home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware Overload Trio 2
/
Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO
/
dir33
/
cwru_ct.zip
/
89-1027.S
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-11-06
|
4KB
|
85 lines
Subject: NORFOLK & W. R. CO. v. TRAIN DISPATCHERS, Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as
is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is
issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but
has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the
reader. See United States v. Detroit Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
NORFOLK & WESTERN RAILWAY CO. et al. v.
AMERICAN TRAIN DISPATCHERS
ASSOCIATION et al.
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the district of
columbia circuit
No. 89-1027. Argued December 3, 1990 -- Decided March 19, 1991 {1}
Once the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) has approved a rail carrier
consolidation under the conditions set forth in Chapter 13 of the
Interstate Commerce Act (Act), 49 U. S. C. MDRV 11301 et seq., a carrier in
such a consolidation "is exempt from the antitrust laws and from all other
law, including State and municipal law, as necessary to let [it] carry out
the transaction . . . ," MDRV 11341(a). In these cases, the ICC issued
orders exempting parties to approved railway mergers from the provisions of
collective-bargaining agreements. The Court of Appeals reversed and
remanded, holding that MDRV 11341(a) does not authorize the ICC to relieve
a party of collectively bargained obligations that impede implementation of
an approved transaction. Reasoning, inter alia, that the legislative
history demonstrates a congressional intent that MDRV 11341(a) apply to
specific types of positive laws and not to common-law rules of liability,
such as those governing contracts, the court declined to decide whether the
section could operate to override provisions of the Railway Labor Act (RLA)
governing the formation, construction, and enforcement of the
collective-bargaining agreements at issue.
Held: The MDRV 11341(a) exemption "from all other law" includes a carrier's
legal obligations under a collective-bargaining agreement when necessary to
carry out an ICC-approved transaction. The exemption's language, as
correctly interpreted by the ICC, is clear, broad, and unqualified,
bespeaking an unambiguous congressional intent to include any obstacle
imposed by law. That language neither admits of a distinction between
positive enactments and common-law liability rules nor supports the
exclusion of contractual obligations. Thus, the exemption effects an
override of such obligations by superseding the law -- here, the RLA --
which makes the contract binding. Cf. Schwabacher v. United States, 334 U.
S. 182, 194-195, 200-201. This determination makes sense of the Act's
consolidation provisions, which were designed to promote economy and
efficiency in interstate transportation by removing the burdens of
excessive expenditure. Whereas MDRV 11343(a)(1) requires the ICC to
approve consolidations in the public interest, and MDRV 11347 conditions
such approval on satisfaction of certain labor-protective conditions, the
MDRV 11341(a) exemption guarantees that once employee interests are
accounted for and the consolidation is approved, the RLA -- whose major
disputes resolution process is virtually interminable -- will not prevent
the efficiencies of consolidation from being achieved. Moreover, this
reading will not, as the lower court feared, lead to bizarre results, since
MDRV 11341(a) does not exempt carriers from all law, but rather from all
law necessary to carry out an approved transaction. Although it might be
true that MDRV 11341(a)'s scope is limited by MDRV 11347, and that the
breadth of the exemption is defined by the scope of the approved
transaction, the conditions of approval and the standard for necessity are
not at issue because the lower court did not pass on them and the parties
do not challenge them here. Pp. 9-17.
279 U. S. App. D. C. 239, 880 F. 2d 562, reversed and remanded.
Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J.,
and White, Blackmun, O'Connor, Scalia, and Souter, JJ., joined. Stevens,
J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Marshall, J., joined.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
Together with No. 89-1028, CSX Transportation, Inc. v. Brotherhood of
Railway Carmen et al., also on certiorari to the same court.