Lambert v. Georgia Power Co.

• Citation: 183 S.E. 814,181 Ga. 624
• Decision Date: 10 February 1936
• Docket Number: 10689.
• Parties: LAMBERT v. GEORGIA POWER CO. et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

183 S.E. 814

181 Ga. 624

LAMBERT v. GEORGIA POWER CO. et al.

No. 10689.

Supreme Court of Georgia

February 10, 1936

Syllabus by the Court.

1. An employee under a contract of hiring, indefinite in its duration, may lawfully be discharged at the will of his employer. A discharge under such circumstances affords no cause of action for breach of contract.

2. A conspiracy, although wrongful in motive, to effect what one has a legal right to accomplish, is not actionable.

3. A petition in a suit for damages for breach of contract cannot over objection that a new and distinct cause of action would be added, be properly amended by claiming damages for breach of another contract separate and different from that first alleged.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; E. D. Thomas, Judge.

Petition by J. S. Lambert against the Georgia Power Company and others. To review a judgment sustaining a demurrer to the petition, plaintiff brings error.

Affirmed.

Ezra E Phillips, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Colquitt Parker, Troutman & Arkwright, Ray Williams, and Harwell & Barrett, all of Atlanta, for defendants in error.

GRAHAM Judge.

The plaintiff filed his petition against the Georgia Power Company, hereinafter referred to as the company, the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America, referred to as the association, T. L. McBrayer, and Division 732 of Atlanta, Ga., of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America, referred to as the local, for damages on account of his alleged wrongful discharge as an employee of the company and of an alleged conspiracy of the defendants to effect his discharge and to prevent an investigation and arbitration to bring about his reinstatement in the employment of the company. He alleged that the association was the parent head of the labor union of which the local was a division, of which he was a member in good standing, and that he was employed by the company as a street car operator under a certain contract between his local and the company; that, while so employed, without fault on his part, he was discharged by the company; that McBrayer was a member of and president of the local; that the defendants conspired to bring about his discharge without cause and to prevent an investigation and arbitration of the same for his reinstatement as such employee; that an accredited officer of the company informed him that the company would not under any circumstances agree to reinstate him. Among many provisions for the benefit of the company and its employees (members of the local), which are unnecessary to a consideration of this case, the contract provided:

"Section III. The company agrees to meet and treat with duly accredited officers and committees that are elected or selected by the association upon all questions and grievances that may arise between the parties hereto during the life of this contract.

Section IV. Any employee of the said company, a member of the association, who has been suspended, demerited, or discharged, shall have the right to have his case taken up by the officers or committee of the said association with the duly accredited officers of the company; and in such cases where, upon investigation, it is found and mutually agreed to by the representatives of the company that such employee who has been suspended, demerited, or discharged was not at fault, he shall be reinstated to his former position, and paid the wages to which he would have been entitled had he continued in the company's employment during the period of suspension, or demerit, or discharge.

Section V. When any disputes arise between the company and the association or its members, over which they cannot mutually agree, the same shall be submitted to a board of arbitration composed of three disinterested persons, one arbitrator to be chosen by the company, one by the association, and the two arbitrators thus selected shall choose a third arbitrator. The board of arbitrators so constituted shall hear all evidence and arguments on the points in dispute, and the written decision of a majority of the members of the board of arbitration shall be final and binding on the parties hereto. The parties hereto shall each pay the arbitrator of its own selection, and they shall jointly pay the third arbitrator, and the other legitimate joint expenses of such arbitration, each party, however, paying its own expenses incurred in preparing and presenting its case. In the event that the said arbitrators shall fail to agree upon an umpire within ten days after their appointment, then the matter shall be referred back to the company and the association, who shall each appoint a new arbitrator in place of the one formerly named, and these new arbitrators shall proceed as above specified.

Section VI. That the right to hire and discharge employees and the management of the properties of the company, cars, carshops, barns, railway lines and all other departments are reserved by the company and shall be vested exclusively in the company, and the company shall have the right to determine how many men it will employ or retain in said shops, barns, track construction, or maintenance work, and on the cars or in the transportation or other departments, together with the right to exercise full control and discipline in the interest of proper service and in the conduct of its business, except as expressly restricted in this contract. * * *

Section XXII. The association and its members agree that during the continuance of this contract there shall be no strikes or walkouts by the said association or its members. And the company agrees on its part that during the continuance of this contract there shall be no lockouts of the said association or its members; it being the mutual desire of both parties hereto to provide, during the continuance of this contract, for uninterrupted public service. Nothing herein, however, is intended to prevent the resignation or discharge of any individual, all discharges being subject to review under the conditions and in the manner hereinbefore provided for."

The defendants demurred generally and specially on the ground that the petition failed to set...