Joe K. Devita v. Burlington Northern, Inc., Successor in Interest by Merger to Great Northernrailway Company

The judgment of the district court setting aside the determinations of the National Railroad Adjustment Board, First Division, is reversed.

Devita, a locomotive' engineer, was discharged for alleged insubordination and inducing insubordination.

At issue is whether Devita took an appeal in time from the company superintendent to a higher official, the general manager. Devita says he did not get timely notice of the superintendent’s decision, so he could not take a timely appeal. The railroad says the notice was promptly mailed, and its general manager and its vice president so ruled.

When the case reached the Railroad Adjustment Board, it ruled that the notice was timely. The implication of the rulings are that Devita must have received the notice promptly.

If the question were properly before the courts and we had heard and seen the witnesses, we might have found the facts just as the district court did, i. e., no notice. But the right of courts to review the work of the Railroad Adjustment Board is very, very limited. See Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen v. Chicago River & Indiana R.R. Co., 353 U.S. 30 , 77 S.Ct. 635 , 1 L.Ed.2d 622 (1957).

We are concerned with 45 U.S.C. § 153…