Gunther v. San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway Co.

Background

A longtime railroad employee worked as a fireman and then as an engineer for decades before being removed from service shortly after his seventy-first birthday because the railroad’s doctors said his heart made him unfit. He got a different doctor who said he was fit and asked the railroad to agree to a three-doctor re‑examination; the railroad refused. The Railroad Adjustment Board appointed a three-doctor panel, which found he was fit and ordered reinstatement with pay from October 15, 1955. The railroad refused to comply and the worker sued to enforce the Board’s order in federal court.

Reasoning

The Court considered whether the Adjustment Board had the power to decide the dispute and to use a three-doctor medical panel. The Justices said the Board is the industry body Congress created to settle these routine grievances and that its method of using mutually selected doctors is fair and commonly used. The Court held that the Board’s interpretation of the labor agreement and its finding that the worker was wrongfully removed are final and must be accepted by the courts. A federal court may not re‑decide the merits simply because the Board’s order included money for lost wages.

Real world impact

The decision means railroad grievance panels have final authority to decide whether employees were properly removed for medical reasons, while federal courts remain able to compute any separate back pay amount. The court noted that lost-pay calculations can consider changes in the worker’s condition since the Board decided the case.