Co v. Iron Moulders Union, Local No 68
| Decision Date | 08 November 1920 |
| Docket Number | No. 69,NILES-BEMENT-POND,69 |
| Citation | 41 S.Ct. 39,65 L.Ed. 145,254 U.S. 77 |
| Parties | CO. v. IRON MOULDERS' UNION, LOCAL NO. 68, et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Lawrence Maxwell and Murray Seasongood, both of Cincinnati, Ohio, for petitioner.
Messrs. W. B. Rubin, of Milwaukee, Wis., and Robert J. Shank, of Hamilton, Ohio, for respondent.
The controversy involved in this suit originated in a strike by employes of the defendant the Niles Tool Works Company, hereinafter designated the Tool Company, and the sole question presented for decision is one of jurisdiction.
The petitioner, a corporation of New Jersey, filed its bill in the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, making the Tool Company, an Ohio corporation, several local labor unions, and many of the striking employes of the Tool Company (in the bill and hereinafter designated 'former employes') parties defendant; it being averred that all of the defendants were citizens of Ohio and residents of the Southern district. The jurisdiction of the court was thus invoked on the ground of diverse citizenship.
The relief prayed for was an injunction, restraining the striking former employes of the Tool Company from molesting workmen employed by that company to take their places, upon the ground that petitioner had contracts with the Tool Company the performance of which was being delayed by such interference. No case was stated, or relier asked for, against the Tool Company.
The District Court overruled a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, and granted a preliminary injunction as prayed for, but, on appeal the Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Tool Company was so essentially a subsidiary of the petitioner, and its interest in the controversy was so certainly on the same side, that it should be treated as a plaintiff; that any decision of the case must necessarily so involve rights of the Tool Company as to render it an indispensable party to the case; and that, giving that company its proper classification as a plaintiff resulted in the disappearance of the jurisdictional diversity of citizenship and required the dismissal of the bill, which was ordered. The case was brought here for review by writ of certiorari.
The facts essential to be considered, which were stipulated or sufficiently proved on the hearing of the application for an injunction, may be epitomized as follows:
The petitioner was a corporation of New Jersey, the defendant Tool Company a corporation of Ohio, the petitioner owned a controlling interest in the capital stock of the Tool Company, and the same men were president and vice president, respectively, of both companies. The president was invested with authority to fix prices for the two companies, three of the five directors of the Tool Company were directors of the petitioner, and more than 95 per cent. of the business of that company was obtained through the petitioner, acting as its general sales agent. The customary mode of transacting business between the two companies was for the petitioner to make contracts for machinery, which it passed to the Tool Company for manufacture and delivery.
Before the filing of the bill the petitioner had entered into many contracts with the United States government to furnish it, as quickly as possible, with machinery, tools, and equipment for arsenals and for navy and ship yards, all of which contracts were necessary for the successful prosecution of the war, and were to be given priority over other work. These contracts had been passed to the Tool Company for manufacture; the petitioner remaining liable for their performance. It was averred, and sufficiently proved, that the defendants other than the Tool Company had conspired together, for the purpose of hindering, delaying, and preventing the petitioner from performing, through the Tool Company, the contracts thus obtained by it from the government, and for the purpose of intimidating workmen in the employ of the Tool Company by threats, violence, and coercion, when going to and from their places of work and when at their homes. Such defendants, assembled about the plant of the Tool Company, had at times by threats and violence prevented employes from entering its factory to work, and had threatened to prevent, and unless restrained would have prevented, that company from freely carrying forward its business, and thereby the petitioner from fulfilling its contracts with the government and with others.
On this record the questions presented for decision are: Was the Tool Company an indispensable party to the suit? and, properly classified,...
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