District No. 21 United Mine Workers of America v. Bourland

• Decision Date: 09 November 1925
• Docket Number: 217
• Citation: 277 S.W. 546,169 Ark. 796
• Parties: DISTRICT NO. 21 UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA v. BOURLAND
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

277 S.W. 546

169 Ark. 796

DISTRICT NO. 21 UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA v. BOURLAND

No. 217

Supreme Court of Arkansas

November 9, 1925

Prohibition to Sebastian Chancery Court, Ft. Smith District J. V. Bourland, Chancellor; writ awarded.

STATEMENT OF FACTS.

This is an application by District No. 21, United Mine Workers of America and certain individuals, who are members of said association, for a writ of prohibition to the chancellor of the Tenth Chancery District of Arkansas to restrain proceedings on a receivership.

The facts upon which the application is made as stated in their petition and admitted are the following:

On the 19th day of June, 1925, the Greenwood Coal Company, Mammoth Vein Colliery Company, and the Backbone Coal Company filed a complaint in the Sebastian Chancery Court for the Ft. Smith District against District No. 21, United Mine Workers of America, certain locals of said Association in Sebastian Franklin, Johnson, Logan and Pope counties in the State of Arkansas, and certain individuals who are members of said locals.

According to the allegations of the complaint, District No. 21, United Mine Workers of America, is a voluntary unincorporated association which embraces the States of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas; said district is a subdivision of the United Mine Workers of America, a voluntary unincorporated association international in its scope; said district is subdivided into locals which are designated by numbers; each of the individual defendants is a member of said association, and belongs to some one of the numerous locals composing said district; William Dalrymple is president of the defendant district, Gomer Jones, vice- president, M. N. Henson, secretary-treasurer, and Robert Kindrick, James Douglass, James Bell, Frank Manning, and Lawrence Santi, are board members composing what is commonly called the district executive board. Robert Kendrick is a citizen of Franklin County, Ark., James Douglas and M. N. Henson are citizens of Sebastian County, and the other officers and board members are residents of Oklahoma. The membership of said district in the three States named aggregates several hundred. Said defendants and all other members of said association are engaged in mining coal and working around coal mines in said States. They mine coal and work around coal mines under a contract with the coal operators and their agents and representatives. The members of said association pay dues and assessments which are divided into various funds, known as a general fund, defense fund, etc. The plaintiffs in the original suit are engaged in operating coal mines, and the members of said association have been engaged in mining coal and otherwise working in their coal mines. The members of the association went on a strike and have resorted to threats, intimidations, coercion, violence, and lawlessness to compel the owners of the coal mines to accede to their demands. The members of said association have assaulted and severely injured some of the servants of the plaintiffs. They have damaged and destroyed a large amount of mining property of the plaintiffs.

The prayer of the complaint of the plaintiffs in the original suit is that the defendant district, the individuals named in the complaint, and all other members of said district, and those associated with them, be enjoined from destroying any of the property of the plaintiffs, and from going upon their property and interfering in any manner with their agents and employees. A temporary restraining order, as prayed for in the complaint, was issued by the chancery court on the 19th day of June, 1925.

An amendment to the complaint was filed by the plaintiffs on August 31, 1925. It is alleged in it that, since the issuance of the temporary restraining order, the defendants and their associates have daily violated the injunction order and have destroyed the property of the plaintiffs.

The Backbone Coal Company states that the defendants and their associates have burned and destroyed the tipple at its mine in Sebastian County, and that it has been compelled to abandon the operation of its mine. It alleges that, by reason of the destruction of its property, it has been damaged in the sum of $ 30,000.

The Mammoth Vein Colliery Company alleges that it is prevented from operating its mine in Sebastian County, Ark.; that by violence and threats the defendants and other associates prevented the plaintiff from procuring employees to operate its mine, and to prevent the destruction of its property by the accumulation of water; that by reason of said threats it has been prevented from protecting its machinery and pumping the water out of its mine; that the accumulated water has destroyed large quantities of its machinery and mine tracks, and that by reason of the loss of its property it has been damaged in the sum of $ 35,000.

The Greenwood Coal Company alleges that its officers and employees have been assaulted by the defendants and their associates, and some of them have been forced to leave its employment. As a result of this intimidation, its daily tonnage has been greatly reduced, and it has suffered damages as the result of these lawless acts in the sum of $ 25,000.

The amendment to the complaint concludes with a prayer, which is as follows:

"Wherefore, premises considered, plaintiffs pray: First: That the court appoint a receiver to take charge of all the funds belonging to said district and due and payable to it by the parties named, and any others not named, and any and all funds belonging to the locals as named, or due and payable to them or either of them.

"Second: That each of the banks and each coal company named herein be required by proper order to turn over any sum or sums in their hands belonging to the defendant district or any of the locals named herein, also to turn over to such receiver any sums coming to their hands in the future belonging to the defendant district or any of the locals named herein.

"Third: That upon final hearing plaintiff Backbone Coal Company prays that it be given judgment for damages in the sum of $ 30,000; plaintiff Mammoth Vein Colliery Company prays for judgment in the sum of $ 35,000; plaintiff Greenwood Coal Company prays for judgment in the sum of $ 25,000.

"The plaintiffs pray that the sums in the hands of the receiver, or so much thereof that may be necessary, be applied in payment of the judgment here prayed for and cost of this action."

On the same day the chancellor of the Sebastian Chancery Court, Ft. Smith District, appointed a receiver as prayed for by the plaintiffs.

In the order appointing him, the receiver was directed to take charge of any and all sums held for and in behalf of the defendant district or the locals in all banks and coal companies.

The officers of the defendant district and locals named in the amendment to the complaint are ordered to turn over to the receiver all sums in their hands belonging to the defendant district and locals and all sums that may come to their hands in the future.

The receiver is directed to hold these funds until further orders of the court. The receiver is also directed to take charge of the property belonging to the district and the locals and to preserve the same until further orders of the court.

On September 24, 1925, the defendants filed a motion in the chancery court to vacate and set aside the order made by the chancellor in vacation appointing a receiver as aforesaid.

The chancery court overruled said motion, and the defendant excepted to the ruling of the court. Subsequently the application for a writ of prohibition was filed in this court, and the chancellor given due notice thereof.

Writ granted.

S. P. Freeling, C. E. B. Cutler and Dave Partain, for appellant.

Webb Covington and Evans & Evans, for appellee.

G. L. Grant, amicus curiae.

HARTY, J. SMITH, J., concurs.

OPINION

HARTY, J., (after stating the facts).

The case not being here on appeal, but upon prohibition, our consideration must be confined to the question of the power of the chancery court to appoint a receiver in a case of this sort. The office of the writ of prohibition is to restrain an inferior tribunal from proceeding in a matter not within its jurisdiction; but it is never granted unless the inferior tribunal has clearly exceeded its authority and the party applying for it has no other protection against the wrong that shall be done by such usurpation. Russell v. Jacoway, 33 Ark. 191; and Monette Road Imp. Dist. v. Dudley, 144 Ark. 169, 222 S.W. 59, and cases cited.

In the latter case it was also held that the writ of prohibition lies where an inferior court is proceeding in a manner beyond its jurisdiction, and where the remedy by appeal, though available, is inadequate. The court said that the litigant is not bound to submit to the exercise of jurisdiction not authorized by law, even though he has the right of appeal after the exercise of the jurisdiction has been consummated and has resulted in a judgment from which he can appeal. The reason given was that, if the absence of the right of appeal was essential to the issuance of a writ of prohibition, then that remedy would be entirely unavailing in any case; for under our Constitution the right of appeal is granted in all judicial proceedings. In the same section of the Constitution giving the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction, it is also invested with a general superintending control over all inferior courts of law and equity with power to issue writs of habeas corpus, prohibition, mandamus, quo warranto and other remedial writs and to hear and determine the same. The writ of prohibition is an appropriate remedy to restrain the exercise of jurisdiction by an inferior court over...