Lewis v. Pennington
| Decision Date | 15 July 1966 |
| Docket Number | 3493,Civ. A. No. 3431-3433,3446,4988.,3591,3579,4385,4463 |
| Citation | 257 F. Supp. 815 |
| Parties | John L. LEWIS and Josephine Roche, As Trustees of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund, Henry G. Schmidt, Trustee, v. James M. PENNINGTON, Ralph E. Phillips and Burce Phillips, Individually and t/a Phillips Brothers Coal Company, a partnership, and Lillian Goad Phillips v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. Harry P. STANSBERRY, Individually and t/a Stansberry Coal Company, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. Jesse C. FESLER and Nola Fesler, Individually and trading as Fesler Coal Company, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. U. R. ARNOLD and Mrs. U. R. Arnold, Individually and trading as Arnold Strip Mining Company, a partnership, the Arnold Coal Company, Inc. v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. TENNCO, INCORPORATED, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19. W. R. PARTON, Individually and t/a W. R. Parton Coal Company, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. E. C. McPHERSON, Individually and t/a E. C. McPherson Coal Company, M. W. Norquest and E. C. McPherson, Individually and t/a McPherson Coal Company, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. WHITE OAK COAL COMPANY, Inc. v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. DEAN COAL COMPANY, a corporation, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. W. R. PARTON, d/b/a W. R. Parton Coal Company, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee |
John A. Rowntree, Fowler, Rowntree & Fowler, Robert S. Young, Jr., Knoxville, Tenn., for small coal operators.
E. H. Rayson, Kramer, Dye, Greenwood, Johnson & Rayson, Knoxville, Tenn., Harrison Combs, Willard P. Owens, Washington, D. C., for United Mine Workers of America.
Val Mitch, Harold H. Bacon, Charles L. Widman, Washington, D. C., for trustees.
These cases are the last chapter in a spate of litigation between coal operators in Scott, Anderson and Campbell Counties, Tennessee, and United Mine Workers of America (hereinafter sometimes referred to as UMW or the Union) resulting from labor disputes that arose in 1955 and continued intermittently through 1959.
Case No. 3431 was tried by a jury and a verdict and judgment rendered in favor of the coal operator. The judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. Pennington v. UMW, Lewis, et al., Trustees, 325 F.2d 804 (C.A.6). The Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals holding as error the instruction of this Court to the jury that the approach of the Union and operators to the Secretary of Labor and TVA officials for the purpose of having a wage determination by the Secretary of Labor under the Walsh-Healey Act so as to prohibit governmental purchases of coal mined by miners paying wages under the minimum fixed by the Secretary of Labor, was legal unless made pursuant to a conspiracy to put the small coal operators out of business. It also held that the trial court erred in not telling the jury to exclude any damages which the operators may have suffered as a result of the Secretary's Walsh-Healey determination. United Mine Workers of America v. Pennington, 381 U.S. 657, 670, 671, 85 S.Ct. 1585, 14 L.Ed.2d 626.
By agreement, these cases were consolidated for trial and by agreement were tried without a jury. More than 4400 pages of testimony was introduced with 219 exhibits in a trial that lasted approximately four weeks.
In the suits brought by Lewis, Roche and Schmidt, as Trustees of the United Mine Workers of America, Welfare and Retirement Fund, in another phase of Cases No. 3431, 3432, 3433, 3446, 3493, 3579, 3591 and 4385, the Trustees sued for amounts alleged to be due pursuant to the terms of the trust provisions contained in the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950, as amended, for royalties due from each of the defendants in those cases on the respective tonnage of coal mined by each under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Those suits were defended on the theory that the Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950, as amended, was an instrument used in a conspiracy which violated the antitrust laws and that the contracts violated the National Labor Relations Act, as amended.
It was held by the Court of Appeals in the case of Lewis v. Pennington, 6 Cir., 325 F.2d 804, cert. den. Pennington et al. v. Lewis et al., Trustees, 381 U.S. 949, 85 S.Ct. 1796, 14 L.Ed.2d 723, that regardless of the factual contentions of the defendants under these defenses, the Trustees were entitled to recover the royalties contracted for which were based on the tonnage mined by the defendants during the period of time involved. Judgment for the Trustees has been entered in that case.
The defendants in the other cases insisted that the Pennington decision was erroneous. But they argued even if they were wrong in that insistence, still the enforcement of the provision for royalties, which was forced on them pursuant to an illegal agreement or conspiracy caused them damage. And they insist they are entitled to recover, as an item of damage, the royalties paid, in addition to other damages arising from the alleged conspiracy in the cross-claims or actions against UMW.
In Case No. 4385, White Oak Coal Company, Inc. v. United Mine Workers of America, White Oak made additional defenses but this case was disposed of and is no longer before the Court for consideration.
Case No. 3579, W. R. Parton, Individually and t/a W. R. Parton Coal Company v. United Mine Workers of America, has likewise been disposed of.
In Cases No. 3431, 3432, 3433, 3446, 3493, 3579, 3591 and 4385, the defendants filed cross-claims against the Trustees based upon the alleged participation by the Trustees in the alleged conspiracy in violation of the antitrust laws. A voluntary dismissal without prejudice of the suits against the Trustees was entered in each of these cases.
In Cases No. 3431, 3432, 3433, 3446, 3493 and 3591, the defendants filed cross-claims against the UMW. In the case of Lewis et al. v. Parton, No. 3579, by order entered prior to the order consolidating these cases for trial, the cross-claim of the defendant Parton against UMW was assigned a new docket number, namely, No. 4988, and the order recited that the cross-claim was to be considered an original complaint against the Union.
The case of Dean Coal Company v. United Mine Workers of America, No. 4463, constituted an original action against the UMW.
The claims against UMW in all of these cases are based on an alleged conspiracy in which it is charged that UMW participated with major coal operators to drive small coal operators, including each of the parties to this suit (hereinafter sometimes referred to as plaintiffs or operators), out of business, in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
Damages are sought against UMW in each of these cases.
Plaintiffs (and it will be understood this term includes all cross-plaintiffs) contend that UMW engaged in a conspiracy, agreement or understanding with the major coal companies in the United States and their representatives, particularly Bituminous Coal Operators Association (hereinafter called BCOA), Consolidation Coal Company, Peabody Coal Company, West Kentucky Coal Company, Nashville Coal Company, Island Creek Coal Company, Pittston Company and Pittsburgh-Midway Coal Company, and others, to stabilize the prices of coal, to restrain the trade of small coal producers and to monopolize the bituminous coal industry for the major coal producers.
After World War II, the economics of the bituminous coal industry became unstable on account of more coal being produced than the markets required; that before 1950, the major coal producers and the Union were in agreement that the major problem of the industry was over-production and that the growth of small, independent and non-union producers was contributing to the problem; that the major companies and the Union disagreed on how the problem should be handled in the period right after World War II; that on its side the Union was contending that the answer was to cut down on the working time of all producers; that the Union urged a three-day work week and for many months before the 1950 contract was signed, the Union took the initiative on this question and directed the working time of the men in the industry, its officials setting on some weeks, three-day work weeks, and other times a no day work week; that the major coal companies were opposed to the Union's dictating the working time of the men in the industry because it cut into their profits; that both the Union and major coal companies were concerned with the prospects of a repetition of the depressed conditions in the industry that occurred in the 1920's after the "Jacksonville scale" period, which was precipitated by companies in the South that refused to recognize the UMW contract; that in 1949, in the course of the bargaining sessions over the contract that became the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950, major coal producers were discussing among themselves how to accomplish the stabilization of the industry and the establishment of an organization to deal with the UMW so that agreements could be worked out that would be binding upon the entire industry and to accomplish the settlement of national problems in the industry on an authoritative basis that would govern all coal producers, thereby eliminating the chances, or greatly reducing the prospects, of some producers escaping the uniform terms of a national union contract and precipitating conditions comparable to those of the 1920's.
After the signing of the 1950 National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement, the major producers who had engaged in the discussions...
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