Hitchman Coal Coke Co v. Mitchell 1916

• Decision Date: 13 March 1916
• Docket Number: No. 11,11
• Citation: 38 S.Ct. 65,245 U.S. 229,62 L.Ed. 260
• Parties: HITCHMAN COAL & COKE CO. v. MITCHELL et al. Argued March 2 and 3, 1916. Restored to Docket for Reargument
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

245 U.S. 229

38 S.Ct. 65

62 L.Ed. 260

HITCHMAN COAL & COKE CO.

v MITCHELL et al.

No. 11.

Argued March 2 and 3, 1916.

Restored to Docket for Reargument March 13, 1916.

Reargued Dec. 15 and 18, 1916.

Decided Dec. 10, 1917.

[Syllabus from pages 229-232 intentionally omitted] Mr. Hannis Taylor, of Washington, D. C., and Mr. George R. E. Gilchrist, of Wheeling, W. Va., for petitioner.

Mr. Charles E. Hogg, of Point Pleasant, W. Va., and Mr. Charles J. Hogg, of Charleston, W. Va., for respondents.

Mr. Justice PITNEY delivered the opinion of the Court.

This was a suit in equity, commenced October 24, 1907, in the United States Circuit (afterwards District) Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, by the Hitchman Coal & Coke Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of West Virginia, against certain citizens of the state of Ohio, sued individually and also as officers of the United Mine Workers of America. Other non-citizens of plaintiff's state were named as defendants but not served with process. Those who were served and who answered the bill were T. L. Lewis, vice president of the U. M. W. A. and of the International Union U. M. W. A.; William Green, D. H. Sullivan, and 'George' W. Savage (his correct Christian name is Gwilym), respectively president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer of district No. 6, U. M. W. A.; and A. R. Watkins, John Zelenka, and Lee Rankin, respectively president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer of subdistrict No. 5 of district No. 6.

Plaintiff owns about 5,000 acres of coal lands situate at or near Benwood, in Marshall county, West Virginia, and within what is known as the 'Pan Handle District' of that state, and operates a coal mine thereon, employing between 200 and 300 men, and having an annual output, in and before 1907, of about 300,000 tons. At the time of the filing of the bill, and for a considerable time before and ever since, it operated its mine 'non-union,' under an agreement with its men to the effect that the mine should be run on a non-union basis, that the employes should not become connected with the union while employed by plaintiff, and that if they joined it their employment with plaintiff should cease. The bill set forth these facts, inter alia, alleged that they were known to defendants and each of them, and 'that the said defendants have unlawfully and maliciously agreed together, confederated, combined and formed themselves into a conspiracy, the purpose of which they are proceeding to carry out and are now about to finally accomplish, namely: to cause your orator's mine to be shut down, its plant to remain idle, its contracts to be broken and unfulfilled, until such time as your orator shall submit to the demand of the union that it shall unionize its plant, and having submitted to such demand unionize its plant by employing only union men who shall become subject to the orders of the union,' etc. The general object of the bill was to obtain an injunction to restrain defendants from interfering with the relations existing between plaintiff and its employes in order to compel plaintiff to 'unionize' the mine.

A restraining order having been granted, followed by a temporary injunction, the served defendants filed answers, and thereupon made a motion to modify the injunction, which was refused. (C. C.) 172 Fed. 963. An appeal taken by defendants from this order was dismissed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. Lewis v. Hitchman Coal & Coke Co., 176 Fed. 549, 100 C. C. A. 137. Afterwards they applied for and obtained leave to withdraw their answers and file others; the order, however, prescribed that the withdrawn answers were 'not to be removed from the file.' The new answers denied all material averments of the bill, some of which had been admitted in the former answers. Plaintiff, having filed replications, obtained an order that the former answers should be treated as evidence on behalf of the plaintiff upon the issue joined. Upon this evidence and other evidence introduced before the court orally, the case was submitted, with the result that a final decree was made January 18, 1913, granting a perpetual injunction. (D. C.) 202 Fed. 512. This was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals June 1, 1914 (214 Fed. 685, 131 C. C. A. 425), but the mandate was stayed pending an application to this court for a writ of certiorari. Afterwards an appeal was allowed. This court dismissed the appeal, but granted the writ of certiorari (241 U. S. 644, 36 Sup. Ct. 450, 60 L. Ed. 1218), the record on appeal to stand as a return.

The final decree of the District Court included an award of injunction against John Mitchell, W. B. Wilson, and Thomas Hughes, who while named as defendants in the bill were not served with process and entered no appearance except to object to the jurisdiction of the court over them. Under the federal practice, the appearance to object did not bind these parties to submit to the jurisdiction on the overruling of the objection (Harkness v. Hyde, 98 U. S. 476, 479, 25 L. Ed. 237; Southern Pacific Co. v. Denton, 146 U. S. 202, 206, 13 Sup. Ct. 44, 36 L. Ed. 942; Mexican Central Railway v. Pinkney, 149 U. S. 194, 209, 13 Sup. Ct. 859, 37 L. Ed. 699; Goldey v. Morning News, 156 U. S. 518, 15 Sup. Ct. 559, 39 L. Ed. 517; Davis v. C., C., C. & St. L. Ry., 217 U. S. 157, 174, 30 Sup. Ct. 463, 54 L. Ed. 708, 27 L. R. A. [N. S.] 823, 18 Ann. Cas. 907), and since the injunction operates only in personam, it was erroneous to include them as defendants. It also was erroneous to include personal relief by injunction against certain named parties who, pending suit, were chosen to succeed some of the original defendants as officers of the international, district, and subdistrict unions, but who were not served with process and did not appear, they being included upon the ground that they were 'before the court by representation through service having been had upon their said predecessors in office.' This suit was commenced, and was carried to final decree in the trial court, before the taking effect of the present equity rules (226 U. S. 629, 33 Sup. Ct. xix), and hence is governed by the former rule 48 (210 U. S. 524, 29 Sup. Ct. xxxi), under which the rights of absent parties were expressly reserved.

But these procedural difficulties do not affect that part of the decree which awarded an injunction against the answering defendants (Lewis, Green, Sullivan, Savage, Watkins, Zelenka, and Rankin) 'individually' and not as officers of the union or its branches except as to Savage, against whom the decree goes in both his individual and official capacities, he alone having retained at the time of the final decree the same office he held at the beginning of the suit. If there was error in excluding the 'official' responsibility of the others, it was not one of which they could complain, and it was not assigned for error upon their appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals. If they were subject to injunction at all, they were so in their individual capacities. Whether the decree will bind their successors in office, or their fellow members of the union, is a question to be determined hereafter, if and when proceedings are taken to enforce the injunction against parties other than the answering defendants.

We proceed, therefore, to consider the case as it stands against the answering defendants.

The District Court based its decision upon two grounds: (1) That the organization known as the United Mine Workers of America, and its branches, as conducted and managed at the time of the suit and for many years before, was a common-law conspiracy in unreasonable restraint of trade, and also and especially a conspiracy against the rights of non-union miners in West Virginia and (2) that the defendants, in an effort to compel the plaintiff to enter into contractual relations with the union relating to the employment of labor and the production of coal, although having knowledge of express contracts existing between plaintiff and its employes which excluded relations with the union, endeavored by unlawful means to procure a breach of these contracts by the employes.

A brief recital of previous transactions between the parties becomes material. The union is a voluntary and unincorporated association which was organized in the year 1890 in the states of Ohio and Indiana, and afterwards was extended to other states. It is made up of national or 'international,' district, subdistrict, and local unions. District No. 6 comprises the coal districts of Ohio and the Panhandle of West Virginia. Subdistrict No. 5 of that district comprises five counties and parts of counties in Ohio, and the Panhandle.

The answering defendants were and are active and influential members—leaders—of the union, as well as officers. Savage, Lewis, and Sullivan have been members from its formation in 1890, and have held important offices in it and attended the national conventions. The others are long-time members, and possessed an influence indicated by the offices they held, but not limited to the duties of those offices.

From 1897 to 1906 what were known as joint interstate conferences were held annually or biennially between officials of the union and representatives of the operators in the 'Central Competitive Field' (which includes Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, but not West Virginia), for the purpose of agreeing upon the scale of wages and the conditions of employment in that field. In addition there were occasional conferences of the same character affecting other states and districts.

Plaintiff's mine is within the territorial limits of subdistrict No. 5 of district No. 6. Coal-mining operations were commenced there in the early part of the year 1902, and the mine was operated 'non-union' until April, 1903, when, under threats from the union officials, including defendants Watkins and Sullivan, that a certain unionized mine in Ohio,...