Hamilton Foundry & M. Co. v. INTERNATIONAL M. & F. WKRS.

• Decision Date: 11 December 1951
• Docket Number: No. 11349.,11349.
• Citation: 193 F.2d 209
• Parties: HAMILTON FOUNDRY & MACHINE CO. v. INTERNATIONAL MOLDERS & FOUNDRY WORKERS UNION OF NORTH AMERICA et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

193 F.2d 209 (1951)

HAMILTON FOUNDRY & MACHINE CO. v. INTERNATIONAL MOLDERS & FOUNDRY WORKERS UNION OF NORTH AMERICA et al.

No. 11349.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Decided December 11, 1951.

As Amended on Denial of Rehearing January 23, 1952.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

J. Mack Swigert, Robt. T. Keeler, Cincinnati, Ohio, on the brief, for appellant.

Robert A. Wilson, Cincinnati, Ohio, Long & Bloom, Bert H. Long and Milton M. Bloom, all of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the brief, for appellees.

Before SIMONS, McALLISTER and MILLER, Circuit Judges.

MILLER, Circuit Judge.

Appellant, The Hamilton Foundry and Machine Company, brought this action against the appellee labor organizations under the provisions of Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, Title 29, U.S.C.A. § 185, for damages caused by an alleged breach of a no-strike provision in a contract between the appellant and the appellees. Following a jury trial and a verdict for $37,500, in favor of the appellant, the District Judge sustained motions of the appellees for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. This appeal followed the entry of such judgments.

Appellant operates a gray iron jobbing foundry at Hamilton, Ohio. The appellees, International Molders & Foundry Workers Union of North America, (A.F.L.) and Local No. 68 International Molders & Foundry Workers Union of North America, (A.F.L.) are labor organizations within the meaning of the Act. Certain employees of the appellant working in the molding, core making, and core assembly departments and in two miscellaneous job classifications were members of Local No. 68, the membership of which also included employees in other companies in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio.

The complaint alleged that on or about March 26, 1949, the appellees negotiated a contract with the appellant with respect to wages, hours and other conditions of employment, effective March 28, 1949, and to continue in effect until March 27, 1950; that Section VII of the contract provided — "A. During the Life of this Agreement, the Union agrees that it will not cause or permit any of its members to cause or take part in any strikes, stoppage or slowing down of work, and the Company agrees that there shall be no lockouts"; and that on April 4, 1949, in violation of the no-strike agreement the appellees permitted their members employed by the appellant to take part in a strike at the appellant's foundry in Hamilton, Ohio, which made it impossible for the appellant to operate its foundry, with a resulting loss to the appellant in the sum of $75,500 with additional damage in the amount of $3,000 for each working day that the strike continued thereafter.

Thereafter, following motions by appellees, the appellant filed a More Definite Statement of Claim which stated that the contract was negotiated orally between a committee representing the Local and the International Union and representatives of the Company, which was then reduced to writing and presented to members of the Union, following which the appellant was notified verbally by the appellees that the contract was approved, but that the appellees thereafter refused to sign the contract. This pleading stated — "The termination date of said contract was midnight March 26, 1950." There was attached and made a part of the pleading a copy of the alleged unsigned contract, which was later introduced in evidence as Exhibit 3. Appellees denied the making of the contract with the appellant and also pleaded affirmatively, as one of several affirmative defenses, that no action could be brought upon the alleged contract under the Ohio Statute of Frauds, Sec. 8621, Ohio General Code, in that the contract was not in writing and could not be performed within one year from the making thereof. After the start of the trial, the appellant filed an "Amended More Definite Statement of Claim" which stated that the terms of the contract were set forth partially in a written proposal presented by the Company to the representatives of the Unions, and partially in oral statements made by the Company to representatives of the Unions; that the full terms contained in the alleged contract were set forth in the attached exhibit with certain specified changes; that none of the provisions of the contract was conditional on the signing of a written agreement; and that said contract was entered into on March 26, 1949 effective March 28, 1949 and that its termination date was midnight March 26, 1950.

The evidence at the trial showed the following: The 1948 agreement between the Company and Local No. 68 was executed on February 24, 1948, effective March 1, 1948, and was to continue in effect until February 28, 1949 and for each succeeding year thereafter unless either party gave sixty days written notice previous to the expiration date. By letter of December 13, 1948, serving as the official 60-day notice in the matter, the Company was notified that it was the desire of Local No. 68 to open negotiations on changes in the agreement. The parties entered into collective bargaining negotiations in February 1949. Five meetings were held between the Company and a committee representing Local No. 68. The real issue in dispute was the Company's insistence that Local No. 68 accept its proposal that a so-called Industrial Engineering Method of computing the piece work wage rates of the employees engaged in production molding be put into effect in the foundry, which the employees refused to accept. Local No. 68 applied for a strike sanction from the International Union which was granted. At a meeting on March 3, the Company presented a draft of a proposed contract, which was introduced as Exhibit 19. This was not accepted by the employees. At a meeting on March 17, the Company modified the proposal by making an offer of one week's retroactivity. This was not acceptable to the employees, although the Company was notified at the time that the parties were not far apart. At a meeting on Thursday March 24, the same proposal was discussed with the modification of a change in the percentage for the core roll over machine operator, together with two weeks' retroactivity instead of one. This was to be effective Monday March 28th. At the close of this meeting, the Union representatives advised the Company that they would present the amended proposal to a meeting of the members employed by the Company to be held on Friday night March 25th and that a Union representative would notify the Company on Saturday morning March 26th whether the proposal had been accepted or rejected.

The evidence about what occurred at the meeting on March 25th and what notification the Union representative gave to the Company in a telephone call on Saturday morning March 26th is conflicting. McDaniel, a Vice President of the Company, testified that McCune, a Union representative, advised him that the Company's offer had been accepted. McCune testified that he told McDaniel that the employees voted not to put the strike sanction into effect, and that the employees would begin to work under the proposed plan on Monday, March 28th, and that if it proved to be fair without a cut in wages, the agreement could be signed on Wednesday.

The Company immediately began correcting the piece work price tags in order that the workers would have them when they started to work on Monday morning. The men returned to work on Monday morning and started work under the new contract rates. The new rates proved unsatisfactory, in some instances resulting in a reduction in the daily pay. At the regular weekly meeting of Local No. 68 on Monday night, the committee reported to the Union the action taken at the meeting on Friday night. The Local approved of the plan of continuing at work for awhile instead of striking, and rejected the Company's proposal. Negotiations were continued during the following week. On April 2, 1949, the employees voted to strike. The strike began Monday, April 4, 1949.

At the close of appellant's case, the appellees moved for a directed verdict. The motions were overruled. At the close of all the evidence, the appellees renewed their motions for a directed verdict. The motions were again overruled, and the case was submitted to the jury following instructions by the Court. The jury returned a verdict against both appellees in the amount of $37,500. The appellees filed motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict in accordance with their motions for a directed verdict, and in the alternative also moved for a new trial without specification of any grounds therefor. The District Judge sustained the motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and entered judgments for the defendants. The judgments also stated that the motions for a new trial were well taken on the grounds assigned in the motions for a directed verdict, that the appellant had failed to sustain the burden of proof, and "that in the event of a reversal of the final judgment rendered herein * * * said verdict for the plaintiff is set aside and a new trial granted."

In entering said judgments, the District Judge filed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, in which he found that the action of the employees at the Friday night meeting at its best represented the action of appellant's employees who were members of the Union and did not represent the official action of Local No. 68, a necessary party to the contract; that the correct version of what actually took place at the Friday night meeting was a vote "to not invoke the strike sanction"; that both parties fully intended that neither would be bound unless and until the agreement was signed, and since Local No. 68 did not sign the agreement, no valid contract was entered into between the parties.

Appellant complains of the action of the trial judge in making such Findings of Fact, in that Rule 52 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., providing for such Findings does not authorize them when a case...