Russell v. International Union, United Auto., Aircraft & Agr. Implement Workers of America, C.I.O.

• Citation: 64 So.2d 384,258 Ala. 615
• Decision Date: 13 March 1953
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 697
• Parties: RUSSELL v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O. et al.
• Court: Supreme Court of Alabama

Page 384

64 So.2d 384

258 Ala. 615

RUSSELL v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O. et al.

8 Div. 697.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

March 13, 1953.

Rehearing Denied April 2, 1953.

Horace C. Wilkinson and Wilkinson & Skinner, Birmingham, and Julian Harris and Norman W. Harris, Decatur, for appellant.

Thos. S. Adair, J. R. Goldthwaite, Jr., and Adair & Goldthwaite, Atlanta, Ga., Harold A. Cranefield, Detroit, Mich., and Sherman B. Powell, Decatur, for appellees. Count One of the complaint as amended is as follows:

'Count One. The plaintiff claims of the defendants the sum of Fifty Thousand ($50,000.00) Dollars as damages for that on and prior to July 18, 1951, the plaintiff was an employee of Calumet and Hecla Consolidated Copper Company (Wolverine Tube Division) engaged in his said employment at the plant of his said employer in Decatur, Alabama, and customarily went to and from said plant in pursuance of his employment on and over a public street in Decatur, Morgan County, Alabama, known as Railroad Avenue, which said street was the only means of ingress to and egress from said plant. At the times hereinabove and hereinafter mentioned the defendant, International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, C. I. O., was the bargaining agent for certain of the employees of plaintiff's said employer, and called a strike against said employer on, to-wit, July 17, 1951, to commence on July 18, 1951. The defendants, in order to make said strike effective, and in order to prevent plaintiff and various other employees of plaintiff's employer, who desired to continue working for their said employer notwithstanding said strike, from entering their employer's place of business, established and maintained from, to-wit, July 18, 1951 to August 22, 1951, a picket line along and in said public street at a point thereon in close proximity to said plant, consisting of great numbers of persons, some of whom were standing along said street and some of whom were walking in a close and compact circle across the entire traveled portion of said street, and said pickets by force of numbers, threats of bodily harm to plaintiff and damage to his property, and by force and violence consisting of taking hold of the automobile in which plaintiff was riding and thereby stopping it, and consisting of some of said pickets standing or walking in front of said automobile, blocked said public street and made passage to said plant over the same impossible for plaintiff and for others similarly situated, and defendants thereby wilfully and maliciously prevented plaintiff from going to and from said plant and from engaging in his said employment, and caused plaintiff to lose much time from his work, to-wit, from July 18, 1951 to August 22, 1951, and to lose earnings from his employment at said plant which he would have received had he not been prevented as aforesaid from going to and from said plant, and caused plaintiff to suffer much mental anguish, all to plaintiff's damage as aforesaid, and plaintiff, in addition to his claim for compensatory damages, claims of the defendants such punitive and exemplary damages as are commensurate with their malicious and reprehensible conduct as aforesaid and as may seem appropriate to the jury trying this cause to punish defendants for such wrongful conduct and to deter defendants and others from committing similar wrongs in the future.'

Defendants' plea is as follows:

'Plea to the Jurisdiction

'Come now the defendants, International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, C. I. O., an unincorporated organization; * * * named defendants in the above-styled action, and they each individually and collectively file this their plea to the jurisdiction in said cause and to each and every count thereof separately and severally, and for grounds thereof show the following, separately and severally:

'I

'The Calumet and Hecla Consolidated Copper Company (Wolverine Tube Division) named as employer in said cause, at the times referred to in said complaint was an industry which affected interstate commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended by the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 141 et seq.

'II

'International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, C. I. O. (U. A. W.-C. I. O.), at all times referred to in said complaint was a labor organization within the meaning of said Act and was the collective bargaining agent for certain employees of said employer.

'III

'During the entire period of time referred to in said complaint said employees represented by U. A. W.-C. I. O. were engaged in a strike and maintained a picket line on Railroad Avenue at the entrance to said employer's premises for the purpose of their mutual aid and protection as was their right and privilege under the provisions of Section 7 of the aforementioned Act.

The activity of said employees represented by U. A. W.-C. I. O. and of alleged supporters of said employees in maintaining said picket line, is made the sole and entire foundation of plaintiff's complaint for damages.

'IV

'This Court is without jurisdiction over the subject matter of said complaint.

'V

'The Congress of the United States in the exercise of its power over interstate commerce by the provisions of said Act has preempted and exclusively occupied the field of regulation of labor relations in industries affecting interstate commerce, to the contravention and prohibition of the exercise of any jurisdiction in said field by this Court.

'VI

'The Congress of the United States, in the exercise of its power over interstate commerce, by the provisions of said Act has provided for the complete administration and enforcement of the rights and duties created and defined by said Act and has created an exclusive forum, the National Labor Relations Board, for the administration and enforcement of said rights and duties; and the Congress has defined therein all other rights of action for the violation, protection and regulation of the rights and duties created, defined and regulated by said Act, not within the exclusive jurisdiction of said forum, setting forth therein and defining said rights of action, setting forth the parties who have the right to enforce said rights of action and setting forth the courts in which said rights of action may be adjudicated in the case of each such right of action so defined and set forth.

'VII

'The subject matter alleged in the instant case, if true, is regulated by Section 8(b)(1) of said Act, the jurisdiction for the regulation and enforcement of which is granted exclusively to the National Labor Relations Board, together with authority to take such remedial action and grant such relief as said Board shall deem appropriate for the violation of said Section, to the exclusion of the exercise of any jurisdiction whatsoever over the subject matter of said complaint by this Court.

'VIII

'This Court is without jurisdiction to grant the relief prayed for in said complaint.

'IX

'For this Court to entertain said complaint and to grant the relief therein prayed for, would be in violation of Article I, Section 8, clause 3 of the Constitution of the United States, for the reason that said constitutional provision grants to the Congress of the United States exclusive jurisdiction to regulate commerce between the several States, and Congress having undertaken to regulate said commerce by the aforementioned Act, any action by this Court upon the subject matter therein regulated would be in derogation of the authority granted to, and exercised by, Congress under said constitutional provision.

'Wherefore, the above-named defendants show that this Honorable Court has no jurisdiction of the subject matter, and of the cause of action, made the basis of said complaint and that this Court ought not to take further jurisdiction of said cause and complaint; and they pray that said cause be forever abated and dismissed.'

STAKELY, Justice.

This suit was brought by Paul S. Russell (appellant) against International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, C. I. O., an unincorporated organization, Howard Hovis, Felton Dyer, Ralph Webster and Michael Volk (appellees). The individuals named are residents of the State of Alabama and are members of the union. The defendants filed a plea to the jurisdiction to which the plaintiff demurred. The court overruled the demurrer to the plea and because of this adverse ruling, the plaintiff took a nonsuit and brings this appeal on the record, as authorized by § 819, Title 7, Code of 1940.

The complaint consists of two counts and claims damages of the defendants for unlawfully and maliciously preventing plaintiff from engaging in his employment. Count 1 will appear in the report of the case. Count 2 is similar to count 1, except that it alleges a conspiracy among the defendants in connection with the same matters alleged in count 1.

An examination of the allegations of count 1 will show that the defendants prevented plaintiff from engaging in his employment by (1) actual force and violence, (2) mass picketing which blocked a public street which was the only means of access to the place of employment and (3) threats of personal injury and property damage. The damages claimed are for loss of time from employment, mental anguish and punitive damages.

The defendants' plea to the jurisdiction, which will also appear in the report of the case, is based on the following theories: First, that Section 7 of the Federal National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 157, provides that employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of...