Gurtov v. Williams, 10613.
| Decision Date | 15 April 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 10613.,10613. |
| Citation | 105 S.W.2d 328 |
| Parties | GURTOV et al. v. WILLIAMS et al. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Harris County; Ewing Boyd, Judge.
Petition for injunction by Robert Gurtov and others against Chester A. Williams and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs appeal.
Reversed and remanded.
Harry W. Freeman and Mandell & Combs, all of Houston, for appellants.
R. R. Lewis, William M. Holland, George D. Neal, and Walter E. Boyd, all of Houston, for appellees.
The appellants filed their petition in the court below February 27, 1937, on behalf of themselves and the members of their respective trades-unions, complaining of appellees, Chester A. Williams, chief of police of the city of Houston, and Claude Beverly, the officer in charge of the police substation at the foot of 75th street in Houston. The petition alleged in substance that appellees, with the expressed purpose of breaking up the union organization of plaintiffs and force the members of their unions to leave Houston, had caused the arrest of more than 150 of such members without warrants, taken them to the city jail, and there charged them with the offense of vagrancy, knowing them not to be guilty of such offense, and that, unless restrained by the court, such police officers would continue such unlawful course of action. The members of the unions, it was alleged, had been guilty of no violence, and of no violation of law, and the threatened action by the police officers was an unlawful interference with the right of plaintiffs, guaranteed them under the Constitutions, State and Federal, to peaceably assemble together for their common good; further, that the police officers, at numerous times, had invaded the hall of said unions, and arrested many members while they were holding business meetings, and threatened to injure them bodily if they did not leave Houston, which was complained of as a violation of such members' constitutional right to assemble for their common good, and deprived them of their liberty, property, and privileges without due process of law; and violated the statutes guaranteeing members of trades-unions the right to organize into associations for their own good; further, that all the members who had been arrested had been found not guilty. Also that their attorneys had requested the chief of police to cease such unlawful course, but he informed such attorneys he would continue his unlawful course unless prevented by a court order; that the members of the unions have associated themselves together in an organization designated Maritime Federation of the Gulf, whose purpose is to better their economic condition; that the wholesale arrests complained of had been made for the avowed purpose of intimidating the members of the unions and of the Federation, and of preventing them from perfecting their organization and continuing the functions thereof, and which will cause the members serious property loss. It was alleged that the members had no adequate remedy at law, and an injunction was prayed to issue to restrain the police officers from arresting, violating, harrassing, and interfering with the members of the unions and Maritime Federation in their peaceful union activities and personal activities as citizens.
The court sustained a general demurrer to the petition and, plaintiffs refusing to amend, the court ordered the case dismissed. Plaintiffs appeal.
The demurrer was sustained on the theory that a court of equity is without jurisdiction by injunction to stay prosecutions of...
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