Navios Corp. v. National Maritime Union of America
| Decision Date | 15 December 1960 |
| Citation | 166 A.2d 625,402 Pa. 325 |
| Parties | NAVIOS CORPORATION and Global Seamen's Union v. NATIONAL MARITIME UNION OF AMERICA, Seafarers' International Union of North America, International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1291, International Maritime Workers' Union, Steve Cardullo, James T. Mooch, Richard Askew, Louis Parise, Shannon J. Wall (two cases). UNIVERSE TANKSHIPS, INC., and Global Seamen's Union v. NATIONAL MARITIME UNION OF AMERICA, Seafarers' International Union of North America, International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1291, International Maritime Workers' Union, Steve Cardullo, Richard Askew, Louis Parise, Shannon J. Wall (two cases). Appeal of GLOBAL SEAMEN'S UNION, Intervenor. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Clark, Ladner, Fortenbaugh & Young, Samuel B. Fortenbaugh, Jr., Herbert G. Schick, Philadelphia, Eari K. Shawe, Sidney J. Barban, Baltimore, Md., Herbert Brownell, Breck P. McAllister, New York City, of counsel for Universe Tankships, Inc.
Abraham E. Freedman, Marvin I. Barish, Freedman, Landy & Lorry, Robert M. Landis, Barnes, Dechert, Price, Myers & Rhoads, Philadelphia, for Interested Parties, Pennsylvania Tidewater Dock Co. and The Pennsylvania Railroad Co.
Fox, Rothschild, O'Brien & Frankel, Nathan L. Posner, Israel Packel, Jay G. Ochroch, Philadelphia, for appellant.
Abraham E. Freedman, Philadelphia, for appellee.
Before CHARLES ALVIN JONES, C. J., and BELL, MUSMANNO, BENJAMIN R. JONES, COHEN, BOK, and EAGEN, JJ.
These appeals arise out of suits instituted by the plaintiffs seeking to enjoin the defendant unions and certain of their officers from picketing or in any other manner interfering with the unloading and servicing, at the Port of Philadelphia, of a ship flying a Liberian 'flag of convenience.'
The matter first came before the court below on the plaintiffs' motions for a preliminary injunction. After a full hearing, the learned chancellor refused a preliminary injunction and contemporaneously entered decrees nisi dismissing the complaints, to which exceptions were subsequently filed and still remain undisposed of. Accordingly, final decrees have not been entered. The present appeals were promptly taken by the plaintiffs, pursuant to Section 15 of the Labor Anti-Injunction Act of June 2, 1937, P.L. 1198, 43 P.S. § 206 o, from the court's refusal of a preliminary injunction; and upon application of counsel, we forthwith advanced the appeals for argument, as contemplated by the Act.
The fundamental basis for the chancellor's action in denying the plaintiffs injunctive relief is that exclusive jurisdiction of the subject matter of the dispute is vested in the National Labor Relations Board. Whether that is so, under the facts of the case, is the legal problem to which we shall now address ourselves.
The plaintiffs, Universe Tankships, Inc., and Navios Corporation, are respectively the owner and time charterer of a bulk cargo vessel, the SS Ore Monarch, which transports iron ore from Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, to the Fairless Works of the United States Steel Corporation at Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Because of the limited depth of the Delaware Reiver, above Philadelphia, which the vessel necessarily must ply in order to reach Morrisville, she unloads a portion of her cargo at Philadelphia to lessen her draft before attempting to proceed upstream for delivery of the balance of the cargo at Morrisville. The SS Ore Monarch arrived at Philadelphia on October 21, 1960, laden with a cargo of iron ore from Puerto Ordaz for the United States Steel Corporation at Morrisville and was berthed at Pier 122 South on the Delaware River at Philadelphia for the partial unloading operation above mentioned.
All of the SS Ore Monarch's crew of forty-eight men are, with three exceptions, aliens and all, except for the Captain and Chief Engineer, are members of the Global Seamen's Union, an unincorporated association registered in the Cayman Islands, British West Indies, with which organization Universe Tankships, Inc., the owner of the vessel, has an existing labor agreement.
On October 26, 1960, Universe Tankships, Inc., and Navios Corporation filed complaints in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County against the National Maritime Union of America, the Seafarers' International Union of North America, the International Maritime Workers' Union, the International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1291, and certain officers of these unions for a temporary and, thereafter, a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from causing the SS Ore Monarch to be picketed or in any way interfering with the operation, management, internal economy and affairs of the SS Ore Monarch or any vessel owned or chartered by the plaintiffs; or in any manner inducing others to refuse to service such vessels. The plaintiffs also demanded damages.
The complaints alleged, inter alia, that, at or about the time that the SS Ore Monarch berthed at Pier 122 South, the defendants caused two persons to picket in front of the entrance to the pier carrying signs bearing the legend, 'American Maritime Unions Protest Unfair Labor Practices of 'Ore Monarch", and also caused a small boat carrying pickets with similar signs to cruise in the vicinity of the SS Ore Monarch, the picketing activity having continued up to the institution of the suits; that the defendants caused the pickets to prevent, or attempt to prevent, deliveries of supplies and victuals to the SS Ore Monarch by threats of force and intimidation to drivers of trucks undertaking to make such deliveries; that at approximately 8 p.m. on October 21, 1960, while the SS Ore Monarch was discharging her cargo, two agents of the International Longshoreman's Association, Local 1291, boarded the SS Ore Monarch and ordered members of Local 1291, then working at the hatches of the ship, to cease working, the orders being promptly obeyed; that the unloading operations have not been resumed since that time; that the purpose of the above mentioned and similar actions of the defendants is to procure the breach of the labor agreement existing between Universe Tankships, Inc., and Global Seamen's Union, and to coerce Universe Tankships, Inc., to compel or require the members of its ship's crew to join the International Maritime Workers' Union; that the aforesaid actions of the defendants have prevented and are preventing the unloading, bunkering and victualling of the SS Ore Monarch, thereby causing the plaintiffs to suffer irreparable injury.
In the course of the hearings, the court granted Global Seamen's Union leave to intervene as a party plaintiff; and on November 4, 1960, the intervenor filed its separate complaint alleging substantially the same facts as the complaints filed by Universe Tankships, Inc., and Navios Corporation. Global's complaint asked, in additional, that the defendants be enjoined from inducing members of Global Seamen's Union from disavowing their relationship therewith and from compelling the employers of the SS Ore Monarch's crew to breach their contract with Global Seamen's Union and from entering into a contract with Universe Tankships, Inc., while the latter's contract with Global Seamen's Union endured. Otherwise, Global's complaint sought the same injunctive relief as was prayed for by Universe Tankships, Inc. Global did not, however, demand damages.
The facts adduced at the hearings in the court below further disclosed that the SS Ore Monarch was built in 1956 at Kure City, Japan, and was registered in New York on January 9, 1957, as a Liberian vessel, which, however, has never been to Liberia. Nor has the ship ever been registered by any other country or flown any other flag than that of Liberia.
Universe Tankships, Inc., is a Liberian corporation, wholly owned by Oceanic Tankships, S.A., a Panamanian corporation, which, in turn, is wholly owned by D. K. Ludwig and W. W. Wagner, both of whom are American citizens.
Navios Corporation is a Liberian corporation, wholly owned by Navigen Corporation, a Liberian corporation also, which, in turn, is wholly owned by the United States Steel Corporation, and is registered in the Bahama Islands with its home office in Nassau.
The Cayman Islands are a British possession located approximately 250 miles south of Cuba in the British West Indies. Their population is between six and seven thousand inhabitants.
Global Seamen's Union was registered in the Cayman Islands on June 1, 1959, under the provisions of Trade Union Law 3 of 1952. Apparently it is the only union that has ever been registered in the Cayman Islands. The registration took place when a man who said that he was the Secretary-Treasurer of the Global Seamen's Union submitted a list of officers of the Union and the signatures of 15 or 20 men whom he said were its members. No official investigation of the union was made prior to its being admitted to registration in the Cayman Islands, whose registrar of trade unions testified that company domination does not disqualify a union from registering in the Cayman Islands. There is no record of any activity on the part of the union prior to its registration.
The SS Ore Monarch's articles of agreement with the members of its crew require all such as are eligible to join the Global Seamen's Union within thirty days after signing the articles.
On January 5, 1960, the Secretary of Universe Tankships, Inc., sent to the Captain of the SS Ore Monarch a letter cautioning the members of the crew not to join any American unions and to abide by the contract between Global Seamen's Union and Universe Tankships, Inc. The Captain was instructed to read the letter aloud to his unlicensed men at his first opportunity outside the territorial waters of the United States and, that, he did.
The time charter between Universe Tankships, Inc., and Navios Corporation is for a...
To continue reading
Request your trial