Kerry Coal Co. v. United Mine Wkrs. of America

• Decision Date: 25 March 1980
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 78-108.
• Citation: 488 F. Supp. 1080
• Parties: KERRY COAL COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, District No. 5 of the United Mine Workers of America, Jerry Ashton, Estel Taylor, James Beachem, Brian Short, John Doe, Richard Roe, and all others acting in concert with them or otherwise participating with them or acting on their behalf, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

488 F. Supp. 1080

KERRY COAL COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, District No. 5 of the United Mine Workers of America, Jerry Ashton, Estel Taylor, James Beachem, Brian Short, John Doe, Richard Roe, and all others acting in concert with them or otherwise participating with them or acting on their behalf, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 78-108.

United States District Court, W. D. Pennsylvania.

March 25, 1980.

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John M. Elliott and William Miller, Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish, Levy & Coleman, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.

Lloyd F. Engle, Jr., and Paul M. Puskar, Kuhn, Engle & Stein, Pittsburgh, Pa., for United Mine Workers, Dist. No. 5 and Taylor.

Melvin Vatz, Pittsburgh, Pa., for Ashton, Beachem and Short.

OPINION

SNYDER, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the Defendants' Motions for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict and for New Trial. The Motions will be denied.

I. The Procedural Background

Kerry Coal Company ("Kerry Coal") brought suit against the United Mine Workers of America ("International"), District No. 5 of the United Mine Workers of America ("District"), Estel Taylor, District No. 5 Board Member, James Beachem, Brian Short and Jerry (Gary) Ashton, Members of the United Mine Workers, and the matter was tried to a jury on three counts of a six count complaint. The jury answered special interrogatories¹ and awarded the Plaintiff compensatory damages in the amount of $1,200,000, against all Defendants except James Beachem.

Count I of the Complaint charged the International and the District with a violation of Section 8(b)(4) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4), which makes it unlawful for a labor organization or its agents "to engage in, or to induce or encourage any individual employed by any person engaged in commerce . . . to engage in, a strike or a refusal in the course of his employment to use, manufacture, process, transport, or otherwise handle or work on any goods, articles, materials, or commodities", or "to threaten, coerce, or restrain any person engaged in commerce" where an object thereof is a "secondary boycott". The Act provides for money damages, including the costs of suit. 29 U.S.C. § 187.

Count IV was a pendent state claim against the International, the District and the Individual Defendants for tortious interference with business relationships.

Count VI, pertaining to punitive damages arising from the allegations of Count IV, was sent to the jury which declined to make such an award.

In essence, the Plaintiff contended at trial that there was a pattern of unlawful picketing, violence, and intimidation engaged in by the Officers and Agents of the International, the District and the various individuals named as defendants, aimed at disrupting and halting the nation's coal supply during the winter of 1977-78 (including Kerry Coal, a non-union operation) to bring about the acceptance of a new contract for the United Mine Workers of America.

The motions presently under consideration here generally allege that there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict; that the damage award is inconsistent with the special interrogatories and against the weight of the evidence; that withholding of documents by the Plaintiff severely and irreparably prejudiced the International and the District; that the admission of certain evidence was severely and irreparably prejudicial; that the Court erred in allowing certain testimony; that the Court improperly questioned witnesses; and that the Court erroneously instructed the jury with respect to the damage award.

Defendants Ashton and Short filed an Amended Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict or for New Trial, claiming that the verdict was excessive as a matter of law; that the Trial Court abused its discretion in exercising pendent jurisdiction; and that it was error for the Court not to direct the jury to apportion the damage award.

The International and the District filed a Supplemental Motion for New Trial claiming that the Court erred in admitting certain exhibits into evidence, in refusing to grant their Motion for Mistrial made during the closing arguments, and in refusing to grant their Requests for Points for Charge and Supplemental Points for Charge.

II. The Scenario

The evidence, viewed most favorably to the Plaintiff, indicated that Kerry Coal was a non-union surface coal operation, shipping its coal by rail and truck to industrial and domestic customers in Pennsylvania and Ohio. During the national coal strike by the United Mine Workers, from December 6, 1977 to March 16, 1978, Kerry Coal was operating five sites in Butler, Beaver and Lawrence Counties, Pennsylvania.²

The District had a membership of 15,000 and jurisdiction over Washington, Allegheny, Westmoreland, Butler, Mercer and Venango Counties, Pennsylvania. It was split geographically into four Sub-Districts; each Sub-District elected a member to the District Executive Board. Estel Taylor was the Executive Board Member for Sub-District One and District President Louis Antal assigned him to the Enon Valley area (which included Kerry Coal's sites) for the strike.

In November 1977, with a nationwide strike appearing inevitable, and apparently pursuant to a well thought out plan, District President Antal asked International President Arnold Miller to send in one of the International's Organizers, Thomas Pysell, to do a "survey" of the Western Pennsylvania coal fields. In particular, he wanted the non-union coal strippers "surveyed" because "our members kept coming back to us and raising heck that there were all kinds of strip mines popping up over night. And I couldn't go out and look at that, I didn't have the time." (T.237) Mr. Pysell was given responsibility for such a survey in Western Pennsylvania by the Organizing Department of the International. (T.208) Pysell left the area prior to the beginning of the strike, and was thereafter replaced by Jay Kolenc, also an International Organizer. The expense vouchers of Kolenc, P.Ex. 49, indicate that on November 25, 1977 Kolenc met with Pysell to check nonunion mines. Kolenc remained in the area, surveying non-union mines, until January 21, 1978.

Steve Segedi, a District Executive Board Member, recalled seeing Pysell and Kolenc in the District offices just prior to the strike, and Segedi, along with John Chach, Estel Taylor and Peter Sabo, other District Board Members, lunched with Pysell and Kolenc. (T.1476, 1502) The expense vouchers of Kolenc, P.Ex. 49, reflected meetings with District Officers on several occasions, and the telephone records of Estel Taylor, P.Ex. 100C, showed phone calls to Kolenc at the Holiday Inn in Beaver Falls as early as December 6, 1977.

Under date of November 28, 1977, President Antal notified Kerry Coal and its President, Vernon Kerry, as well as every other non-union coal company within the District, that (P.Ex. 11):

"We are aware that you are not maintaining area wage and benefits standards, thereby obtaining an unfair competitive advantage. We demand that you immediately raise your current standards to match those prevailing in the coal mining industry in this area.

We expect to hear from you that you have raised your standards as soon as this has been accomplished. If, in fact, we do not hear from you concerning this matter, we will assume that it is not your intention to raise your standards at this time.

Please reply to me at the above address."

These letters were sent without any knowledge of the wage and benefits standards paid by Kerry Coal and the others except, of course, that they were non-union operations.³

On November 30, 1977, a meeting of the District Executive Board was called by President Antal to make preparations for the strike and to draw up "guidelines" for both "strike" and "informational" pickets. Kenneth Yablonski, the attorney for the District, was also present at this meeting and aided in the preparation of the guidelines. Specifically, informational picketing at independent non-union mines was discussed and guidelines presented.⁴ The District arranged for the informational pickets to receive $3.00 for meals and, if they drove, 20¢ per mile.⁵

Between December 6⁶ and 12, 1977, Vernon Kerry observed men in vehicles driving around his sites, apparently as "surveillance crews". Then, on the morning of December 12th, he received reports by CB radio and by telephone that several thousand dollars worth of damage had been done to a non-union competitor's site (later identified as the Veon site) and, for safety reasons, he shut down all Kerry Coal sites on the morning of December 13th, with the exception of some maintenance crews.

After receiving numerous calls for coal from his customers, Vernon Kerry resumed operations on December 20, 1977. It was not long before picketing activity began and, with the activity, acts of intimidation to his employees. Roofing nails were thrown across the entrances to some of the Kerry Coal sites (10 pounds of nails were picked up, T.344), and there was general chaos in the coal fields. On December 27, 1977, Gary Ashton and James Beachem, during the course of scouting activity, threatened Vernon Kerry that if he did not shut down, they would bring in 200 men to wreck his equipment, and Beachem added, "we can do this with one phone call." (T.341, 566) In addition, Ashton, who lived near Kerry Coal's tipple site, picketed the railroad crossing with a sign "UMW on Strike — No Contract — No Work" whenever a train came to pick up coal, and the train would leave. (T.343, 568). This effectively stopped Kerry Coal from shipping coal to its customers. Prior to that time, Kerry Coal had shipped coal on a daily basis (T.341) and 80% of its coal was shipped by rail.

In the beginning, picketing was not continuous but it later became 24 hours a day. (T.343) During the...