Accardi v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Petitioners, who are World War II veterans and former employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad, brought this action claiming that their former employer denied them certain seniority rights guaranteed by § 8 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. Section 8(b)(B) of that Act provides that upon application by any former employee who has satisfactorily completed his military service, a private employer “shall restore” such honorably discharged serviceman to his former “position or to a position of like seniority, status, and pay unless the employer’s circumstances have so changed as to…