Pennsylvania Mining Co. v. United Mine Workers

• Decision Date: 13 October 1928
• Docket Number: No. 7474.,7474.
• Citation: 28 F.2d 851
• Parties: PENNSYLVANIA MINING CO. v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

28 F.2d 851 (1928)

PENNSYLVANIA MINING CO. v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA et al.

No. 7474.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

October 13, 1928.

John W. Simpson, 2d, of New York City (James B. McDonough, of Ft. Smith, Ark., Paul McKennon, of Clarksville, Ark., Daniel Davenport, of Bridgeport, Conn., and Walter Gordon Merritt, of New York City, on the brief), for plaintiff in error.

Henry Warrum, of Indianapolis, Ind. (G. L. Grant, of Ft. Smith, Ark., on the brief), for defendants in error.

Before KENYON and BOOTH, Circuit Judges, and MUNGER, District Judge.

KENYON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff in error seeks by this writ review of the decision of the District Court for the Western District of Arkansas directing a verdict in favor of certain defendants in error in a suit brought in 1915 by plaintiff in error to recover damages under the federal Anti-Trust Act, resulting from an alleged conspiracy to restrain interstate commerce in coal, against the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America (hereinafter designated as the International), John P. White, its president at that time, other officers and organizers, District No. 21 of the United Mine Workers of America, its officers, and other local unions. The basis of the claim for damages was the alleged wrongful disruption of plaintiff in error's labor force by a systematic campaign to unionize its mines by unlawful methods.

This is the second appearance of the case in this court. On the first trial in the District Court a verdict of $100,000 in favor of plaintiff in error was returned, which was trebled by the court in accordance with the provisions of the federal statute, and judgment was entered for $300,000. Writ of error was taken to this court and the case was argued here in 1923, and subsequently reargued at our request, together with a companion case brought by the Coronado Coal Company against the United Mine Workers of America and other defendants, which we shall refer to hereinafter. We withheld opinion until the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in United Leather Workers v. Herkert & Meisel Trunk Co., 265 U. S. 457, 44 S. Ct. 623, 68 L. Ed. 1104, 33 A. L. R. 566, an appeal from a decision of this court in which were involved somewhat similar questions. That case was decided June 9, 1924, and on July 12, 1924, our opinion in this case was filed, reversing the trial court and holding the evidence insufficient to involve the International in the alleged conspiracy, or to show any direct intent of the defendants therein to restrain interstate commerce. United Mine Workers of America v. Pennsylvania Mining Co. (C. C. A.) 300 F. 965. Reference may be had to this opinion for a general statement of the facts. Upon retrial of the present case the trial court instructed a verdict for the International and John P. White and some of the other defendants, and submitted the case as to District No. 21 and all defendants not covered by the directed verdict to the jury. The jury failed to agree on a verdict. The only questions here relate to the ruling of the trial court directing a verdict in favor of the International and John P. White, and also certain rulings concerning the admission of evidence.

This case cannot be discussed without considerable reference to the Coronado Case, to which it bears close relationship. That case involved a strike and disturbances at the Bache-Denman mines at Prairie Creek, Sebastian county, Arkansas, a county adjoining Johnson county, in which the mines of plaintiff in error are situated. The trial of the first Coronado Case in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas resulted in a verdict for the Coronado Company against the United Mine Workers of America et al. in the sum of $200,000, which was trebled by the court and judgment entered for $600,000. That judgment was affirmed by this court. United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 258 F. 829. The Supreme Court, in United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 259 U. S. 344, 42 S. Ct. 570, 66 L. Ed. 975, 27 A. L. R. 762, reversed the same. Our decision in United Mine Workers v. Pennsylvania Mining Co., 300 F. 965, reversing the judgment (which has not been reviewed by the Supreme Court), was based on our understanding of the decisions of the Supreme Court in United Leather Workers v. Herkert & Meisel Trunk Co., 265 U. S. 457, 44 S. Ct. 623, 68 L. Ed. 1104, 33 A. L. R. 566, and also in the first Coronado Case, where under substantially similar facts the Supreme Court held the International was not liable. On the second trial of the Coronado Case the trial court instructed a verdict for defendants, which was affirmed by this court. Finley et al. v. United Mine Workers of America et al. (C. C. A.) 300 F. 972. The Supreme Court, in Coronado Coal Co. et al. v. United Mine Workers of America et al., 268 U. S. 295, 45 S. Ct. 551, 69 L. Ed. 963, affirmed that decision of this court as to the nonliability of the International Union, but reversed it on the question of liability of District No. 21, and that case was returned again to the District Court for trial.

In the presentation of the case now under consideration it seems to us that counsel for plaintiff in error have failed to give weight to the situation presented and the status created by reason of the former decision of this court. The similarity of the evidence is recognized as they say: "In a general way, the evidence submitted, except in certain particulars, the most important of which will be called to the attention of the court, followed the same line of evidence which this court had before it on the previous appeal."

It is the well-established doctrine of the federal courts that, on a second writ of error or appeal, questions of law or fact determined upon the first hearing are not reconsidered, provided the evidence was substantially the same upon both trials. Under such circumstances questions of law determined on a writ of error or appeal are the law of the case, both for the trial court and this court on a second writ of error or appeal. Thatcher v. Gottlieb (C. C. A.) 59 F. 872; Guarantee Co. of North America v. Phenix Ins. Co. of Brooklyn, N. Y. (C. C. A.) 124 F. 170; National Surety Co. v. Kansas City Hydraulic Press Brick Co. (C. C. A.) 182 F. 54; Town of Fletcher v. Hickman (C. C. A.) 208 F. 118; Meyer & Chapman State Bank v. First Nat. Bank of Cody (C. C. A.) 291 F. 42; Finley et al. v. United Mine Workers of America et al. (C. C. A.) 300 F. 972.

There should be and is an exception to this rule, viz.: If convinced that a former decision is clearly erroneous and unsound, and works manifest injustice to the parties, an appellate court should not deem itself bound as to such parties by the rule of "law of the case." It is the general practice of courts, however, "to refuse to reopen what has been decided." Messinger v. Anderson, 225 U. S. 436, 32 S. Ct. 739, 56 L. Ed. 1152; Chase v. United States (C. C. A.) 261 F. 833; Johnson v. Cadillac Motor Co. (C. C. A.) 261 F. 878, 8 A. L. R. 1023.

In our former opinion we discussed the methods by which plaintiff in error sought to establish the alleged general conspiracy to restrain interstate commerce and the relationship of the International thereto, and held that, guided by the decision of the Supreme Court in the Coronado Case, we could not hold otherwise than that the evidence was insufficient to show participation by the International in such conspiracy. We are now assisted in our consideration of the present case by the decision of the Supreme Court in the second Coronado Case. In both Coronado Cases the Supreme Court held that the liability of the International as to the strike and disturbances incident thereto must be governed by article 16 of the constitution of the United Mine Workers of America, which provides (section 1): "No district shall be permitted to engage in a strike involving all or a major portion of its members, without the sanction of an International convention or the International Executive Board."

In the first Coronado Case, United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 259 U. S. 344, 395, 42 S. Ct. 570, 578 (66 L. Ed. 975, 27 A. L. R. 762), the court said: "Here it is not a question of contract or of holding out an appearance of authority on which some third person acts. It is a mere question of actual agency which the constitutions of the two bodies settle conclusively. If the International body had interfered or if it had assumed liability by ratification, different questions would have arisen."

In the opinion of the Supreme Court in the second Coronado Case, Coronado Coal Co. et al. v. United Mine Workers of America et al., 268 U. S. 295, 301, 45 S. Ct. 551, 553 (69 L. Ed. 963), it said: "We thought at the first hearing and we think now that none of this evidence tends to establish the participation of the International in the Prairie Creek strike and disturbances."

In these cases Chief Justice Taft reviewed the entire constitution of the International Union, and the Supreme Court held the strike to be a local one, and the International not liable as a participant in the same, or in the disturbances incidental thereto. Much of the evidence in the Coronado Case is in this case. There was new evidence in the second trial of that case, some of which was attempted to be introduced in this case, and to which we later refer. The present record consists of some 2,600 pages; in the former case, over 3,600 pages.

The question must be candidly met as to whether the evidence here establishes a different case from the one involved in our former decision. We consider the question first as to the International. A great part of the evidence on this trial was, under a stipulation, read from the record in the former case. Much of the evidence in the former case was likewise, under a stipulation, read from depositions in the Coronado...