Fruit Dispatch Co. v. National Maritime Union of America
| Decision Date | 12 March 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 193,193 |
| Parties | FRUIT DISPATCH COMPANY v. NATIONAL MARITIME UNION OF AMERICA et al. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Cooper, Ostrin & DeVarco, New York City, and Donald V. Organ, New Orleans, for defendants-appellants.
Ashton Phelps and Philip E. Henderson, of Phelps, Dunbar, Marks, Claverie & Sims, Richard C. Keenan, of Kullman & Lang, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before REGAN, YARRUT and SAMUEL, JJ.
Defendants have appealed devolutively from a judgment of the District Court granting a preliminary injunction restraining defendants, their agents, etc., from picketing or in any manner interfering with the discharge, at the Port of New Orleans, of those Honduran ships operated by Empresa Hondurena De Vapores, S.A., which transport cargoes, mostly bananas, to plaintiff, more particularly the ten ships named. The picketing was to compel the owners to permit the ships' crews to vote whether defendant Union should represent them as their bargaining agent.
Plaintiff, a corporation organized under the laws of New Jersey, is authorized to and does business in Louisiana and other places; is the consignee of cargoes shipped from Central and South American countries on vessels, some owned by Empresa Hondurena de Vapores, S.A. (herein referred to as Empresa) a Honduran corporation, and some by Balboa Steamship Company, (herein referred to as Balboa) a Panamanian corporation; all operated by Empresa (flying the Honduran flag) with foreign seamen under foreign articles; and call periodically at the port of New Orleans, with cargoes consigned to plaintiff.
Defendants are (1) a labor union, having an office in New Orleans and transacting business there and elsewhere in the United States; and (2) its port agent assigned to New Orleans.
The cargoes consist mostly of highly perishable bananas, loaded in Central or South America, previously sold by plaintiff under contract for delivery to the vendees in New Orleans. Each cargo is valued from $100,000.00 to $160,000.00.
The vessels are owned by Empresa or Balboa, but operated and crewed by Empresa. Plaintiff is owned by United Fruit Company, an independent American corporation, engaged in the purchase, sale and distribution of bananas grown in South and Central America, consigned to it for sale and distribution throughout the United States and Canada.
Empresa was created in 1941 and has operated within and from Honduras since that time. The vessels had been operated under Honduran or Panamanian flags for several decades prior to Empresa's acquisition in 1941, and were acquired from a Panamanian corporation. While Empresa's stock is owned by United Fruit Company Empresa is managed and operated independently of United Fruit, by officers and directors located in Honduras, none of whom is employed by United Fruit Company. Empresa's primary function is the operation of vessels, all of which are registered in, and fly the flag of Honduras.
Balboa is a Panamanian corporation owning three of the vessels involved, which are registered in, and fly the flag of Honduras and whose crews are exclusively employees of Empresa.
All crew members are hired by Empresa in Honduras; are paid in Honduras; vacation in Honduras, where they maintain residences; none American; are Honduran citizens with one or two exceptions; and are represented by a Honduran labor union, which supplies its members to Empresa.
On November 13, 1959, defendant Union filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (referred to herein as Labor Board) seeking an election among all seamen employed aboard vessels operated by Empresa, which application was pending at the time of the judgment for preliminary injunction in this case. The Labor Board had neither taken nor rejected jurisdiction at that time.
Defendants objected to the jurisdiction of the court on the ground the Labor Board alone had jurisdiction to determine whether an election should be called, and once it has invoked jurisdiction (which it did on November 15, 1961), it is exclusive under Sec 10, 61 Stat. 146, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160, as amended, which provides:
The United States Supreme Court squarely held that the National Labor Relations Act in no way applies to foreign vessels regarding their internal labor relations, while temporarily in American waters. Benz v. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, S.A., 353 U.S. 138, 77 S.Ct. 699, 1 L.Ed.2d 709.
Our own State Supreme Court, on November 6, 1961, in the case of New Orleans...
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