Baltic Mining Co. v. Houghton Circuit Judge

• Court: Supreme Court of Michigan
• Citation: 144 N.W. 209,177 Mich. 632
• Parties: BALTIC MINING CO. et al. v. HOUGHTON CIRCUIT JUDGE.
• Decision Date: 10 December 1913

177 Mich. 632
144 N.W. 209

BALTIC MINING CO. et al.
v.
HOUGHTON CIRCUIT JUDGE.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Dec. 10, 1913.

Original petition by the Baltic Mining Company and others for writ of mandamus against Houghton Circuit Judge. Writ issued.

[144 N.W. 209]

Rees, Robinson & Petermann, of Houghton (Hanchette & Lawton, of Hancock, and Otto Kirchner, of Detroit, of counsel), for relators.

A. W. Kerr, of Calumet, Le Gendre & Dris coll, of Iron Wood, and E. A. McNally, of Cal umet, for respondent.

PER CURIAM.

On October 7, 1913, relators filed in this court their petition for a mandamus to the circuit judge of Houghton county directing him to set aside and vacate an order made September 29, 1913, dissolving a preliminary writ of injunction previously granted by him and issued from his court restraining certain acts of violence and intimidation charged in the bill of complaint asking therefor; and also praying that pending these proceedings this court suspend such order of dissolution and continue said injunction in force. On October 8, 1913, an order to show cause why a writ of mandamus should not issue was granted, returnable November 4th ensuing, and the order of the lower court dissolving said injunction was stayed and suspended pendente lite, with the provision that peaceable meeting and parading be not restrained.

The bill of complaint, pursuant to which the temporary injunction in question issued, was filed by relators in Houghton county against the Western Federation of Miners, a voluntary, unincorporated society known as a labor union, its district and local unions, their officers and members. Said bill, after stating the organization and situation of the parties and averring that a general strike was called and inaugurated by defendants in the copper mining district of Lake Superior, on July 23, 1913; that upward of 4,000 miners in complainants' employ not allied with defendants refused to participate in the

[144 N.W. 210]

strike, and endeavored to continue at work; that defendants by threats and violence interfered with and drove them from their work, stopped the pumps at the mines, causing the latter to partially fill with water, and thus forcing suspension of work in many places; that a condition of violence and lawlessness developed in the district where the strike prevailed beyond the power of the civil authorities to control, resulting in the Governor of the state sending there the entire military force of the Commonwealth to preserve order, and protect persons and property, but, nevertheless, the acts of violence, disorder, and intimidation of those desirous of work continued-further charges, amongst other things, ‘that from the day of the inception of the said strike the said defendants did * * * unlawfully combine and conspire together * * * with the illegal intent and unlawful purpose and by illegal and unlawful means, to prevent the employés of your orators, and of each of them from working at the mines and other operations of your orators, * * * and to force the cessation of all operations of your orators,’ * * * and * * * ‘the said defendants, members of said federation, at the several mines and premises of your orators and in the vicinity or neighborhood thereof, have assaulted and beaten many of the employés of your orators in cases far too numerous to mention or set forth, and that such assaults and beatings, threats of bodily harm, intimidations, violence, and riotous conduct continue daily to the time of the filing of this bill’ * * * and that members of the said federation ‘have systematically and do now systematically, unlawfully by threats, intimidations, force, violence, assaults, picketing, threatening parades, riotous and threatening gatherings in large numbers, and by other unlawful means, interfere with and molest and disturb, without authority of law, the mechanics and laborers who are employés of your orators in the quiet and peaceable pursuit of their respective lawful avocations, contrary to the statute in such case made and provided;’ * * * and ‘that in such furtherance of said unlawful combination and conspiracy, the said defendants * * * from day to day, with great force and violence, do attack various of the employés of your orators and do throw rocks and stones and other missiles at them, and do gather in threatening numbers, and with threats of violence and of injury to the persons of said employés and their families, about the dwellings and residences of said employés, and do threaten violence and injury to said employés and their families and destruction of their homes, unless they, the said employés, refrain and desist from working for your orators. And they, the said defendants, members of said federation, with their wives and others conspiring with them, do gather in numbers on and along the highways and other ways by which said employés pass to and from their work, and do threaten and attempt to intimidate the said employés, and in instances too numerous to mention or specifically set forth, have attacked, assaulted, and beaten the employés of your orators and endeavored from day to day to forcibly and by violence and by threats and intimidations to prevent the employés of your orators from going to their work;’ * * * ‘have in large numbers picketed the localities of the homes and residences of the said employés of your orators, and also the highways and other ways by which they pass to and from their work, and in instances too numerous to mention, have done this with their wives and other women of their families, and have attacked and assaulted the said employés with brooms dipped in filth of the worst description, and have thrown such filth at the said employés, and thereby, and by other means of violence, have from day to day and continuously endeavored forcibly to prevent the said employés from working for your orators; that the said illegal acts and doings of the said defendants still continue from day to day, and that the said defendants threaten and intend to continue the same, whereby your orators aver that they and each of them are from day to day subject to the same and to the great and irreparable damage to their respective properties and business, as well as to the great financial losses resulting therefrom, and that the said defendants are wholly financially irresponsible, and could not in any degree respond to your orators or either or any of them in damages.’ In conclusion, an injunction to restrain such alleged unlawful acts is asked for in a proper prayer for relief.

The bill is sworn to by seven officers and...