Godchaux Sugars, Inc. v. Chaisson

• Decision Date: 10 January 1955
• Docket Number: No. 41569,41569
• Citation: 227 La. 146,78 So.2d 673
• Parties: GODCHAUX SUGARS, Inc. v. Paul CHAISSON et al. The SOUTH COAST CORPORATION v. Paul CHAISSION et al.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 673

78 So.2d 673

227 La. 146

GODCHAUX SUGARS, Inc. v. Paul CHAISSON et al.

The SOUTH COAST CORPORATION v. Paul CHAISSION et al.

No. 41569.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Jan. 10, 1955.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 17, 1955.

Dodd, Hirch & Barker, New Orleans, for appellant.

Harvey Peltier and Donald Peltier, Thibodeaux; Milling, Saal, Saunders, Benson & Woodard and Baldwin, Haspel & Molony New Orleans; for appellee.

FOURNET, Chief Justice.

The plaintiff corporations in these consolidated cases, Godchaux Sugars and South Coast, alleging they each own and operate large plantations, sugar mills, and refineries in south Louisiana ¹ and in connection therewith are engaged in the trade or business of planting, cultivating, growing, harvesting, buying, processing, and selling or using raw sugars and by-products, as well as refining and selling refined sugar and by-products, instituted these suits to restrain the named defendants ² individually and as officers, agents, and employees of an organization known as the Sugar Workers Local No. 317 of the National Agricultural Workers Union (AFL), from pursuing a course of action designed to damage petitioners in their trade or business, and also to prevent them from stifling competition by interfering with and interrupting the trade and business of the plaintiffs while, at the same time, permitting other growers, mills, and refineries to operate without interference, all of which is alleged to be the result of a conspiracy or combination in restraint of trade, inimical to the public interest, contrary to the public policy of the state, and, more particularly, in violation of Section 14 of Article XIX of the LSA-Constitution of 1921 and the statutes of the state adopted pursuant thereto. The petition further alleges the named defendants and others acting in concert with them (unknown to plaintiff and too numerous to name) joined in this conspiracy or combination for the purpose of compelling plaintiffs to recognize the Sugar Workers Local No. 317 as the representative and bargaining agent of the agricultural employees on their plantations, and to that end, by artifice, force, intimidation, as well as threats of force, intimidation, and bodily injury, induced the agricultural workers on the plantation to cease work through the guise of so-called 'strike' that was timed to come shortly after the commencement of the sugar cane harvesting season, the defendants knowing such action would cause the plaintiffs immediate and irreparable injury since cane is a perishable crop that must be harvested and processed within a relatively short space of timer or be lost. Additionally, it is alleged that these defendants placed pickets at the entrances of the mills and refineries (including the railroad crossings), where employees were working under collective bargaining agreements with another union containing 'no strike' clauses, the specific objective of such picketing being to cause these employees to breach the 'no strike' agreements. The damage resulting to plaintiffs, for which they have no adequate remedy at law, is alleged to be immediate, irreparable, and incapable of ascertainment, although tantamount to the destruction of their businesses.

The defendants filed a number of exceptions and pleas, all of which were referred to the merits. They then answered, denying generally the allegations of the petition, although it was affirmatively averred the members of Sugar Workers Local 317 voted to strike and did engage in a strike or concerted activity against the plaintiffs beginning on October 12, 1953, and have, since that time, withheld their services from the employers. They asserted their right to engage in a strike and to peacefully picket, distribute literature, to assemble, and to induce employees of petitioners by peaceful means to refrain from working or to refrain from returning to work is protected by the First, Fifth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as well as Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of Article I of the 1921 Constitution of Louisiana, LSA.

The trial judge recognized the right of the defendants to organize for collective bargaining purposes, and also their right to strike in order to secure employer recognition and negotiation. He concluded, however, that a work stoppage at the sugar factories and refineries during harvesting season is so vitally important to the economy of the state and to the public interest that it is tantamount to a serious and unprecedented emergency that transcends the right of the defendants to picket these mills to compel recognition of the organization of the field workers, and their right in this respect must be restricted. He accordingly rendered judgment permanently enjoining the activities of the defendants, individually and as officers and members of Local 317, in picketing the refinery, factories and plantations of the plaintiffs in Lafourche parish; threatening physical harm, injury or damage to the plaintiffs, their employees or property; conspiring to damage the plaintiffs in their trade or business for the purpose of securing recognition of their orgarization; and persuading or inducing any of the employees of plaintiffs at the refinery and factories to refrain from working in violation of existing collective bargaining agreements negotiated with locals affiliated with the CIO. The defendants have appealed.

In their brief the defendant-appellants are contending (1) that Local 317, an unincorporated association, and its members cannot be sued, served, or bound by suit against its individual members and officers in the absence of tortious acts; (2) as agricultural workers they have a right to organize and to take all legal economic steps necessary to secure employer recognition and negotiation, including the publicizing of their dispute by the picketing of a premise or business of the offending employer that is manned by employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement with another union containing a 'no strike' clause, and (3) such picketing cannot be enjoined in the absence of illegal methods or an unlawful purpose even though it causes loss and injury not only to the employer but to the entire community. In any event, they assert the injunction as issued is too broad to fit the specific needs of the situation and should be 'tailored' accordingly.

In order that the issues thus raised may be brought into correct focus for discussion and decision, it is necessary that the events leading up to the enjoined picketing, as well as the background of the industry involved and its importance to the economy of local communities as well as to the state, be given in some detail. In certain important aspects this has been stipulated by counsel, as will be pointed out where necessary.

By reason of weather and soil conditions, Louisiana's sugar cane industry is largely concentrated in 12 ³ of our 64 parishes, the acreage of cropland available for cultivation therein ranging from 22,706.3 acres in the parish of St. John the Baptist to 75,695 acres in Iberia, though there is considerable acreage in 9 ⁴ other parishes, ranging from 50 acres in East Feliciana Parish to 17,040.3 acres in Lafayette. In these 21 parishes--sometimes referred to as the Sugar Cane Belt of Louisiana, bordering, as it were, both sides of the Mississippi River and extending into the reaches of its delta lands in the extreme south-central part of the state--there were, in 1953, according to offical records secured independently by the court from the United States Department of Agriculture, 549,045.1 acres of cropland, though the actual acreage under cultivation, because of control through government allocations under the Sugar Act of 1948, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 1100-1160, amounted to 304,077.2 acres. This acreage was distributed throughout 4,010 farms and/or plantations, ranging in size from 0.1 acres to 1,000 and over. They were operated by some 7,540 growers planting as individual owners, on a share-crop basis, or under some other arrangements, such as a joint venture.

In 1953 some 5,758,846.9 tons of cane grown in this state were processed into sugar and some 67,872.4 tons were marketed for syrup. For the grinding of this tremendous tonnage there were only 54 mills and for the processing of the raw product only 7 refineries. In the Parish of Lafourche, where this case arose, there were only 5 mills and 1 refinery, while the planted acreage in that parish yielded 609,936.5 tons.

It is apparent from these figures that the sugar cane industry is of tremendous importance to the economy of the parishes within the Belt. It is so vital to the welfare of those living in this section that any threat to the industry is a threat to the economy and welfare of the entire community. Indeed, in many parishes it is not only one of the largest industries, it is the only industry.

The government has, for many years, controlled the sugar cane industry in this state (as it has also in other states and territories) under the provisions of the Sugar Act of 1937, 50 Stat. 903, and the Sugar Act of 1948, 61 Stat. 922, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 1100-1160. At a hearing, which is held annually in Thibodaux, Louisiana, the government determines by quota allocations, the acreage of available cropland that is to be planted and cultivated in any given year in this state. It also determines the price the grower is to receive for his cane, the working conditions of the agricultural laborers on these farms, and their minimum standard wages. ⁵

In certain sections the cane, by reason of favorable weather conditions, may be harvested the year round, as in Hawaii, or over a six-month period, as in Florida. In Louisiana, however, due to precarious westher factors, the harvesting season is extremely short. The cane is not sufficiently 'ripe' for harvesting until some time near the middle of October. From that time the harvesting of the cane is a...