Feltington v. Moving Picture Mach. Operators Union Local 306 of I.A.T.S.E.

Decision Date26 September 1979
Docket NumberNo. 865,D,865
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
Parties101 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2974, 86 Lab.Cas. P 11,437 Dennis FELTINGTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MOVING PICTURE MACHINE OPERATORS UNION LOCAL 306 OF I.A.T.S.E., Robert Alter and Steve D'Inzillo, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 78-7583.

Burton H. Hall, New York City, for appellant.

Philip D. Tobin, New York City (Cohn, Glickstein, Lurie, Ostrin & Lubell, Marc Rauch, New York City, of counsel), for appellees.

Before FRIENDLY, SMITH and MANSFIELD, Circuit Judges.

MANSFIELD, Circuit Judge:

Dennis Feltington, a member of the Moving Picture Machine Operators' Union Local 306 of I.A.T.S.E. (hereinafter Local 306 or the Union), 1 appeals from a judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York, entered by Judge Gerard L. Goettel, dismissing his suit for damages against the Union and two of its officials, Robert Alter and Steve D'Inzillo, in which he claims that they disciplined him wrongfully in violation of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 401 Et seq., and caused his false arrest and malicious prosecution in violation of New York law. The case presents a factual pattern and raises legal issues similar to some of those decided today in Rosario v. Amalgamated Ladies' Garment Cutters' Union, Local 10, I.L.G.W.U. (Dolgen), 605 F.2d 1228 (1979). The issues upon this appeal are (1) whether the trial court erred in ruling that the Union did not deprive appellant of his right to a fair trial under § 101(a)(5)(C) of the LMRDA 2 by prohibiting As in Rosario, this lawsuit arose out of an altercation between a union member (Feltington) and an official (D'Inzillo) in the latter's Union office. Feltington had been a member of the Union for about eight years and D'Inzillo was its New York Business Representative. For about a year prior to the incident, which occurred on February 4, 1976, Feltington had served as a volunteer assistant to the Local's executives and was being trained for possible appointment as a paid permanent assistant. As an assistant, appellant was responsible for resolving disputes among Union members and for representing Local 306 in certain interunion meetings. D'Inzillo provided appellant with a letter of introduction for use in his dealings with those who might be unacquainted with him.

him from tape-recording a disciplinary proceeding against him which was recorded by a Union-retained court reporter and by retrying him before the same tribunal which had previously convicted him of identical charges, and (2) whether the trial court properly withheld from the jury appellant's claim for damages arising out of either of these alleged procedural errors. We affirm the district court's ruling on the tape-recording issue and reverse as to the other two issues.

Appellant did not perform his duties to the satisfaction of the Local's executives, and was not appointed to the permanent position when it became available in January 1976. Feltington did not take this decision kindly. According to D'Inzillo, on the evening of February 3, 1976 appellant, accompanied by a "friend," accosted him near the Union office; the friend grabbed D'Inzillo's arm and warned him that he would suffer if appellant were not appointed to the assistantship. The next morning, Feltington entered D'Inzillo's office, closing the door behind him, and insisted on discussing his appointment. The parties dispute what happened; according to D'Inzillo, when he told Feltington that his appointment was out of the question and that Feltington should return the letter of introduction, the latter became violent, punching D'Inzillo in the face. The altercation ended with Feltington racing out of D'Inzillo's office, with a bloodied D'Inzillo making a faint attempt at pursuit.

A few weeks later D'Inzillo filed charges with the Union against appellant. A union trial was held on September 28, 1976 after several postponements due to appellant's refusal to accede to the trial committee's ruling that he could not record the proceedings, purportedly because of the risk that he would falsify the tapes. On the September trial date appellant agreed to desist from using his tape-recorder and to dismiss a court stenographer he had brought with him. The trial was held, following which the tribunal the Union's Executive Board found appellant guilty and recommended expulsion. These findings and recommendation were sustained by the Local's next general membership meeting.

Feltington pursued intraunion appellate remedies, and on November 30, 1976 the conviction was set aside by decision of I.A.T.S.E.'s president on the ground that the I.A.T.S.E. constitution required the Union to provide a stenographic record of a disciplinary proceeding. A new trial was scheduled for December 21, at which time the Union had present a reporter from a well-known court reporting service which it had retained to transcribe the proceedings. Appellant nonetheless insisted on tape-recording the trial. The trial committee, consisting of virtually the same individuals who had sat at the first trial, i. e., the Union's Executive Board, adjourned the trial, which was eventually rescheduled for May 10, 1977.

On May 10 the same impasse developed over appellant's desire to record the proceedings. This time appellant was told that if he did not submit to the Union's procedures, he would be tried In absentia. Feltington refused to leave or turn off his recorder. Allegedly for fear of violence, Robert Alter, Vice President of the Local and In September 1977 appellant brought the present action after exhausting his intraunion appeals. He claimed that the Union, D'Inzillo, and Alter violated his right to a full and fair hearing under § 101(a)(5)(C) of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(5)(C), because he was (1) tried before a panel that had previously convicted him of identical charges; (2) denied the right to cross-examine his accusers; 3 (3) denied the right to tape-record the proceedings; and (4) tried In absentia without his consent. Appellant further claimed that for these and additional reasons his conviction violated the Union's constitution, enforceable under New York contract law, 4 and that appellees violated § 609 of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 529, by prosecuting the disciplinary charges and expelling him in retaliation for his announced intent to oppose D'Inzillo at the next Union election, and by procuring his arrest and filing a criminal complaint against him for remaining at the Union hall after refusing to comply with the trial committee's procedural rulings. Finally, appellant claimed that the arrest and filing of charges constituted false arrest and malicious prosecution under state law.

Chairman of its Executive Board, had the police summoned to remove appellant. When the police arrived they advised appellant to vacate the Union offices, and when he refused he was arrested. Alter went to the police station and signed a complaint for criminal trespass, a charge which was ultimately adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, pursuant to N.Y.Crim.P.Law § 170.55 (McKinney). The trial committee proceeded to hear the case in Feltington's absence. It rendered the same fact findings and recommended the same sentence as before. Its recommendations were again ratified by the general membership, and this time sustained on appeal. In June 1977 appellant was expelled from the Union pursuant to his conviction by the Union.

Upon appellant's motion for a preliminary injunction barring the Union from carrying out its decision to expel him and from interfering with appellant's exercise of his membership rights, Judge Goettel ruled that the Union's refusal to permit appellant to tape-record the disciplinary proceedings did not violate § 101(a)(5)(C) because the Union provided a certified stenographer to transcribe the proceedings, and that the Union was entitled to try appellant In absentia when he refused to desist from using his own recorder. Judge Goettel also rejected appellant's contention that retrial before the same panel that had previously convicted him was a Per se denial of a trial before an unbiased tribunal, but remanded the parties to a magistrate for an evidentiary hearing on the question of whether any member of the second tribunal was actually biased. 5 97 L.R.R.M. 2517 (S.D.N.Y.1977).

In a separate pretrial opinion upon appellees' motion for summary judgment, Judge Goettel ruled that appellees were not entitled to summary judgment on appellant's claims (1) that the arrest constituted wrongful discipline under § 609 of the LMRDA, 6 (2) that the expulsion violated Prior to his charge to the jury, Judge Goettel ruled that the plaintiff's claim that the members of the Executive Board sitting as a tribunal at the second trial had prejudged the case against him because of their participation as the tribunal at the first trial was part of plaintiff's claim for injunctive relief and therefore a matter for the court to decide. The remaining issues were submitted to the jury in the form of special interrogatories, which the jury answered adversely to appellant without exception. After the verdict was returned, Judge Goettel announced his finding that appellant had not demonstrated bias or prejudice on the part of any of the members of the second tribunal, and rendered judgment for appellees.

the Union's constitution because of the pretrial delay and lack of an express basis for the charges in the Union's constitution or by-laws, and (3) that appellant was arrested without cause. Judge Goettel, however, did dismiss the claim for malicious prosecution on the ground that the consensual adjournment of the charges was not a "favorable termination" as that phrase is used in tort law, and dismissed both tort claims against the Union on the ground that such claims against an unincorporated association...

To continue reading

Request your trial
24 cases
  • Quinn v. DiGiulian, 83-2065
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)
    • 13 d5 Julho d5 1984
    ...damages under the LMRDA Bill of Rights, whether or not equitable relief is also requested. See, e.g., Feltington v. Motion Picture Operators Local 306, 605 F.2d 1251, 1257 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 943, 100 S.Ct. 2169, 64 L.Ed.2d 799 (1980); Simmons v. Avisco, Local 713, 350 F.2......
  • State of N.Y. v. Shore Realty Corp., 606
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)
    • 4 d4 Abril d4 1985
    ......(a)(1) applies to all current owners and operators, while section 9607(a)(2) primarily covers prior ...Amalgamated Ladies' Garment Cutters' Union, Local 10, 605 F.2d 1228, 1247 (2d Cir.1979), ......
  • Chrysler Workers Ass'n v. Chrysler Corp., C 84-7273.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 6th Circuit. United States District Court of Northern District of Ohio
    • 16 d3 Abril d3 1986
    ...other circuits, see, e.g., Quinn v. DiGiulian, 739 F.2d 637, 645 (D.C. Cir.1984); Feltington v. Moving Picture Machine Operators Union Local 306 of I.A.T.S.E., 605 F.2d 1251, 1257-58 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 943, 100 S.Ct. 2169, 64 L.Ed.2d 799 (1980), and that the issue of its ......
  • Shimman v. Frank, s. 77-3338
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)
    • 1 d3 Outubro d3 1980
    ...under § 101. 42 McCraw, however, has been subject to severe criticism by other courts. See Feltington v. Moving Picture Machine Operators, 605 F.2d 1251, 1257-1258 n. 4 (2d Cir. 1979); Simmons v. Avisco Local 713, 350 F.2d 1012, 1018 (4th Cir. 1965). See also Hildebrand v. Bd. of Trustees, ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT