Great C. Ex., Inc. v. International Broth. of Team.

• Decision Date: 22 November 1972
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 5-71-R.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
• Parties: GREAT COASTAL EXPRESS, INC. v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, etc.

350 F. Supp. 1377

GREAT COASTAL EXPRESS, INC. v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, etc.

Civ. A. No. 5-71-R.

United States District Court, E. D. Virginia, Richmond Division.

November 22, 1972.

James Minor, Jr., Richmond, Va., J. W. Alexander, Jr., Charlotte, N. C., for plaintiff.

Raymond L. Bergan, Paul Martin Wolff, Earl C. Dudley, Jr., Washington, D. C., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

MERHIGE, District Judge.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (hereinafter "Union"), pursuant to Rule 59, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, has moved the Court for judgment non obstante veredicto (N.O.V.), as a consequence of a jury verdict rendered against it in excess of one million dollars. Both parties have exhaustively briefed the issues raised by the Union's motion, and it is upon said briefs and the record before it that the Court finds these matters ripe for disposition.

The plaintiff, a freight trucking corporation, originally brought suit in the Law and Equity Court of the City of Richmond in December of 1970, against the Union for alleged damages accruing from a protracted strike, accompanied by alleged widespread union violence and secondary boycotting. The original State court motion for judgment demanded $3,500,000 compensatory damages and $2,500,000 punitive damages. The defendant Union removed that action to this Court invoking jurisdiction pursuant to §§ 301, 303 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 185, 187, and the removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b). A jury trial was demanded.

In November 1971 the plaintiff submitted a trial brief whereby it specified causes of action for compensatory and punitive damages under LMRA § 303 (29 U.S.C. § 187) and the common (tort) law of Virginia respectively. In response, the Union's trial brief raised issues with respect to the § 303 claim, which issues are the gravamen of the present motion, and averred that plaintiff's common law tort claim was not substantiated by a clear showing of the International Union's (defendant) participation in the alleged tortious activity as required by § 6 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U. S.C. § 106 and United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L. Ed.2d 218 (1965).

Upon completion of plaintiff's case at trial, the defendant Union moved for a directed verdict. The motion was granted with respect to the violence (common law) claim, the Court having concluded that the plaintiff had not sustained the burden of producing a clear showing of the defendant's participation in that regard as required by the statutory law and the principles of Gibbs, supra.

A directed verdict for the Union with respect to the secondary boycott claim was, however, denied. The Court, though satisfied that the oral testimony adduced was insufficient to sustain a finding of agency between the strikers and the defendant Union, concluded that it was bound as to that issue by the principles enunciated by its appellate court in the case of International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 275 F.2d 610 (4th Cir. 1960), discussed infra, and accordingly permitted the secondary boycott claim to go to the jury.

Upon summation to the jury, plaintiff's counsel averred that it had shown actual damages proximately resulting from the alleged secondary boycotting in the amount of $942,065.00. In the course of its deliberations, the jury inquired of the Court, "What amount of damages lost in dollars is the plaintiff asking? Is it the $942,065 figure?" After colloquy with counsel, the Court instructed the jury, "The direct answer to that inquiry is yes . . . I must tell you that you are not to concern yourselves with what the plaintiff asks for unless it coincides with the evidence as you find it." The jury subsequently returned a verdict for $1,300,000.00.

The Union has predicated its motion for judgment N.O.V. on a number of grounds, many of which deal with matters best left for appellate review.¹ The Court is duty bound, however, to consider several of the issues raised thereby, which may be delineated as follows:

1. Was there a requisite showing of agency made by the plaintiff by which the defendant, the parent union, could be held accountable for acts of its members and/or local affiliates?

2. Was the jury finding of damages made in accordance with the mandate of LMRA § 303?

3. Were charges to the jury of such a contradictory nature so as to be confusing or otherwise an impediment to impartial jury deliberation?

Considering these issues in turn, the Court concludes as follows:

I.

The labor dispute at issue here began as a wildcat strike and was subsequently adopted by three Teamster locals. The defendant admits supplying strike benefits to its members and to providing $10,000 to the depleted treasury of one of the locals involved. The defendant also admits that one of its officers solicited help for the locals involved from its other, non-involved affiliates. The defendant with some force asserts that the above acts do not establish the requisite agency on which to predicate liability for illegal strike activities. The Court's initial inclination to sustain these contentions was, as heretofore stated, precluded by its interpretation of the rule of International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, supra, (hereinafter "IBT"). Upon restudy of this matter and of the IBT case, the Court concludes that IBT binds the Court to the determination that requisite agency was here present.

In that case, a criminal contempt action was brought against the present defendant. The defendant therein challenged the service upon an officer of a union local, contending that said service was ineffective against the defendant International Union. The issue thus formed was whether the local officer was properly an agent of the International Union. In making its determination, the Court of Appeals for this circuit closely examined the constitutional provisions of the defendant's charter. Based upon a thorough examination of the provisions of that constitution, in an opinion by Judge Haynsworth, the Court stated that to find that the local official was not an agent of the parent union could not "be squared with realism." This conclusion was based on the parent's far-reaching control of the local, as shown by the provisions of the International Constitution bearing upon such control of many details of its business and operations. The Court further concluded that its finding was buttressed by the fact that the local involved therein was then under trusteeship. It appears from the Court's reasoning, however, that the status of trusteeship was not, as defendant has argued, the determinative factor in the Appellate Court's conclusion.

Because the Teamsters ratified a new Constitution in July 1966, (after IBT but prior to the event complained of here), the Court must determine whether the new provisions would result in determinations in accord with those in IBT. The provisions with regard to membership are similar. People eligible to be local members are automatically eligible to be International members. Exceptions to this rule may be made by the International's General President. As in IBT, the International's Constitution prescribes monthly local meetings and the rules of procedure therefor. The General President or General Secretary-Treasurer of the parent union has the power, upon approval of the General Executive Board, to revoke a local charter. Local charters are issued by the parent union. The Trusteeship provisions are also similar. More important, as in IBT, the International must approve contemplated job actions by local affiliates, and has the power to override local executive board decisions with respect to acceptance of contract terms and job actions by directly submitting the issue to a vote of the local. Without making further detailed findings as to the specific operations of the International-local framework, it will suffice for the Court to state that the two constitutions are so similar as to bring the current set-up within the rationale of IBT.

The Court must conclude, therefore, that as a matter of law the jury was entitled, upon appropriate findings of fact, to impute the actions of various locals and individual members to the parent union.

II.

The Union claims that the jury determination as to damages is violative of the LMRA § 303, upon which the Union's liability is founded. The Court concludes that this view is well taken.

The Supreme Court made clear in Local 20, Teamsters' etc. Union v. Morton, 377 U.S. 252, 84 S.Ct. 1253, 12 L.Ed.2d 280 (1964), that § 303 is addressed only to illegal strike activity and that any liability predicated upon that section must be confined to actual, compensatory damages. Punitive damages are not within the contemplation of that section.² The damages must flow from injuries proximately caused by the illegal secondary activities under § 303.

Upon trial, the plaintiff's counsel in argument claimed to have shown actual damages resulting from the secondary boycotts in the amount of $942,065. As the above-recited facts indicate, the jury was well aware of this figure. Nevertheless it returned a verdict of $1,300,000. The Court is aware that "once the fact of damage has been properly shown, `uncertainty as to their amount will not foreclose recovery.'" Riverside Coal Co. v. U. M. W., 410 F.2d 267 (6th Cir. 1969). The Court is also cognizant of the fact that the protracted length of the strike here involved (seven months) as well as the widespread geographical union strike activities make it extremely...