Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, Etc.

This is an appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, denying the plaintiff Pan American’s motion under Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for a preliminary injunction against the defendant Brotherhood’s labor organization and certain individually named respondents restraining them from striking, picketing, and otherwise interfering with Pan American’s operations at the Nuclear Research Development Station (NRDS) at Jackass Flats, Nevada.

If the labor law applicable to Pan American’s enterprise at this location was the ordinary federal law applicable-to most industrial enterprises of substantial size, the District Court was right in denying the injunction because the Norris-La Guardia Act, 29 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., forbids the issuance of an injunction in cases of labor disputes in such enterprises, in the circumstances of this case. Pan American’s contention is that the generally applicable labor law did not apply to its situation; that the special provisions of the federal Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 151 et seq., were the applicable law in its case, and that under that lav/ it was entitled to its injunction. If Pan…