Bakery Sales Drivers Local Union No 33 v. Wagshal
| Citation | 92 L.Ed. 792,68 S.Ct. 630,333 U.S. 437 |
| Decision Date | 15 March 1948 |
| Docket Number | No. 225,225 |
| Parties | BAKERY SALES DRIVERS LOCAL UNION NO. 33 et al. v. WAGSHAL |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Mr. Herbert S. Thatcher, of Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
Mr. Wm. E. Leahy, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.
[Argument of Counsel from page 438 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an action brought in a United States District Court to enjoin interference with a business, and the question is whether the complaint subjects that court to the limitations imposed by the Norris-LaGuardia Act upon its equity jurisdiction.
This is the substance of the complaint. Respondent owns a delicatessen store which sells food and serves meals. She obtained bread for the delicatessen store from Hinkle's bakery. Deliveries were made by a driver, an employee of Hinkle and a member of Local Union No. 33, one of the petitioners. The driver delivered the bread at noon, which inconvenienced the respondent, since the checking of deliveries at that hour interfered with the serving of lunches. Respondent 'required' the driver to bring the bread at another hour. Shortly thereafter, Hik le informed the respondent that it would no longer furnish her with bakery products. And so, respondent made arrangements with another bakery, which delivered at a more convenient hour.
Three weeks later, the petitioner Andre, president of the union, visited the delicatessen store and stated that the respondent owed the driver approximately $150 and requested immediate payment. Respondent replied that she had never had dealings with the driver, but had paid Hinkle directly by check, and would pay the bill in due course. Andre replied that the payment would have to be made to the driver in full; furthermore, that if the respondent did not cease carrying a certain non-union article of food he noticed on display, delivery of bread, milk, and other products necessary to the respondent's business would be cut off. Shortly thereafter the respondent sent a check to Hinkle for the balance of her bill. It was returned by the union, with a letter signed by Andre asserting that the payment was owed to its member, the driver, and could not be accepted. The following day, the bakery which had been serving respondent after Hinkle had stopped doing so, ceased to deal with her, explaining that the union had threatened otherwise 'to pull out all its drivers.' Through an effective boycott, the union kept the respondent from obtaining bread from other bakeries or retail stores. The delicatessen store was also picketed.
The complaint prayed for temporary and permanent injunctions against the boycott and other interference with respondent's business, the payment of damages, and the usual catch-all relief. Petitioners moved to dismiss the action on the ground that the controversy as set forth in the complaint involved a 'labor dispute' under the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. 70, 29 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., 29 U.S.C.A. § 101 et seq. Respondent filed an 'answer to motion to dismiss,' attached to which were affidavits, including one of Benjamin Wagshal, manager of the delicatessen store, elaborating the incidents narrated in the complaint. Among other matters set forth, he stated that payment for bread purchased from Hinkle had always been made by check sent directly to Hinkle and was never made to a driver, and that neither the union nor any of its drivers had ever previously questioned this practice; that Andre had asserted by mail and at the delicatessen store that the check which the respondent had sent to Hinkle was $12.22 short of the amount owed; and that the non-union item on sale to which Andre had objected was not a subject of controversy but merely an excuse for Andre's attempt, on his visit to the delicatessen store, to enforce his demands concerning the bill, and that in any event its sale had been discontinued.
The District Court granted an injunction pendente lite, restraining the petitioners from interfering with respondent's business or preventing sale and delivery of bakery products to the respondent, by boycott and picket- ing. At the same time, it denied the petitioners' motion to dismiss. Petitioners filed a notice of appeal to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and respondents moved to dismiss the appeal.
If this case does not involve a 'labor dispute' under the Norris-LaGuardia Act, an appeal as of right could not be had in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 31 Stat. 1189, 1225, as amended, D.C.Code (1940) § 17—101. However, § 10 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. 70, 72, 29 U.S.C. § 110, 29 U.S.C.A. § 110, provides for immediate review of an order granting or denying 'any temporary injunction in a case involving or growing out of a labor dispute * * *.'1 The Court of Ap- peals, one justice dissenting, held that this was not such a case, and dismissed the appeal. 161 F.2d 380. Because of asserted conflict between this decision and prior decisions of this Court on the scope of 'labor dispute' within the meaning of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, we granted certiorari. 332 U.S. 756, 68 S.Ct. 7.
A preliminary claim must be met, that the case has become moot. The short answer to the argument that the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, P.L. 101, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., § 10(h), 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(h), has removed the limitations of the Norris-LaGuardia Act upon the power to issue injunctions against what are known as secondary boycotts, is that the law has been changed only where an injunction is sought by the National Labor Relations Board, not where proceedings are instituted by a private party. The claim of mootness is also based on an affidavit stating that after dismissal of the appeal by the Court of Appeals, the union lifted its boycott. Since the record does not show that a stay of the injunction was granted pending action in this Court, we must assume that the union's action was merely obedience to the judgment now here for review. We therefore turn to the merits.
The petitioners attach significance to three incidents for their claim that a 'labor dispute' is here involved.
1. The controversy over the hour of delivery. The petitioners claim that this was a dispute 'concerning terms or conditions of (the driver's) employment,' thereby raising a labor dispute, 'whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.' § 13(c) of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. But the respondent had nothing to do with the working conditions of Hinkle's employees, individually or collectively. Her only desire was to have the bread come at an hour suitable for her business, and she had...
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