Brennan v. United States

• Decision Date: 08 April 1957
• Docket Number: No. 15557-15560.,15557-15560.
• Citation: Brennan v. United States, 240 F.2d 253 (8th Cir. 1957)
• Parties: Sidney L. BRENNAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. Eugene J. WILLIAMS, also known as Gene Williams, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. Jack J. JORGENSEN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. Gerald P. CONNELLY, also known as Jerry Connelly, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

240 F.2d 253 (1957)

Sidney L. BRENNAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

Eugene J. WILLIAMS, also known as Gene Williams, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

Jack J. JORGENSEN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

Gerald P. CONNELLY, also known as Jerry Connelly, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

Nos. 15557-15560.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

January 21, 1957.

Writ of Certiorari Denied April 8, 1957.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Edward Bennett Williams, Washington, D. C. (Thomas A. Wadden, Jr., Agnes A. Neill, Washington, D. C., Elmer J. Ryan, St. Paul, Minn., Benedict S. Deinard, Melvin H. Siegel, and Thomas O. Kachelmacher, Minneapolis, Minn., were with him on the brief), for appellants.

Clifford Janes, Asst. U. S. Atty., St. Paul, Minn. (George E. MacKinnon, U. S. Atty., Kenneth G. Owens, and Allen I. Saeks, Asst. U. S. Attys., St. Paul, Minn., were with him on the brief), for appellee.

Before GARDNER, Chief Judge, VOGEL, Circuit Judge, and HARPER, District Judge.

Writ of Certiorari Denied April 8, 1957. See 77 S.Ct. 718.

GARDNER, Chief Judge.

Appellants were indicted, tried and convicted on an indictment charging them with a conspiracy to violate the Labor Management Relations Act under section 371, Title 18 U.S.C. and with violations of the Labor Management Relations Act, sections 186(a), (b) and (d), Title 29 U.S.C.A. Count I of the indictment charged a conspiracy between appellants and Gerald J. Connelly and George J. Rutman to violate certain provisions of section 186(b), Title 29 U.S. C.A. which makes it unlawful for any representative of any employees who are employed in an industry affecting commerce, with certain exceptions not here material, to receive or accept from the employer of such employees any money or other thing of value. Gerald J. Connelly and George J. Rutman, although charged as being co-conspirators with appellants, were not indicted.

Count II of the indictment charged that the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company paid $1,000 each to appellants Brennan, Williams and Jorgensen and that such payment was aided and abetted by appellant Connelly and by James W. Moore. Count III of the indictment charged that appellant Brennan accepted $1,000 from the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, while counts IV and V of the indictment charged Williams and Jorgensen respectively with accepting like amounts from the same source. There is no material conflict in the evidence as appellants offered no evidence.

At all times pertinent to the issues here involved Archer-Daniels-Midland Company was a corporation and James W. Moore was its vice-president. It was engaged in processing various types of oil and operated a linseed oil plant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, employing approximately five hundred employees. The employees were classified as production workers and as over-the-road truck drivers. The production workers for collective bargaining purposes were represented by United Mine Workers and the over-the-road truck drivers were represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. In March of 1953 the production workers went out on strike at the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company mill. They were demanding a wage increase and a pension plan. Strike negotiations were at first handled on behalf of the company by one Arnold W. Williams, its Director of Industrial Relations, who was later replaced by James W. Moore, a vice-president, and James Akehurst, an assistant vice-president of the company, who thereafter assumed active control of all negotiations on behalf of the company.

Appellant Connelly approached George J. Rutman, president of Sta-Vis Oil Company, one of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company's suppliers, and asked him to arrange a meeting between himself and James W. Moore. Such arrangement having been made, Connelly thereafter met with Moore and Akehurst on numerous occasions. Shortly after the first meeting between them the officials of both the company and the Minneapolis Teamsters met at a luncheon. At these meetings a plan was evolved to end the strike through a back-to-work movement by having the production workers overthrow their strike leaders and return to their jobs, notwithstanding the United Mine Workers Strike Committee, and then the Teamsters, through a new Local, and the company would formalize the contract, the terms of which were arranged at these meetings, covering all production workers. It was also agreed at these meetings that $5,000 would be paid appellants for effecting this, through the appellant Connelly. It was the thought of these negotiators that the United Mine Workers could not successfully oppose such a contract recognition of the Teamsters by the company because the United Mine Workers had not filed the non-Communist affidavit required by the National Labor Relations Act and, hence, was ineligible to appear on any National Labor Relations Board election representation ballot. It was believed that by this plan the United Mine Workers' hold on the company's employees would be broken and its place taken by the Teamsters. Connelly stated and represented that the Teamsters "had the plant" and that in the planned back-to-work movement the Teamsters would cross the United Mine Workers' picket lines.

About the time the arrangements to pay the $5,000 were made and while the strike continued, the Teamsters began to increase their activity in organizing Archer-Daniels-Midland Company's employees. Also about this time a general organizational meeting of Teamsters personnel was convened at appellant Williams' Minneapolis bar and he invited some of the Mine Workers Negotiating Committee to his bar where they discussed the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company strike situation. Appellant Jorgensen who had recently accomplished a shift of union affiliation to the Teamsters of employees of another large employer also met with some of the Mine Workers' leaders and on May 18, 1953, the back-to-work movement was attempted but failed.

On May 26, 1953, in response to a prior request by Moore, George J. Rutman mailed a check for $5,000 on behalf of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company to Gerald J. Connelly, the son of appellant Connelly, in Chicago, Illinois. The check was drawn payable to "National Sales Representatives", a fictitious, non-existent organization. Young Connelly deposited the money in a new bank account which he had opened for the sole purpose of handling the payment and simultaneously drew and mailed to Minneapolis separate $1,000 checks payable to appellants Brennan, Williams and Jorgensen respectively and a $900 check to appellant Connelly. The balance he retained for himself. "National Sales Representatives, by Gerald J. Connelly" appeared as maker on each of the checks. Each appellant cashed his check.

The strike was settled on June 3, 1953, by agreement between the company and the United Mine Workers and all production workers returned to their jobs. The Teamsters, however, were not successful in switching the production workers to their union and the company's over-the-road truck drivers continued throughout to be covered by a contract with the Teamsters union.

During 1953 and 1954 appellant Brennan was first vice-president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, secretary-treasurer and one of the business agents of Teamsters Local 544, vice-president of Teamsters Joint Council 32 and a board member of the Central States Conference of Teamsters. His name was listed as a member of the negotiating committee of the Central States Drivers Council by virtue of his position as an International vice-president. During 1953 and 1954 appellant Williams was recording secretary of Teamsters Local 544 and he also served as a business agent for Local 544, in which capacity he negotiated contracts and settled grievances for the Local. Appellant Jorgensen belonged to Teamsters Local 359 and during 1953 and 1954 he served as president of the Teamsters Joint Council 32. He was also chairman of the miscellaneous division of the Central States Conference of Teamsters and a member of the National Policy Committee of the National Teamsters Warehouse Conference. Local 544 was affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and with Teamsters Joint Council 32. Joint Council 32 was an organization composed of twenty to twenty-three Teamsters locals. The Central States Conference of Teamsters was composed of all local Teamsters unions in twelve middle western states, including Minnesota. It was divided in various divisions and the Central States Drivers Council was one of those divisions.

To determine the authority of the appellants Brennan, Williams and Jorgensen to represent the employees of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company recourse must be had to the Constitution of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers and to the constitutions and by-laws of the various Teamsters organizations. The powers conferred by the constitutions and by-laws of the various Teamsters organizations involved are summarized in the government's brief as follows:

"Much of the power and authority of Teamster officials is conferred by the Constitution of the Teamsters International. All local unions are chartered thereunder and constitute a part of the larger organization. As a matter of contract they agree to abide by the International Constitution. Local union `representation\' in International conventions is regulated; a payment of dues and taxes is required as a requisite for representation. The President of the International has broad powers of supervision and appointment and upon request of a local union executive board may direct a referendum vote by the local union. He is given broad judicial power to decide questions of law and to settle and determine all grievances submitted by subordinate unions and bodies. Disobedient local unions may

...