agreement. The theory of the Act is that the making of voluntary labor
agreements is encouraged by protecting employees' rights to organize for
collective bargaining and by imposing on labor and management the mutual
obligation to bargain collectively.'6

23

Subsequent amendments of the basic Act have wrought no change in this

policy. N.L.R.B. v. Wooster Division of Borg-Warner Corp., 1958, 356 U.S.
342, 349, 78 S.Ct. 718, 2 L.Ed.2d 823. See also Local 24 etc. (Teamsters
Union) v. Oliver, 1959, 358 U.S. 283, 295-296, 79 S.Ct. 297, 3 L.Ed.2d 312.

24

That State Board action pursuant to the Massachusetts statute would conflict
with the national policy of free and unfettered collective bargaining is clear.
Although the State Board has limited direct coer ive power (its decisions are
binding for only six months, and then only upon the parties who joined in
application to it), nevertheless the indirect coercive effect of its actions upon the
parties to a labor dispute is by no means insubstantial. Mere participation in
State Board hearings will surely have some tendency to solidify positions taken
at the bargaining table thereby making it more difficult later to modify or
abandon a stand taken on a bargaining issue in favor of an amicable settlement.
Moreover, having held a hearing, the Board is not limited to editorial comment.
Nor are its functions merely to mediate and conciliate. Its function after
investigating a labor controversy is to render a written decision to be made
public and be open to public inspection advising the parties as to what they
should do to end the controversy and ascertain which of the parties is 'mainly
responsible or blameworthy' for its existence. The obvious statutory purpose is
to coerce agreement by invoking official action to mold public opinion with
respect to a labor dispute to the end of bringing the pressure of public opinion to

bear to force a settlement. This is quite contrary to the national policy not to
compel agreement but instead only to encourage voluntary agreements freely
arrived at after 'good faith' bargaining between the parties. The conflict between
state and federal policy is obvious.
25

Judgment will be entered vacating the order of the District Court and
remanding the case to that court for further proceedings not inconsistent with
this opinion.

'* * * When the board has knowledge that a strike or lockout, which involves an
employer and his present or former employees, is seriously threatened or has
actually occurred, the board shall as soon as may be, communicate with such
employer and employees and endeavor by mediation to obtain an amicable
settlement, or endeavor to persuade them to submit the controversy to a local
board of conciliation and arbitration established under section nine (providing
for organization of an arbitration panel) or to the board. If a settlement is not
agreed upon and the parties refuse to submit the matter in dispute to arbitration,
the board shall investigate the cause of such controversy and ascertain which of
the parties thereto is mainly responsible or blameworthy for the existence or
continuance of the same, and shall, unless a settlement of the controversy is
reached, make and publish a report finding such cause and assigning such
responsibility or blame. The board, subject to the approval of the commissioner
of labor and industries, may employ agents to assist in said investigation. It
shall, upon the request of the governor, investigate and report upon a
controversy if in his opinion it seriously affects or threatens seriously to affect
the public welfare. The board shall have the same powers for the foregoing
purpose as are given to it by sections five to eight, inclusive. * * *'

5. 'If a controversy exists between an employer and his employees, the board
shall, upon application as provided in the following section, as soon as
practicable visit the place where the controversy exists and make careful
inquiry into its cause * * *. The board shall hear all persons interested who
come before it, advise the respective parties what ought to be done or submitted
to by either or both to adjust said controversy, and make a written decision
thereof which shall at once be made public, shall be open to public inspection
and shall be recorded by the board. A short statement thereof may, in the
discretion of the board, be published in the annual report, and the board shall
cause a copy thereof to be filed with the clerk of the city or town in which said
business is carried on. Said decision shall for six months be binding upon the
parties who joined in said application, unless by agreement of both parties it is
stipulated in the application that the contract is to run for a longer period of

time, in which event the decision of the board will be binding for the length of
time agreed pon by both parties in their application.'
6

'* * * The application shall contain a concise statement of the existing

controversy and a promise to continue in business or at work without any
lockout or strike until the decision of the board, if made within three weeks
after the date of filing the application. The board shall forthwith, after such
filing, cause public notice to be given of the time and place for a hearing on the
application, unless both parties join in the application and present therewith a
written request that no public notice be given. * * *'

The allegations of the complaint are sufficient to show federal jurisdiction

under either 1331(a) or 1332(a)(1) of Title 28 U.S.C., and perhaps also under
1337, see American Federation of Labor v. Watson, 1946, 327 U.S. 582, 591,
66 S.Ct. 761, 90 L.Ed. 873

We assume that the District Court dismissed the plaintiff's complaint and
therefore entered a 'final decision' appealable to this court under Title 28 U.S.C.
1291. But even if all the court below did was to deny G.E.'s application for
temporary injunctive relief its order is appealable under Title 28 U.S.C. 1292(a)
(1)

2281. 'Injunction against enforcement of State Statute; three-judge court

required
'An interlocutory or permanent injunction restraining the enforcement,
operation or execution of any State statute by restraining the action of any
officer of such State in the enforcement or execution of such statute or of an
order made by an administrative board or commission acting under State
statutes, shall not be granted by any district court or judge thereof upon the
ground of the unconstitutionality of such statute unless the application therefor
is heard and determined by a district court of three judges under section 2284 of
this title.'

See also Amalgamated Association etc. (Bus Employees) v. Wisconsin

Employment Relations Board, supra, 340 U.S. at page 397, 71 S.Ct. 359:
N.L.R.B. v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 1937, 301 U.S. 1, 45, 57 S.Ct. 615,
81 L.Ed. 893