Graham v. Locomotive Firemen, 338 U.S. 232 (1949)

338 U.S.
232
70 S.Ct. 14
94 L.Ed. 22
GRAHAM et al.
v.
BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN &
ENGINEMEN.
No. 16.
Argued Oct. 10, 1949.
Decided Nov. 7, 1949.
Mr. Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Washington, D.C., for petitioners.

Mr. Milton Kramer, Washington, D.C., for respondent.
Mr. Justice JACKSON delivered the opinion of the Court.
Twenty-one Negro firemen, sometime employed by southern railroads, brought

this suit against the principal defendant, the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen and Enginemen, three railroads, two local lodges of the Brotherhood,
and certain officers of those lodges. The complaint alleges in substance that the
Brotherhood is an exclusively white man's union and, as it includes a majority
of the craft, it is possessed of sole collective bargaining power in behalf of the
entire craft including the Negro firemen in consequence of the Railway Labor
Act. It has negotiated agreements and arrngements with the southern railroads
which discriminate against colored firemen, who are denominated 'notpromotable' while white ones are 'promotable.' The effect of the agreements is
to deprive them, solely because of their race, of rights and job assignments to
which their seniority would entitle them. Many Negro firemen have been thus
displaced or demoted and replaced by white firemen having less seniority. The
complaint asked for a declaration of petitioner's rights, for an injunction
restraining compliance with the above agreements, and for damages. In short,
the cause of action pleaded is substantially the same as that which this Court
sustained in Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 323 U.S. 192, 65 S.Ct.
226, 89 L.Ed. 173, and Tunstall v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen &
Enginemen, 323 U.S. 210, 65 S.Ct. 235, 89 L.Ed. 187.
It is needless to recite additional details of the present case. What it adds to the
governing facts of the earlier cases is a continuing and willful disregard of
rights which this Court in unmistakable terms has said must be accorded to
Negro firemen.
Upon the complaint, supplemented by evidence that the deliberate elimination

of Negro firemen was proceeding at a rapid pace and that they would soon be
entirely displaced, motion was made for a preliminary injunction to prevent
further discrimination and loss of job assignments pending the outcome of the
litigation.
The Brotherhood did not meet the allegations of the bill of complaint or the
affidavits. It rested on a motion to dismiss, assigning as grounds that it had not
been properly served with process and that venue was unlawfully laid in the
District of Columbia. The trial court, after hearing evidence of the parties on
these matters, denied the motion to dismiss and granted a preliminary
injunction.
The Brotherhood alone petitioned the Court of Appeals under District of

Columbia Code, 17101, for a special appeal and stay of the injunction.
These were granted and that court reversed. Holding that venue was improperly
laid in the District of Columbia, it ordered the case transferred to the Northern
District of Ohio. 84 U.S.App.D.C. 67; 175 F.2d 802. We granted certiorari. 337
U.S. 954, 69 S.Ct. 1527.
At the outset we are met by the contention in support of the judgment below
that service of process upon the Brotherhood was not legally perfected, in
which case, of course, it would not properly be before the Court at all. The
District Court, after hearing evidence upon the subject, held that service upon
the Brotherhood was sufficient. The Court of Appeals noted that this question
was raised but did not reverse upon this ground. 175 F.2d 802. Instead, it
considered at length whether the action constitutionally be entertained by the
courts of the District of Columbia, a subject which would hardly be ripe for
decision if the action had not been properly commenced anywhere. Moreover,
its decision transferred the cause to the Northern District of Ohio, a power
which it could exert only if it considered the service adequate to confer
jurisdiction of the parties. We accept the ruling of the District Court on the
adequacy of service, based as it is essentially on matters of fact, and
undisturbed and impliedly approved by the Court of Appeals. We hold that
personal jurisdiction of the respondent is established.
This cause of action is founded on federal law, and the venue provision
This cause of action is founded on federal law, and the venue provision
generally applicable to federal courts at the time this action was commenced
required such actions to be brought in the district whereof defendant 'is an
inhabitant.' 28 U.S.C.A. 112. Effective September 1, 1948, this provision was
modified to require that such actions be brought 'only in the judicial district
where all defendants reside, except as otherwise provided by law.' 28 U.S.C.
(Supp. II), 1391b, 28 U.S.C.A. 1391(b). It was assumed in the courts below,
and since it involves a question of fact we do not stop to inquire as to whether
they were correct in so doing, that if this general federal venue statute is the
sole authority for bringing this case in the District of Columbia, the venue
could not be supported, as this defendant claims neither to reside in nor inhabit
the District.
But there is, additionally, a venue statute enacted by Congress, applicable to the
courts of the District of Columbia, which permits an action to be maintained if
the defendant shall be 'an inhabitant of, or found within, the District.' D.C.Code
11 308. (Italics supplied.) See also 11306. The District Court concluded
upon all the evidence that the Brotherhood was found within the District, and it
based venue upon that finding. The Court of Appeals did not deny that the
defendant was so 'found' within the meaning of this Act, but held the Act itself
unavailing to this plaintiff because it believed that the constitutional power of
Congress under Art. I, 8, Cl. 17, to provide for the government of the District
of Columbia, does not enable Congress to vest jurisdiction of such cases as this
in District of Columbia courts. It based this reasoning on O'Donoghue v. United
States, 289 U.S. 516, 53 S.Ct. 740, 77 L.Ed. 1356.
Little would be accomplished by reviewing the conflicting theories as to the

origin and extent of congressional power over District of Columbia courts. It is
enough to say that we do not read any prior decision of this Court to deny
Congress power to invest these courts with jurisdiction to hear and decide such
a cause as we have here. We hold that a party asserting a right under the
Constitution or federal laws may invoke either the general venue statutes or the
special District of Columbia statutes and that the courts of this District may
exercise their authority in cases committed to them by either.
10
The respondent has strenuously urged throughout that in view of the provisions
of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. 101 et seq., 29 U.S.C.A. 101 et
seq., the District Court was without jurisdiction to grant relief by injunction.
11
The Court of Appeals did not pass upon this contention, and were it a question
of first impression we should not be disposed to consider it here at the rpesent
stage of the proceedings. But this is not a question of first impression. In
Virginian R. Co. v. System Federation No. 40, 300 U.S. 515, 57 S.Ct. 592, 81
L.Ed. 789, we held that the Norris-LaGuardia Act did not deprive federal courts
of jurisdiction to compel compliance with positive mandates of the Railway
Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. 151 et seq., 45 U.S.C.A. 151 et seq., enacted for the
benefit and protection within a particular field, of the same groups whose rights
are preserved by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. To depart from those views would
be to strike from labor's hands the sole judicial weapon it may employ to
enforce such minority rights as these petitioners assert and which we have held
are now secured to them by federal statute. To hold that this Act deprives labor
of means of enforcing bargaining rights specifically accorded by the Railway
Labor Act would indeed be to 'turn the blade inward.' We adhere to the views
expressed in the Virginian case.
12
But the Brotherhood urges that the controversy in the Virginian case did not
involve a labor dispute within the meaning of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and
that accordingly that case must be distinguished on its facts. The Act defines a
'labor dispute' to include 'any controversy concerning terms or conditions of
employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in
negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or
conditions of employment * * *.' 29 U.S.C. 113(c), 29 U.S.C.A. 113(c).
(Emphasis supplied.) We do not accept the Brotherhood's invitation to narrow
the meaning of that term. The purpose of the Act would be vitiated and the
scope of its protection limited were it to be construed as not extending to efforts
of a duly certified bargaining agent to obtain recognition by an employer.
Moreover, if this Court had considered that a labor dispute was not involved, it
would hardly have taken the trouble, in the Virginian case, to refute contentions
based upon parts of the Act, which as a whole extends its protection solely to
such disputes.
13
The Steele and Tunstall cases, supra, arose under circumstances almost
indistinguishable from those of the instant case, and the complaints asked the
same kind of relief. We held there that, as the exclusive statutory representative
of the entire craft under the Railway Labor Act, the Brotherhood could not
bargain for the denial of equal employment and promotion opportunities to a
part of the craft upon grounds of race. We pointed out that the statute which
grants the majority exclusive representation for collective bargaining purposes
strips minorities within the craft of all power of self-protection, for neither as
groups nor as individuals can they enter into bargaining with the employers on
their own behalf. Order of Railroad Telegraphers v. Railway Express Agency,
321 U.S. 342, 64 S.Ct. 582, 88 L.Ed. 788; J. I. Case Co. v. National Labor
Relations Board, 321 U.S. 332, 64 S.Ct. 576, 88 L.Ed. 762; Medo Photo Supply
Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 321 U.S. 678, 64 S.Ct. 830, 88 L.Ed.
1007. And we held that abuse of its powers by perpetrating discriminatory

employment practices based on racial considerations gives rise to a cause of
action under federal law which federal courts will entertain and will remedy by
injunction. But although the Norris-LaGuardia Act relates to the jurisdiction of
the federa courts to grant injunctions in labor disputes, the issue was not
pressed, and we did not discuss it at length.
14
However, the opinion left no doubt as to the Court's position: 'In the absence of
any available administrative remedy, the right here asserted, to a remedy for
breach of the statutory duty of the bargaining representative to represent and act
for the members of a craft, is of judicial cognizance. That right would be
sacrificed or obliterated if it were without the remedy which courts can give for
breach of such a duty or obligation and whih it is their duty to give in cases in
which they have jurisdiction. * * * For the present command there is no mode
of enforcement other than resort to the courts, whose jurisdiction and duty to
afford a remedy for a breach of statutory duty are left unaffected. The right is
analogous to the statutory right of employees to require the employer to bargain
with the statutory representative of a craft, a right which this Court has enforced
and protected by its injunction in Texas & New Orleans R. Co. v. Brotherhood
of Ry. & S.S. Clerks, supra, 281 U.S. (548) 556, 557, 560, 50 S.Ct. (427) 429,
430, 74 L.Ed. 1034, and in Virginian R. Co. v. System Federation, No. 40,
supra, 300 U.S. 548, 57 S.Ct. 599, 81 L.Ed. 789, and like it is one for which
there is no available administrative remedy.' Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R.
Co., supra, 323 U.S. 207, 65 S.Ct. 234. And see Tunstall v. Brotherhood of
Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, supra, 323 U.S. 213, 65 S.Ct. 235.
15
It would serve no purpose to review at length the reasons which, in the Steele
and Tunstall cases, supra, impelled us to conclude that the Railway Labor Act
imposes upon the Brotherhood the duty to represent all members of the craft
without discrimination and invests a racial minority of the craft with the right to
enforce that duty. It suffices to say that we reiterate that such is the law.
16
Nor does the Norris-LaGuardia Act contain anything to suggest that it would
deprive these Negro firemen of recourse to equitable relief from illegal
discriminatory representation by which there would be taken from them their
seniority and ultimately their jobs. Conversely there is nothing to suggest that,
in enacting the subsequent Railway Labor Act provisions insuring petitioners'
right to nondiscriminatory representation by their bargaining agent, Congress
intended to hold out to them an illusory right for which it was denying them a
remedy. If, in spite of the Virginian, Steele, and Tunstall cases, supra, there
remains any illusion that under the Norris-LaGuardia Act the federal courts are
powerless to enforce these rights, we dispel it now. The District Court has
jurisdiction to enforce by injunction petitioners' rights to nondiscriminatory

representation by their statutory representative.
17
Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, the order of the
District Court is reinstated, and the cause is remanded to the District Court for
further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Let the mandate go down
forthwith.
18
Reversed and remanded.
19
Mr. Justice DOUGLAS and Mr. Justice MINTON took no part in the
consideration or decision of this case.

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338 U.S.

Mr. Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Washington, D.C., for petitioners.

Twenty-one Negro firemen, sometime employed by southern railroads, brought

Upon the complaint, supplemented by evidence that the deliberate elimination

The Brotherhood alone petitioned the Court of Appeals under District of

Little would be accomplished by reviewing the conflicting theories as to the

1007. And we held that abuse of its powers by perpetrating discriminatory

jurisdiction to enforce by injunction petitioners' rights to nondiscriminatory

Reversed and remanded.

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