Renda v. International Union, United Auto., Aircraft and Agr. Implement Workers of America, 1

• Decision Date: 16 March 1962
• Docket Number: No. 1,1
• Citation: 114 N.W.2d 343,366 Mich. 58
• Parties: Carl RENDA, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, an unincorporated voluntary association, Emil Mazey, Jack Thomas Conway, Samuel J. Henderson, Harold Cranefield, Ralph Winstead, Paul Slack, Claud Ingersoll, Fred Heath, John Lee, Joseph Sheridan and Bernard Mullins, Defendants and Appellants.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

Page 343

114 N.W.2d 343

366 Mich. 58

Carl RENDA, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, an unincorporated voluntary association, Emil Mazey, Jack Thomas Conway Samuel J. Henderson, Harold Cranefield, Ralph Winstead, Paul Slack, Claud Ingersoll, Fred Heath, John Lee, Joseph Sheridan and Bernard Mullins, Defendants and Appellants.

No. 1.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

March 16, 1962.

Walter M. Nelson, Detroit, Whitney North Seymour, New York City, for defendants and appellants.

Porritt & Louisell, Joseph W. Louisell, Ivan E. Barris, Detroit, for plaintiff and appellee.

Before the Entire Bench, except KAVANAGH, SMITH and ADAMS, JJ.

KELLY, Justice.

Count 1 of plaintiff's declaration (filed June 5, 1954) entitled 'Conspiracy Maliciously to Prosecute' named 12 defendants as members of an alleged conspiracy who, with the alleged assistance of other conspirators, namely: Wayne county prosecuting attorney Gerald K. O'Brien, assistant prosecuting attorney Joseph P. Rashid, Donald Ritchie, and attorney Donald Morand, were charged in such count with having unlawfully, wantonly, maliciously and without probable cause accused plaintiff, in the recorder's court for the city of Detroit, with the crime of assault with intent to kill and murder Walter Reuther.

Count 2, entitled 'Malicious Prosecution,' and count 3, entitled 'Abuse of Process,' named the same defendants and co-conspirators.

The defendants named consisted of the International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (hereinafter referred to as the UAW), and 5 individuals alleged to be its officers, agents, servants and employees 5 officers of the Detroit police department, and Michigan State police officer Joseph Sheridan.

The trial commenced November 13, 1957, before a jury, and continued approximately 5 months.

March 10, 1958, the court entered an order directing the jury to return a verdict of no cause of action as against 2 of the 5 named Detroit police officers, and the cause as against the other 3 Detroit police officers was dismissed on motion of plaintiff. A suggestion of death of the defendant Winstead was filed on January 8, 1958.

April 17, 1958, the jury returned a verdict of no cause of action against State police officer Joseph Sheridan and a $400,000 verdict against the 5 appellants, namely, the UAW, Jack Thomas Conway, its executive assistant to the president; Harold Cranefield, its general counsel; Emil Mazey, its treasurer and secretary; and Samuel J. Henderson, an investigator who worked under the direction of UAW employee Winstead in endeavoring to solve the Walter Reuther shooting.

Appellants' motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict was denied, and judgment was entered on the verdict on February 3, 1959. Appellants' motion for a new trial was denied by order entered December 9, 1959.

Appellants' appendix (4,121 pages) and brief (108 pages) were filed May 2, 1960, and a 34-page reply brief was filed August 16, 1961; appellee's appendix (457 pages) and brief (103 pages) were filed February 27, 1961. Oral arguments of counsel for both appellants and appellee were presented to this Court on October 3, 1961.

Walter Reuther, president of the UAW, was shot (April 20, 1948) by an assilant who fired a gun through a kitchen window of his home. In May, 1949, a similar attempt, following the same pattern, was made on the life of Walter Reuther's brother, Victor Reuther.

The UAW offered $200,000 reward for information leading to the solution of the crimes and employed as an investigator Ralph Winstead, a former NLRB investigator. Winstead solicited the assistance of Samuel J. Henderson, a private investigator, with the understanding that Henderson would be compensated by the reward if he solved the crimes, plus expenses incurred in seeking said solution.

An extensive and intensive investigation was continuously conducted by State, county, and Detroit police officials, and UAW investigators. Wayne county assistant prosecutor Joseph Rashid was named as co-ordinator of the investigation.

A man by the name of Bolton was charged with the crime and was acquitted in 1950 after a 6-week trial.

Nearly 5 years after the Walter Reuther shooting, Henderson ascertained that Donald Ritchie was confined in the Windsor, Canada, jail. Testimony was introduced that the UAW was interested in Ritchie because of his contacts with underworld characters, plus reports that he had spent large sums of money immediately following the Walter Reuther shooting.

Henderson met with Ritchie (December 11, 1953) shortly after Ritchie's release from jail. During this meeting, which was held at a Windsor, Ontario, bar, Ritchie indicated that he had information about the Reuther shooting, but would not divulge it unless the reward was modified.

Henderson telephoned Winstead, who was at Detroit. Winstead contacted prosecuting attorney O'Brien and they drove to Windsor and conferred with Ritchie. This conference, held in a Prince Edward hotel room, was attended by Betty Ritchie, whom Ritchie introduced as his wife.

At this meeting Ritchie stated that he had been present at the shooting of Walter Reuther, but would not return to Detroit to divulge what he knew unless $25,000 was placed in a Canadian bank, payable to Betty Ritchie. Throughout the conference, which lasted about 1 hour Ritchie expressed dissatisfaction with the reward as posted because there was no provision for payment in case the underworld silenced or punished him by death, and he also called attention to the risk he was taking in returning because there were Michigan warrants outstanding for his arrest.

Henderson testified that O'Brien told Ritchie, 'I have nothing to do with the reward whatsoever.' Winstead, in his deposition, stated that O'Brien said: "Now, Ritchie, I came over here with the understanding that you have some evidence specifically tending to solve the Walter Reuther shooting, and I didn't come over here to participate in any discussion between you and Winstead on the reward matter." Ritchie in his deposition stated: 'I told him (O'Brien) I wouldn't go over unless the $25,000 that I had asked for was brought over to the Canadian bank,' and O'Brien answered by saying, 'It couldn't be put in a bank. It would have to be put in escrow.' We do not have prosecuting attorney O'Brien's version, due to his death before trial.

The meeting came to a conclusion with Winstead suggesting that Ritchie select and confer with his own attorney. Ritchie testified, when asked if a decision was reached in regard to his $25,000 demand:

'They told me they would see what they could do about it and Mr. Winstead give me his phone number and Mr. O' Brien also give me his personal home phone, or one of his phone numbers to get in touch with him at any time.'

Three days after this December 11th meeting, Henderson again met with Ritchie and Ritchie decided to consult Windsor attorney Donald Morand, who was Henderson's brother-in-law and Queen's counsel. Morand had some years previous represented a client in a matter involving a single contact with Ritchie.

Various conferences were held between Morand and Conway, Winstead and Cranefield, and, finally, Mazey and Conway decided to meet Ritchie's demands and an escrow agreement satisfactory to Ritchie was prepared by Cranefield.

Twenty-five thousand dollars were deposited on December 22, 1953, with the Crown Trust Company, of Windsor, and the escrow agreement provided that the escrow agent would pay Elizabeth Ritchie (Donald Ritchie's common-law wife) the sum of $4,500 and Donald R. Morand $500 upon satisfactory evidence that Donald Ritchie had given to the prosecuting attorney, at Detroit, a statement and that warrants had been issued for the arrest of a person, or persons, charged with the attempt on the life of Walter or Victor Reuther; that an additional $9,000 should be paid to Elizabeth Ritchie and $1,000 to Morand upon the holding such suspects for trial and similar amounts after conviction of attempt on the life of Walter or Victor Reuther; that in the event Ritchie should die under circumstances indicative of homicide, the last sum of $10,000 shall be paid whether conviction is obtained or not.

Between December 17th and December 30, 1953, $300 was paid Ritchie by the UAW to sustain him while his coming to Detroit was under discussion. Two hundred dollars of this amount was paid through attorney Morand and $100 by Henderson and Winstead.

Ritchie failed to keep an appointment to cross the river to Detroit on December 27, 1953, but he authorized his attorney, Morand, to advise Winstead and Henderson that Ritchie's uncle, Clarence Jacobs, had done the actual shooting and that Ritchie would come to Detroit in early January.

On the night of December 30, 1953, Ritchie unexpectedly took a cab to Detroit and from a night club telephoned Winstead to come and get him. Winstead notified Rashid and lieutenant Sheridan and then met Ritchie and accompanied him from the night club to the Park Shelton hotel, where Ritchie was taken into custody by prosecuting attorney O'Brien, assistant prosecuting attorney Rashid, and police officers Slack and Ingersoll.

O'Brien and Rashid questioned Ritchie over a 2-day period and his statements were recorded by a court reporter. Neither Winstead, Henderson, nor any representative of the UAW was present during the taking of these statements.

Ritchie told O'Brien and Rashid that he had accompanied Lombardo and Jacobs to the Reuther home; that Jacobs shot Walter Reuther, and that they were paid for the job by Renda on behalf of Perrone.

As a matter of protection, Ritchie was kept under police guard and moved from hotel to hotel.

Police officers were assigned to check Ritchie's story. An outline of Ritchie's statement was made known to Conway, Winstead and Henderson, but neither they nor any...