Mixed Local of Hotel & Rest. Emps. Union Local No. 458 v. Hotel & Rest. Emps. Interational Alliance & Bartenders Int'l League of Am., No. 33125.

• Court: Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)
• Writing for the Court: PETERSON
• Citation: 4 N.W.2d 771,212 Minn. 587
• Parties: MIXED LOCAL OF HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES UNION LOCAL NO. 458 et al. v. HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES INTERATIONAL ALLIANCE AND BARTENDERS INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF AMERICA et al.
• Docket Number: No. 33125.
• Decision Date: 19 June 1942

212 Minn. 587
4 N.W.2d 771

MIXED LOCAL OF HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES UNION LOCAL NO. 458 et al.
v.
HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES INTERATIONAL ALLIANCE AND BARTENDERS INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF AMERICA et al.

No. 33125.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

June 19, 1942.

Appeal from District Court, Hennepin County; E. A. Montgomery, Judge.

Action by the Mixed Local of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local No. 458 and others, against the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance and Bartenders International League of America and others, to enjoin defendant Kilday from acting as trustee of the local union under appointment by the general president of defendant Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance and Bartenders International League of America. An order to show cause was issued why defendant should not be adjudged to be in contempt for violation of an ex parte restraining order. From an order dismissing the action and the contempt proceedings, the plaintiffs appeal.

Affirmed.

See, also, Minn., 1 N.W.2d 133.

[4 N.W.2d 772]

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Where a provision of a parent union authorizing its general president to appoint a trustee of a local union subject to its jurisdiction and discipline is silent with respect thereto, preferment of charges, notice, and hearing are implied as requirements of due process.

2. An appeal to a parent union's general executive board from an order of its general president appointing a trustee of a local union, absent expression of a contrary meaning, removes the matter to the general executive board for trial de novo.

3. A trial de novo before the general executive board on appeal from the general president's decision appointing a trustee affords a local union due process.

4. Redress of grievances must be sought by exhaustion of intra-union remedies before there can be recourse to the courts.

5. An appeal under a parent union's laws by a local union from a decision of the parent union's general president to its general executive board will not be held futile and illusory in advance of the event, where provision is made for a full hearing on such appeal; but where the general executive board by its conduct renders such an appeal nugatory, the parent union will be held to have waived compliance with the provisions of its laws requiring that redress of grievances must be sought by exhaustion of intra-union remedies before there can be recourse to the courts.

[4 N.W.2d 773]

Helstein & Hall, of Minneapolis, for appellants.

Joseph A. Padway, of Washington, D. C., and John A. Goldie, of Minneapolis, for respondents.

PETERSON, Justice.

This action was brought by Mixed Local of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local No. 458, its executive board members, and certain officers to enjoin defendant Kilday from acting as trustee of the local union under appointment by the general president of defendant Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance and Bartenders International League of America. An order to show cause was issued why defendants should not be adjudged to be in contempt for violation of an ex parte restraining order. From an order dismissing the action and the contempt proceedings, plaintiffs appeal.

The international and local unions are unincorporated voluntary associations standing in the relation of parent or superior and subordinate organizations, the international being the parent or superior and the local the subordinate organization. The membership is composed of persons engaged in preparing and serving food and beverages. The international has 696 affiliated unions throughout the United States and Canada. The local has a membership of about 1,500 cooks, waiters, waitresses, and certain other hotel and restaurant employes in Minneapolis.

Both the international and the local union operate under the international union's written constitution, which defines in detail the organization, mode of operation, and powers of the international and all local unions. A local union and its membership are required to conform to the constitution, laws, rules, and regulations of the international union.

The constitution provides for the discipline of international union officers and of local unions and their officers and members. The general president of the international is vested with vast disciplinary powers, subject to right of appeal to the general executive board. The general executive board has the power to suspend the charter and officers of a local union. Under the title of ‘International Discipline,’ it is given the power, among other things, to enforce discipline on local unions, to try cases involving danger and disgrace to a local union, and to pass judgment on cases appealed to it. It has the power to appoint a referee to hear cases and report them to the board for decision.

Provision is made for the trial of offenses in violation of the constitution. Preferment of charges, notice, and hearing are required. Appeals are authorized. Appeals from the decisions of the general president may be taken to the general executive board and in certain cases from those of the general executive board to the general convention. Among other things, it is provided that appeals shall be heard on the record of the trial body; that decisions on appeals shall be rendered as promptly as possible after hearing; that the appellate officer or body shall hear all appeals without unnecessary delay, with notice to interested parties of the hearing; and that the secretary shall promptly transmit to the appellate body or officer the record in the case, including the munutes, decisions, and documents.

Any local union aggrieved by disciplinary action of the international is required to exhaust the remedies within the organization before resorting to the courts, by § 156 of the constitution, which provides: ‘Every affiliate, member, or officer thereof, or International officer against whom charges have been preferred, and disciplinary action taken as a result thereof, shall be obligated to exhaust all remedies provided for in this Constitution and by the International before resorting to any other court of tribunal.’

[4 N.W.2d 774]

At its 1941 convention, the international union adopted § 88(a) ^* for the avowed purpose, according to the convention proceedings, of depriving local unions of their autonomy ‘promptly, effectively, and without red tape’ in case where ‘certain elements invade the ranks and make it impossible to conduct business.’ This section authorizes the general president to appoint a trustee to take charge and control of the affairs of a local union when he ‘decides' that a local's officers are dishonest or grossly incompetent or that the local is not being conducted for the best interests of the local or the international. The duration of the trusteeship may not exceed a year. During its continuance, the local union's existence and rights are preserved, but its autonomy is suspended. An appeal is authorized to the general executive board from the general president's decision appointing a trustee, but pending the appeal the decision remains in full force and effect.

On August 28, 1941, without preferment of any charges against the local union or its officers, notice or hearing, the general president of the international union, under the powers vested in him by § 88(a), appointed the defendant Kilday, one of the international vice-presidents, trustee of the local union. Against such action certain members of the local union protested, but no appeal was taken from the general president's order to the general executive board. Pursuant to his appointment as trustee, Kilday took full charge and control of the local union, ousted the members of the local union's executive board who had not resigned prior to his appointment, suspended a special election set for August 29, took possession and control of the local union's office, meeting hall, furniture, books, records, charter, and bank account of $1,600, suspended all meetings of its members, and discharged two organizers who had been elected to serve until February 1942.

At the hearing below, the evidence by affidavit as to the existence of grounds for the exercise of the general president's power to appoint a trustee of the local union was in conflict.

Plaintiffs contend that the appointment of the trustee was illegal and void upon the grounds that it was made without preferment of any charge, notice, or hearing. Defendants contend that plaintiffs have no right to sue, because of their failure to exhaust

[4 N.W.2d 775]

their remedies within the union organization and that § 88(a) and the appointment of the trustee thereunder are justified as emergency measures.

1. The appointment of the trustee by the general president was in accordance with § 88(a) of the international union's constitution. Plaintiffs urge that the decision to appoint the trustee necessarily involved a determination that grounds existed for such action; that there can be no valid determination of such question without due process-charges preferred, notice, and hearing-and that, since § 88(a) contains no express provision for such requirements, it lacks due process; and that the appointment of the trustee thereunder without charges, notice, and hearing is invalid.

The absence of express provision in § 88(a) for due process is not decisive that it is not required. Whether it be in the courts of the land or private tribunals, a person is entitled to his day in court. In the matter of expulsion and suspension of members, an association is bound by the rules of fair play or, as it is sometimes called, due process within the organization. Constitutions and by-laws relating to such matters are construed in the light of principles of fundamental justice and constitutional right to due process so as to require specification of charges, notice, and hearing. The law implies or imposes requirements for due process where an association's rules are...