Oakley v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. et al. (338 U.S. 278)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 14, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 278 · 70 S. Ct. 119
- Decided
- November 14, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Burton
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Burton delivered the opinion of the Court. In both No. 28 and No. 29, the issue is whether, under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, one year of reemployment of a veteran by his preservice employer terminated that veteran’s right to the seniority to which he was entitled by virtue of that Act’s treatment of him as though he had remained continuously in his civilian employment. For the reasons hereinafter stated, and pursuant to our previous decisions, our answer is “No.” In No. 29, there is the further question whether, after the expiration of such year, a United States District Court could entertain a complaint filed by the veteran to enforce his right to such seniority. Our answer is “Yes.” In each case, a veteran sought, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, a declaratory judgment and an order restoring him to the seniority which he claimed he would have had if he had remained continuously in his civilian employment. In No. 28, Oakley, the petitioner, alleged that when he was inducted into the Armed Forces on May 7, 1944, he was employed as a locomotive machinist at Loyall, Kentucky, by the respondent, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company; that, on May 22,1946, he was honorably discharged from the Armed Forces; that, on July 17, 1946, he was reemployed by the respondent as a locomotive machinist with seniority…
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