Fitzgerald v. Haynes, 12124.

• Decision Date: 15 February 1957
• Docket Number: No. 12124.,12124.
• Citation: 241 F.2d 417
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit
• Parties: Albert J. FITZGERALD, individually and as representative of the members of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, of America (UE), Appellant, v. Norman HAYNES, Matthew Shelly, John Mapstone, Vanetta Groce, Marian Hart, Jean Johnson, Hazel Frederick, Rex Greeley, Earl Caton, Ruth Ohl, Freda Schwenkmeyer, Benjamin Riskin, and Alfred Ellis.

241 F.2d 417 (1957)

Albert J. FITZGERALD, individually and as representative of the members of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, of America (UE), Appellant, v. Norman HAYNES, Matthew Shelly, John Mapstone, Vanetta Groce, Marian Hart, Jean Johnson, Hazel Frederick, Rex Greeley, Earl Caton, Ruth Ohl, Freda Schwenkmeyer, Benjamin Riskin, and Alfred Ellis.

No. 12124.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued January 21, 1957.

Decided February 15, 1957.

Rehearing Denied March 25, 1957.

David Cohen, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellant.

Plato E. Papps, Washington, D. C. (Martin R. Bradley, Jr., Buffalo, N. Y., Robert Wise, Williamsport, Pa., on the brief), for appellees.

Before GOODRICH, McLAUGHLIN and HASTIE, Circuit Judges.

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.

The question on this appeal is whether the district court erred in dismissing a complaint in which the present appellant asked that the appellees be restrained from using or disposing of property said to belong to two local labor unions. The controversy was presented as one between a citizen of Massachusetts and citizens of Pennsylvania and, therefore, within federal jurisdiction.

Appellant Fitzgerald is president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, an unincorporated national labor organization, hereinafter designated UE. His complaint states that he sues in the interest of UE and its members. There are thirteen defendants. A majority of them are sued as recent officers of Local 636 or Local 639, local unions chartered by and affiliated with UE. The remaining defendants are recent field representatives of UE, assigned to the area of Pennsylvania where the two locals functioned.

The assets of the two locals are said to include real property, tangible personal property and a collective bargaining contract with Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. The complaint alleges that the defendants had the fiduciary duty of administering this property for the benefit of the locals and, in the event of the disbandment of a local, to surrender its assets to UE, but that, in disregard of their duty, the defendants conspired to cause the locals to secede from UE and affiliate with a rival labor organization, International Association of Machinists. The complaint also speaks of "purported meetings" of the locals in furtherance of the conspiracy and purported assignments of the Sylvania collective bargaining contract to the rival Machinists. In addition, the defendants are said to continue to maintain control of the real property and the money of the locals, but for the purposes of the Machinists rather than UE.

The complaint asks for equitable relief in the form of a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from using the funds or other property of the locals or placing these assets "beyond the reach of UE", from receiving dues, checkoff payments or other union money payable to the locals, and from representing that the locals have "seceded or disaffiliated from UE" or that rights under the collective bargaining agreement between the UE locals and Sylvania have been assigned to the Machinists.

One additional aspect of the complaint is important. The entire pleading is predicated upon the present and continuing existence of Locals 636 and 639 as affiliates of UE, although this is nowhere explicitly stated. It is asserted that the two locals are presently entitled to a monthly checkoff of dues. One of the prayers asks that the defendants "be restrained from representing that Local 636 and Local 639, or the members thereof, have seceded or disaffiliated from UE". Moreover, the complaint quotes a provision of the UE constitution that any disbandment or disaffiliation of a local "shall be invalid and null and void if seven or more members indicate the desire to retain the local charter". Apparently, the contention that the locals survive as UE affiliates is based upon this provision. In addition, appellees have brought to our attention and we take judicial notice, as the district court apparently did in its opinion, that Locals 636 and 639, UE are even now contesting a representation proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board to determine whether these UE locals or rival Machinists' locals shall be recognized as bargaining representatives for the Sylvania employees. We think it is clearly the theory of the complaint and the position of UE that Locals 636 and 639 still exist and function as UE affiliates, and as such have full right and title to the assets in controversy. The gravamen of the complaint is that, in violation of their duty as officers of UE locals, the defendants have caused a purported, but legally ineffective, transfer of affiliation, tangible assets and bargaining contracts of the two local labor organizations from UE to the Machinists and, pursuant to that secession, will, if not restrained, put these assets beyond the reach of UE.

The foregoing analysis bears directly upon a major issue in this case, namely, whether Local 636 and Local 639, which are not joined or represented in this suit, are indispensable parties to the litigation. Appellees say that these locals are indispensable parties and that their absence in itself justified the dismissal of the complaint. We address ourselves to that contention.

The subject matter of the complaint is union property. The two locals are alleged to own this property. Such ownership connotes the right to use and dispose of the property as the exigencies of union affairs may require. On the theory of the complaint itself the essential controversy must be between loyalists who now constitute the UE locals and secessionists who have gone over to the Machinists, each group claiming to be entitled to the property owned by the local labor organization when the secession...