Donnelly Garment Co. v. International LGW Union

• Citation: 21 F. Supp. 807
• Decision Date: 31 December 1937
• Docket Number: No. 2924.,2924.
• Parties: DONNELLY GARMENT CO. et al. v. INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GARMENT WORKERS' UNION et al. (DONNELLY GARMENT WORKERS' UNION et al., Interveners).
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri

21 F. Supp. 807

DONNELLY GARMENT CO. et al. v. INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GARMENT WORKERS' UNION et al. (DONNELLY GARMENT WORKERS' UNION et al., Interveners).

No. 2924.

District Court, W. D. Missouri, W. D.

December 31, 1937.

Reed & Ingraham and Hogsett, Murray, Trippe & Depping, all of Kansas City, Mo., for plaintiffs.

Frank P. Walsh, of New York City, and Roy Rucker, Jerome Walsh and Clif Langsdale, all of Kansas City, Mo., for defendants.

Frank Tyler, of Gossett, Ellis, Dietrich & Tyler, all of Kansas City, Mo., for interveners.

Before VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judge, and REEVES and OTIS, District Judges.

VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs are corporations, organized and existing under the laws of the state of Missouri, engaged in the manufacture and sale of ladies' garments and wearing apparel, under the trade-mark "Nelly Don." Said companies, as manufacturer and sales department, have built up a large market for said garments and a wide and profitable business throughout the states of the Union.

Plaintiffs in their amended bill have brought suit against the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, David Dubinsky, its president, several of its other officers, Meyer Perlstein, its southwest regional director, Wave Tobin, manager of its Kansas City Joint Board, and various other members of the International Union, charging that said defendants are engaged in an unlawful confederation and conspiracy to force plaintiffs' employees to join the defendant union, and to compel plaintiffs to force said employees to join defendant union. That for years past the defendants, with other persons united with them, have been, and now are, engaged in a general combination and conspiracy to force all persons, firms, and corporations engaged in the manufacture and sale of ladies' garments in interstate commerce, including plaintiffs herein, to organize their employees into an organization to be part and parcel of the defendant union with the intent thereby to control the employment of labor in, and the operation of, all said business, and to extort from said workers large sums of money by way of dues, fines, penalties, and other exactions; that, in order to carry out such conspiracy and scheme, it was and is the purpose to destroy the interstate trade and commerce of such persons, firms, and corporations, their employees and customers in the several states, until such time as, from the damage and loss of business resulting therefrom, the said employers will yield to defendants' demands and force their employees to join the defendant union and submit to the domination and control of the said union and its officers, thereby denying to such employees the right to bargain for and fix their own wages and conditions of labor, in dealing with their employers, free from influence, domination, and coercion.

It is further charged in the bill of complaint that defendants, in furtherance of said scheme and conspiracy, have organized bodies of lawless persons, not employees of the particular plant to be assaulted, and have caused said gangs to attack the employees of various plants, and to threaten them with great bodily harm if they continue to work and refuse to join the defendant union; that said gangs have assaulted employees who desired to continue their work, most of whom were women, with fists and weapons, tearing of hair, and stripping of clothing, and have threatened other physical harm to them and their families. Such employees have been assaulted on their way to and from work, and have, by violence and force, been prevented from gaining ingress to and egress from their places of business. That in furtherance of said scheme and conspiracy defendants have published and circulated false and libelous reports about the plaintiff companies, and have taken steps to inaugurate secondary boycotts against their customers and their merchandise in various states of the Union; that unlawful acts of this nature have been done and perpetrated against several garment companies in Kansas City within the past few months, and similar reprisals against these plaintiffs have been threatened.

The amended bill of complaint pleads that "this is a suit of a civil nature in equity, wherein the matter in controversy exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum and value of $3,000.00, and which suit arises under laws of the United States known as the Sherman Act 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1-7, 15 note and Clayton Act 38 Stat. 730, including U.S.Code title 15, sections 1, 4, 7, 8, 12, 15, and 26 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1, 4, 7, 8, 12, 15, 26." It prays injunctive relief and protection from and against the alleged unlawful acts threatened.

For their protection the Donnelly Garment Workers' Union and employees of plaintiffs have filed a bill of intervention which is in full harmony with the relief prayed in the bill of complaint, but also seeks protection against coercion from any source, even against compliance of the Donnelly Companies with the demands of defendants, which would incidentally and necessarily impose upon these employees an association against their will. This bill of intervention challenges the constitutionality of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 101 et seq., if it should be held to apply, in addition to asserting a denial of its application.

Defendants generally have filed a motion to dismiss, and certain defendants have filed a motion to vacate the temporary restraining order, a plea in abatement, and a separate answer. In this motion, plea, and answer a number of grounds are stated; but it developed at the hearing, and was announced by counsel for defendants, that the real, if not the only, ground of defense relied upon was the contention that the Norris-LaGuardia Act applies, and deprives this District Court of jurisdiction.

The injection of the constitutional issue by the petition of intervention required submission to a court composed of three judges; and the jurisdiction thus acquired must be extended to a complete determination of the questions presented.

The employees of the Donnelly Garment Companies, over 1300 in number, have completed an organization known as the "Donnelly Garment Workers' Union." They have negotiated with their employers a contract which provides specifically for the wages, hours, terms, and conditions of their employment that are entirely satisfactory to both parties. So far as this hearing shows, they are unanimous in this attitude, and have declared their opposition to affiliation with the defendant union, or with any other unrelated organization. Among these employees there are no members of the defendant union shown by the evidence, and no division exists among them. The proofs overwhelmingly establish that they are neither company inspired nor dominated. To insure their full independence of action, they have consulted able counsel of their own choosing, and have perfected their organization in full accord with the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. Inasmuch as no division exists in that organization, and since no complaint from any source has been lodged with the Labor Board, challenging the good faith of this union, the proper selection of its bargaining representatives, nor the terms and conditions of its contract of employment, no necessity exists for enlisting further the functions of any Labor Board, nor the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act. National Labor Relations Board v. Delaware-New Jersey Ferry Co., 3 Cir., 90 F.2d 520, certiorari denied 58 S.Ct. 141, 82 L.Ed. ___.

In the cited case the National Labor Relations Board had taken cognizance of a complaint of unfair practices, and asked enforcement of its order commanding the Ferry Company to desist from refusing to bargain collectively with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association as the exclusive representative of engineers-employees of the Ferry Company. The court, declaring that the primary purpose of the National Labor Relations Act was to "obviate appeals to brute force which often accompany labor disputes," found that the employee engineers had unanimously entered into a contract with the company on terms acceptable to them, and declined to enforce the board's order. In the course of the opinion Judge Dickinson said: "There is now no controversy; no complaint; no grievance. * * * There is in consequence nothing to negotiate."

This decision was made despite the fact that the matter had been before the Labor Board upon complaint of unfair practices, and that Board had found that the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association had been, and still was, the representative of the licensed engineers for collective bargaining. Nevertheless, the unanimous action of the employees was made conclusive. In the case at bar, no complaint has been filed, and the employees of the plaintiff companies have acted unanimously in the selection of their representatives and in the negotiation of their contract.

The Donnelly Companies do an aggregate annual volume of business of $5,000,000. Customers residing and doing business in many states outside the state of Missouri purchase more than 80 per cent. of the "Nelly Don" garments manufactured in Kansas City, and commitments for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of raw materials used in such manufacture have already been made, and are recurringly made, in the conduct of the business. The combination charged will interrupt the free flow of raw materials from foreign countries and states outside the state of Missouri, and the free flow of such manufactured garments from the state of Missouri to states and points outside. Therefore, the National Labor Relations Act applies to plaintiffs under the authority of National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, 301 U.S. 1, 57 S.Ct. 615, 81 L.Ed. 893, 108 A.L.R. 1352, as held in National Labor Relations Board v. Friedman-Harry Marks Clothing Co., 301 U.S. 58, 57 S.Ct. 645,...