United Mine Workers of America v. Osborne Mining Co.

• Citation: 279 F.2d 716
• Decision Date: 07 June 1960
• Docket Number: No. 13871-13874.,13871-13874.
• Parties: UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellants, v. OSBORNE MINING COMPANY, Inc., Appellee. OSBORNE MINING COMPANY, Inc., Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellees. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellants, v. LOVE AND AMOS COAL COMPANY, Appellee. LOVE AND AMOS COAL COMPANY, Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

279 F.2d 716 (1960)

UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellants, v. OSBORNE MINING COMPANY, Inc., Appellee.

OSBORNE MINING COMPANY, Inc., Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellees.

UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellants, v. LOVE AND AMOS COAL COMPANY, Appellee.

LOVE AND AMOS COAL COMPANY, Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and United Mine Workers of America, District 19, Appellees.

Nos. 13871-13874.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

June 7, 1960.

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J. Clarence Evans, of Farris, Evans & Evans, Nashville, Tenn., Harley G. Fowler, John A. Rowntree of Fowler, Rowntree & Fowler, Knoxville, Tenn. (Harley G. Fowler, Knoxville, Tenn., of counsel), for Osborne Mining Company, Inc., and Love and Amos Coal Company.

E. H. Rayson, R. R. Kramer, of Kramer, Dye, McNabb & Greenwood, Knoxville, Tenn. (William J. Turnblazer, Middlesboro, Ky., and Harrison Combs, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for United Mine Workers of America, et al.

Before WEICK, Circuit Judge, and THORNTON and KENT, District Judges.

WEICK, Circuit Judge.

In the District Court Osborne Mining Company, Inc., a Kentucky corporation, sought to recover compensatory and punitive damages from the United Mine Workers of America and United Mine Workers of America, District No. 19¹ alleging that the defendants induced and encouraged employees of neutral employers to engage in a concerted refusal in the course of their employment to mine and transport coal, for the purpose of forcing Osborne Mining Company to recognize and bargain with United Mine Workers of America as the representative of its employees; that U. M. W. had not been certified as the representative of Osborne's employees under the provisions of Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 159; that said Unions unlawfully interfered with its business of strip mining coal and purchasing coal from others for sale. It claimed that the conduct of the Unions was wilful and malicious and constituted a violation of Section 303 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U.S. C.A. § 187(a) (1) and (2) and § 187(b) and also a violation of the common law of the State of Tennessee.

Love & Amos Coal Company was a Tennessee corporation engaged as a coal sales agency. It sold Osborne's coal on a commission basis of twenty-five cents a ton. It filed a separate action against the defendants to recover compensatory and punitive damages for interference with its coal selling business in consequence of the alleged wrongful acts of said defendants as aforesaid which violated the Labor Management Relations Act and the common law of Tennessee.

The two actions were tried together by the District Judge without a jury. The trial lasted over three weeks. The transcript of testimony comprises about 3600 pages and several hundred pages of exhibits. The Court adopted 124 Findings of Fact and 14 Conclusions of Law and found for Osborne Mining Company rendering a judgment in its favor for $165,000 compensatory damages and $50,000 punitive damages. The Court also found in favor of Love & Amos and rendered judgment for compensatory damages in the amount of $35,000.

The defendants have appealed from both judgments in Case Nos. 13,872 and 13,874. Osborne and Love & Amos have filed separate appeals in Case Nos. 13,871 and 13,873 claiming that the amounts of the judgments in their favor were inadequate.

We will first take up the appeals in Case Nos. 13,872 and 13,871 relating to the Osborne judgment. Many questions, chiefly factual, are presented by defendants. The facts of this case, as found by the District Judge, present a frightening picture of violence and intimidation. To better understand the questions presented a very brief outline of the area within which the acts took place is helpful.

Osborne's mines were located to the northeast of Jellico, Tennessee. The coal mined there was trucked into Jellico where it was unloaded at a coal tipple for shipment by rail to its ultimate destination.

The defendants first urge that they did not "induce or encourage" employees of an employer other than plaintiff to engage in "a concerted refusal" to compel plaintiff to bargain with U. M. W. in violation of Section 303 of the Act. They claim that the Jellico tipple was the primary situs of the labor dispute and that the activities complained of occurred at or in the vicinity thereof. Thus, any occurrences there are claimed to have been primary activity, and not secondary, so as not to be violative of Section 303. They rely on the decision of the Supreme Court in N. L. R. B. v. International Rice Milling Co., 1951, 341 U.S. 665, 71 S.Ct. 961, 962, 95 L.Ed. 1277.

It was undisputed that U. M. W. had not been designated as a representative of Osborne's employees under the provisions of Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 159.

In his findings of fact relating to this issue the Trial Judge found substantially as follows: Osborne, at the time of the grievances complained of, was engaged exclusively in strip mining and its employees performed the work incidental thereto. Osborne subleased part of its mining tracts to contractors who engaged in underground mining and sold the coal extracted therefrom to Osborne. These underground mine operators had their own employees. Osborne engaged truck owners, some of whom drove their own trucks while others had employees driving, to haul the coal produced from the strip and underground mining operations to the tipple which Osborne had constructed at Jellico. There was no common ownership between Osborne and the sublessee mine operators and the truck owners, and Osborne did not control them or their employees. Osborne had only two employees at the tipple.

Previous to the time of the grievances complained of, namely, in 1951, 1952 and 1953, Osborne was engaged in strip mining near Corbin, Kentucky. A district representative of District 19 attempted to induce Osborne to sign a collective bargaining agreement with U. M. W. at that time. When this failed, a picket line was established in 1953 at Osborne's place of business in Kentucky which drastically interfered with Osborne's business and also prevented independent truckers from hauling Osborne's coal. Osborne obtained a state court injunction restraining the picketing. The action was dismissed in November, 1953 by an order which recited that counsel for District 19 had advised the District that it was unlawful under Kentucky laws to picket for the purpose of obtaining a union contract unless the Union represented a majority of the employees and that the Union wished to obey the law by withdrawing pickets until such time as it became legal.

Clifford Osborne, President of the mining company, had been pressured on more than one occasion to sign a union contract and company employees had been solicited at their homes and at other places by the Union in an unsuccessful effort to get them to join the Union.

In 1954 Osborne secured new mining leases known as the Packard and Gatliff leases. The Packard lease comprised about 7,000 acres of land situated northeast of Jellico, Tennessee. The Gatliff lease involved 17,000 acres of land located in Whitley and Knox Counties, Kentucky, which adjoined the Packard tract on the east. Osborne started operations on its new leasehold in the early part of July, 1954. Shortly after operations commenced 20 to 30 Union men visited the strip pit of Osborne, which was the work situs of practically all of its employees, and asked the employees to join the Union. They told the employees that if they did not join the Union, they, the Union members, would return to the pit and the situation would not be peaceful.

On the morning of July 23, 1954, a riotous group of 50 to 100 men visited the Osborne tipple at Jellico. Two Union organizers, Taylor Maddox and Ed. Daniel were present. Maddox asked Osborne to sign a union contract. There was testimony to the effect that Maddox stated to Mr. Osborne that the Union members would take care of themselves and that the trucks would not dump their coal until Osborne signed the contract. While Maddox denied making this statement he did admit that he asked Osborne to sign the contract on this occasion and that he explained to Osborne why the men were there.

One unruly group attempted to stop a truck loaded with coal from entering Osborne's premises. The group blocked the path of the next truck and stopped it near the scale house. One or more of the group jerked the door of the cab of the truck and threatened the cab driver. Daniel failed to do anything to calm the men or disperse the group. Mr. Osborne requested the group to disperse and to permit the company to carry on its operations and he talked for some time with Maddox but was unsuccessful in his appeals to get the group dispersed.

A number of other trucks came into Jellico for the purpose of unloading coal at the tipple but could not gain access thereto because of the violent attitude of the group. The drivers, including the employee drivers, parked their trucks at various places on the streets and parking lots while Mr. Osborne was carrying on his conversation with Maddox and attempting to restore order.

Neither Maddox nor Daniel made any attempt to persuade the group to disperse so that coal could be unloaded. An unsuccessful attempt was made to obtain the help of the police.

Osborne's lawyer appeared and instructed the truck drivers to take their loads of coal to the company's tipple at Faber, Kentucky. The coal had been scheduled for shipment to the Tennessee Valley Authority but was shipped from Faber on some other order.

On the following day an injunction was obtained by Osborne and some of the truck drivers in the state court at Jacksboro, Tennessee, restraining riotous activities of the group of men. The suit was dismissed on ...