Hutcheson v. Hanson

• Decision Date: 17 May 1951
• Docket Number: No. 17873,17873
• Citation: 121 Ind.App. 546,98 N.E.2d 688
• Parties: HUTCHESON et al. v. HANSON.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 688

98 N.E.2d 688

121 Ind.App. 546

HUTCHESON et al. v. HANSON.

No. 17873.

Appellate Court of Indiana, in Banc.

May 17, 1951.

Schortemeier, Eby & Wood, Indianapolis (Charles H. Tuttle, New York City, Harry N. Routzohn, Dayton, Ohio, Joseph O. Carson, F. E. Schortemeier, and Robert K. Eby, all of Indianapolis, of counsel), for appellant.

Joseph T. Mazelin, Andrew Jacobs, James V. Donadio, Alan T. Nolan, and James E. Noland, all of Indianapolis (Ross, McCord, Ice & Miller, Indianapolis, of counsel), for appellee.

BOWEN, Presiding Judge.

The appellee, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, claiming rights of membership in Local Union 101 of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, filed this action for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to have set aside and declared void a resolution adopted April 23, 1946, by the General Convention of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America purporting to expel the appellee from membership, and other injunctive relief as requested in the prayer of the complaint which, in substance, was as follows: That the court issue an order, ordering the defendants, and each of them to recognize this plaintiff as a member of said Local Union 101 and all his rights arising on consequence thereof as a member of the International Union United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, and restraining them from interfering with plaintiff's membership therein and his rights appertaining thereto, by threatening said Local Union 101, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the officers or members thereof, with revocation of the charter of said Local Union 101, or officers or members, with the suspension of any benefits or actually revoking said charter or suspending said benefits because of any recognition of this plaintiff as a member of said Local Union 101 and to order defendants to return to plaintiff, Gotthard Hanson, all evidences of membership which any of them seized from him in April, 1946, and to further, forthwith, notify Local Union 101, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, that said Local Union is free to, and insofar as it is within defendants' power to so do, to direct said Local Union 101, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, to accept plaintiff's dues and any other sum which may be due from him to said Local Union 101, or the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, or any affiliate thereof, to be retained by said Local Union 101, or transmitted to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, or the affiliate to whom the same may be due, as the case may be, and to issue plaintiff appropriate evidences of his membership therefor, and to order the clerk of the court to transmit to said Local Union 101, 715 Eutaw Street, Baltimore, Maryland, the sum of two hundred and twenty-five dollars together with a certified copy of the order, to be so applied as herein prayed, all until the hearing prayed in Paragraph II of this prayer; and, that upon final hearing of this cause the court permanently enjoin the defendants as temporarily prayed in Paragraph I of the prayer; and, that the court grant such order and further relief to the plaintiff as may be just and proper in view of the above and foregoing premises.

The complaint also contains allegations that without membership in the Appellant Brotherhood, an individual carpenter is powerless to earn his livelihood. The Constitution and Laws of the Brotherhood, a copy of which was attached to the complaint, was alleged to guarantee a member thereof a trial by his local union with specified procedural guarantees if such member is charged with a violation of his obligation as such member. Further, the complaint alleges that in 1935, by application duly approved, appellee became a member of the Brotherhood, Local 101, Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1943 appellee was elected president thereof. The complaint sets forth the facts of appellee's discovery of the embezzlement by the agents of appellants of the funds of Local 101, and the suit by the Local against appellants as a result of which the appellants paid over to the Local the sum of $244,038.30, promising to recoup this sum from their agents. Thereafter, the complaint alleges the failure and refusal of appellants to proceed to recoup the money; Local 101's efforts to force appellants to act by publicity and circularizing the remaining Locals, all of which was done under the leadership of appellee, and a fraudulent settlement by appellants of the Brotherhood's claim against the embezzlers. The complaint contains further the allegations of the exclusion by the individual appellants of appellee from the General Convention of the Brotherhood, to which he was a duly elected delegate from Local 101, and the action by the General Convention which expelled appellee from membership in the Brotherhood, contrary to the Constitution and Laws of the Brotherhood. The complaint concludes with allegations of his injury as a result of appellants' wrongful acts and the prayer for an order directing appellants to undo their wrongful acts.

The first paragraph of answer contains admissions and denials, and the remaining paragraph set up certain affirmative defenses alleging that appellee had never paid a fine assessed against him under the laws of the Brotherhood, that he was not entitled to the rights of membership, that he had failed to pay dues, that he knowingly made false answers on application for membership, that he, after a rejection for membership, purloined the card of one Helgeson, and caused his name to be substituted thereon, that he concealed such facts from the Brotherhood and Local 101, that he encouraged sedition and secession in the Brotherhood; that he gave perjured testimony in a Court of Equity concerning the foregoing matters, and therefore, was not entitled to be a member or to equitable relief. Further paragraphs of answer assert that appellee's alleged rights had been adjudicated and barred by a decree entered November 1, 1946, by the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, Maryland, in Cause No. 27801-A and Cause No. 27802-A; that Local Union 101 is not a party to this suit, was and is an autonomous local body and that under the Constitution and Laws of the Brotherhood, membership is gained only by becoming a member of a local union and that the appellants were without authority to keep dues and fines and without power to reinstate a person into a local union.

To the affirmative paragraphs of answer the appellee filed a reply in avoidance consisting is seven paragraphs, which in substance asserted that appellants, after knowing his ineligibility recognized him as a member of the Brotherhood; that he admits the concealment of past relations with the Brotherhood, but on June 10, 1946, made a full disclosure and no action was taken to expel him from membership. Other paragraphs of reply set forth explanations of his alleged wrongful acts, and in paragraphs V and VI appellee admits that a decree was rendered by the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, Maryland, but says that the court had no jurisdiction over the appellants; that appellee was not a party thereto in his individual capacity; that he did not direct said litigation and that the decree of that court did not adjudicate his rights.

Appellants filed a demurrer to the reply on the grounds of insufficient facts to avoid the answer which was overruled.

The issues thus formed were submitted to the court for trial, and a general finding, judgment, and decree was rendered in favor of appellee and against appellants, which finding and judgment, as modified, provided as follows:

'That for the purposes of this law suit the plaintiff Hanson must be treated as a member in good standing, as the evidence shows the defendants themselves so treated him with full knowledge of the irregularities in his past membership which they now allege against him; that therefore the defendants are estopped from asserting that Plaintiff Hanson was not a member in good standing on April 23, 1946.

'The Court finds that the Plaintiff Hanson was illegally expelled by the 25th convention of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America on April 23, 1946, at the instigation of the defendants; that such pretended expulsion was without due process of law and that the General Convention had no authority or jurisdiction to expel plaintiff; that Section 56 of the Brotherhood Constitution and By-Laws definitely designate the body which has exclusive jurisdiction to try and expel a member, being a city local union or district union.

'The Court finds that even if the constitution of the Brotherhood gave such an original jurisdiction to the General Convention to expel a member, that due process of law was not afforded the plaintiff at said convention. That the rule of law is that charges must be duly filed, notice given the defendant, and opportunity provided him for appearing at the trial and defending himself.

'The Court finds that such procedure was not followed at the 25th General Convention, that indeed proceedings at such convention, in regard to Hanson, might be characterized as summary, unilateral, and ex parte.

'The Court finds that...