Moran v. Int'l Alliance Of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Mach. Operators

• Citation: 52 A.2d 531
• Decision Date: 30 April 1947
• Docket Number: 147/72.
• Parties: MORAN v. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES & MOVING PICTURE MACHINE OPERATORS et al.
• Court: New Jersey Court of Chancery

52 A.2d 531

MORAN

v.INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES & MOVING PICTURE MACHINE OPERATORS et al.

147/72.

Court of Chancery of New Jersey.

April 30, 1947.

Suit by Charles Moran against International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators, and others, in which complainant prays for a decree directing a local branch of the defendant named to accept an application for membership from complainant and approve it. On motion to set aside service of process of subpoena.

Motion denied.

Syllabus by the Court.

An unincorporated International labor union, although having no office or place of business in this state, should be regarded as voluntarily submitting itself to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state when duly served with process, when it grants charters to representative units or agencies called Locals to do business in this state and through those Locals and the membership thereof engages in activities in this state designed to further the objects for which the International was organized.

This court may acquire jurisdiction of a suit against such an International labor union in its established name by service of process within the State on an International officer who bears such relation to the International that it must be presumed notice thereof will promptly reach the International governing body.

Rothbard, Harris & Oxfeld, of Newark (Samuel Rosenthal, of Newark, of counsel), for complainant.

Gross, Blumberg, Mehler & Goldberger, of Newark (Milton H. Goldberger, of Newark, of counsel), for defendant International Alliance, etc.

FIELDER, Vice Chancellor.

The complainant a resident of Bergen county in this state filed a bill of complaint wherein he names as defendants The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada (hereinafter referred to as International) and Local 642 (hereinafter called Local), a branch of the International. The question before me arises on motion of the International to set aside service of process of subpoena as insufficient as to it. The sheriff's return of service is that he served the International by serving the subpoena on James J. Brennan, fourth vice president, at his place of abode in Bergen county.

For the purpose of the motion the relevant allegations of the bill may be stated as follows. For seventeen years complainant has earned a livelihood as a motion picture machine operator and is unable to earn a living in any other occupation. The defendant International is an unincorporated voluntary association of which Local 642 is a subordinate branch embodying the membership of the International in Bergen county. From 1932 complainant, although not a member of International, has had employment in a certain moving picture theatre in Bergen county with the consent of the International and the Local up to June, 1945, since which time he has been unable to obtain any work because of the refusal of certain officials of the Local to issue a permit to him. Although desirous of becoming a member of the International and the Local, complainant's desire was thwarted by unlawful acts of officials of the Local and on his appeal to the International for relief he was referred back to the Local. The bill prays that the Local be decreed to accept an application for membership from complainant and approve it; that the International be decreed to ‘approve and process in the customary manner’ his application for membership in the International; that the Local be decreed to recommend and send complainant as operator to the theatre where complainant had been employed and that the Local and the International be decreed to pay complainant his damages suffered by reason of the acts aforesaid.

On the return of the motion affidavits on behalf of the International and complainant were read; Brennan the official of the International on whom subpoena was served appeared and testified in open court and the constitution of the International was received in evidence. The sworn proofs show that the International is a labor organization, its principal and only office or place of business being in New York city and that Brennan is its fourth vice president; that it has Locals in various stated of the United States each Local being a unit of the International and that there are twenty or thirty of such Locals in New Jersey, including Local 642, holding charters from it, the autonomy of each Local being limited by the International constitution, to which Locals must conform as well as to the directions of the International convention on matters of policy; that Local 642 pays a per capita tax to International for each of its members, which tax is collected by the Local and forwarded to International in New York city; that International renders assistance to its Locals whenever requested, by sending its...