Aladdin Industries, Inc. v. Associated Transport, Inc.

• Decision Date: 27 July 1956
• Citation: 298 S.W.2d 770,42 Tenn.App. 52
• Parties: ALADDIN INDUSTRIES, Inc. v. ASSOCIATED TRANSPORT, Inc., et al.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 770

298 S.W.2d 770

42 Tenn.App. 52

ALADDIN INDUSTRIES, Inc. v. ASSOCIATED TRANSPORT, Inc., et al.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, Middle Section.

July 27, 1956.

Certiorari Denied by Supreme Court Feb. 8, 1957.

Waller, Davis & Lansden, Nashville, for Aladdin Industries, inc.

Cooper, Mitch & Black, Birmingham, Ala., and Williams, Harwell, Howser & Thomas, Nashville, for appellant Truck Drivers.

Moore, Crownover, Branstetter, Folk & Fisher, Nashville, for appellants Local 327 and Don Vestal.

FELTS, Judge.

The principal case is an injunction suit by a shipper against 14 common carriers to compel them to continue rendering complainant their customary service, which they had stopped because their truck drivers refused to cross another union's picket line at complainant's plant. After a hearing, the Chancellor granted a preliminary injunction, as prayed, which, following the practice in equity, ran against defendants 'and their officers, agents, and employees'. That case is still pending below.

The phase of it now before us is an ancillary proceeding against some of these employees, their union, and its officers, for contempt for violating the injunction. After a trial, the Chancellor sustained charges of contempt against 13 of these truck drivers and their union, Local Union No. 327 of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Helpers, and Taxicab Drivers (hereinafter called Local 327) and its president, Don Vestal; and entered a decree adjudging them guilty of contempt, sentencing each of the men to three days in jail, and taxing Local 327 with all the costs.

They appealed and contend that the Chancery Court had no jurisdiction of the case, and no power to grant the injunction or to punish them for disobeying it; that the injunction was void, they had a right so to treat it, and could not be held in contempt for doing so. Churchwell v. Callens, 36 Tenn.App. 119, 252 S.W.2d 131; United States v. United Mine Workers of America, 330 U.S. 258-385, 67 S.Ct. 677, 91 L.Ed. 884-961.

They urge that the court had no jurisdiction of the subject matter, because it involved a 'labor dispute' within the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board, or a transportation matter within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission or the Tennessee Public Service Commission. They further contend that the Chancellor's decree deprived them of their right to freedom of speech under the Constitutions of the United States and of Tennessee, and that the evidence does not support the decree.

Complainant, Aladdin Industries, Inc., has a plant just outside the city limits of Nashville where it manufactures goods. It ships large amounts of materials to the plant and large quantities of manufactured products from the plant. Such shipments are both intra- and interstate, and have been customarily carried by defendant carriers, which maintain pickup and delivery service at the plant. Complainant is largely dependent on such service for continuance of its business.

Defendants are corporations and common carriers of freight by motor truck, operating under certificates of convenience and necessity from the Interstate Commerce Commission and from the Tennessee Public Service Commission. Their truck drivers and helpers are all members of Local 327, with which defendants have a collective bargaining contract which covers these employees and which contains the following provision:

'It shall not be in violation of this contract if any employee or employees refuse to go through the picket line of a Union or refuse to handle 'unfair goods.' Nor shall the exercise of any rights permitted by law be violation of this contract. The Union agrees that in the event the Employer becomes involved in a controversy with any other Union, the Union will do all in its power to help effect a fair settlement' (Art. XI, p. 10, Ex. 1, Gilliam, tr. end Vol. 1).

Aladdin Radio Industries, Inc., is another and different corporation from complainant, engaged in a different business, but is an affiliate of complainant and leases and occupies space in complainant's plant, both of them using the same entrances to the plant. Each of them, however, has its own separate employees, represented by different unions. The representative and collective bargaining agent of employees of the affiliate is Local Union No. 5003 of the United Steelworkers of America, while such agent for complainant's employees is Local Union No. 4802 of the United Steelworkers.

The collective bargaining contract between Local 5003 and Aladdin Radio Industries, Inc., covering its employees expired January 24, 1955, the employees went on strike next day, and Local 5003 placed pickets at the entrances to complainant's plant and has maintained them ever since. Complainant's employees, however, did not strike but continued to work, and have continued to pass back and forth across the other union's picket lines.

Likewise, defendant carriers continued their customary pickup and delivery service at the plant, and their truck drivers and freight-handling employees, members of Local 327, continued to cross the other union's picket lines at complainant's plant without objection. But early in February 1955, a number of defendant carriers ceased to render service at complainant's plant, and refused to permit complainant to come to their freight yeards and pick up freight consigned to it, because their employees had become unwilling to cross Local 5003's picket line at its plant or to handle freight for it.

On February 8, 1955, complainant filed its bill against seven of the carriers which were refusing to handle freight for it. On February 11, 1955, as before stated, the Chancellor granted a temporary injunction, as prayed, enjoining defendants 'and their officers, agents, employees', and 'confederates from failing and refusing to provide customary service to complainant, under the legally established rates and rules applicable to such service, as the same had been rendered before February 3, 1955'.

When this injunction was served on defendants and their employees were notified of it, they began complying with it, the carriers resumed their customary service to complainant, carrying shipments to and from its plant, their employees crossing 5003's picket lines without trouble. They continued to furnish the service from February 11, when the injunction was served, until May 17, 1955, when the carriers again quit rendering the service, because their employees now refused to cross the picket lines.

Complainant then began filing petitions against the carriers, their employees, Local 327, its officers, and Local 5003 and its officers, for contempt for disobeying the injunction, alleging specific instances of such disobedience and of refusals to make requested shipments or deliveries of freight for complainant. These refusals persisted, and there were six successive contempt petitions filed. We need not detail the contents of each of them.

The main charge in them was that Local 327, its officers, Local 5003, and its officers, entered into a conspiracy to violate the injunction and to induce the truck drivers to violate it by refusing to cross the picket line to render the service at the plant; that on June 1, 1955, Local 327 placed persons at the plant with a large sign: 'Teamsters Local Union 327', with a statement beneath in small type: 'We invite the office employees of this plant to join the Teamsters Union'; that Local 327 had no authority to organize complainant's office workers; and that this was not a bona fide picket sign but a subterfuge to induce Local 327's members, the truck drivers, to continue disobeying the injunction.

It was further charged that Local 327 continued to keep these persons with this sign at the plant, continued to maintain this subterfuge; that these persons were stopping the truck drivers and threatening them with harm or disciplinary action if they drove defendant carrier's trucks across the picket line into the plant to deliver or pick up freight for complainant; and that they were persisting in willfully disobeying the court's injunction.

These two unions, their officers, and many of the truck drivers filed pleas denying that the court had jurisdiction of the subject matter of the suit and averring that exclusive jurisdiction of it was in the National Labor Relations Board. A number of these truck drivers brought this question to this Court by petition for certiorari and supersedeas, which was denied in an opinion filed July 22, 1955, unreported.

These pleas were overruled by the Chancellor and answers were filed denying the charges. Local 327 admitted that it had placed the persons with the sign at the plant, but averred that this was a picket line set up by it in good faith to organize complainant's office workers. Appellant truck drivers admitted that they had refused to cross the picket line or render the service, but averred that the reason for their refusals was their fear of violence to themselves or their families if they crossed the picket line.

Meanwhile, there were a number of hearings before the Chancellor upon the question of his jurisdiction and upon some of the contempt petitions. He concluded he had jurisdiction and on June 13, 1955, entered an order dismissing the first three contempt petitions and stating that the injunction theretofore issued would be strictly enforced even though it required employees of the carriers to cross a picket line at complainant's plant, but that no bona fide member of Local 5003 would be required to cross its own picket line at the plant.

Thereafter, there were further hearings before the Chancellor upon the other contempt petitions. He found that the carriers had in each instance dispatched their truck drivers to render the service, and had done their best to comply with the injunction; and he dismissed the petitions as to them. He also dismissed the petitions for want of proof as to all the...