Savard v. Industrial Trades Union of America, s. 8982

• Decision Date: 31 March 1950
• Docket Number: Nos. 8982,8983,s. 8982
• Citation: 72 A.2d 660,76 R.I. 496
• Parties: SAVARD v. INDUSTRIAL TRADES UNION OF AMERICA et al. PROULX v. INDUSTRIAL TRADES UNION OF AMERICA et al. Ex.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 660

72 A.2d 660

76 R.I. 496

SAVARD v. INDUSTRIAL TRADES UNION OF AMERICA et al.

PROULX v. INDUSTRIAL TRADES UNION OF AMERICA et al.

Ex. Nos. 8982, 8983.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

March 31, 1950.

Joseph Mainelli, Providence, for plaintiffs.

Eugene L. Jalbert, Woonsocket, for defendants.

CONDON, Justice.

These are actions of trespass on the case for unlawful interference with the right of employment. They were tried together in the superior court and a verdict of $2000 was returned for each plaintiff. The defendants moved for a new trial which was denied. Each plaintiff also moved for a new trial solely on damages on the ground that they were inadequate. The trial justice granted each motion unless the defendants consented to an additur of $1508.40 in Florence Savard's case and of $404 in Josephine Proulx's case. Defendants excepted to such rulings and the cases are here on their bills of exceptions containing those exceptions and numerous other exceptions taken during the trial.

Only forty-seven of the ninety exceptions prosecuted here have been briefed and argued, the others having been expressly waived. Defendants have renumbered those forty-seven exceptions in their brief with numbers which do not correspond with those in the bills of exceptions. We do not approve this practice, but since the plaintiffs have followed it in their brief to avoid confusion, as they say, we too shall follow it in our discussion here.

We shall not discuss each exception as many of them do not merit individual treatment. Defendants have recognized that fact and have briefed and argued their exceptions in groups under nine separate points. We shall therefore treat them similarly in a more or less general discussion of each point. As a preface, however, to such discussion we shall first briefly summarize the principal facts in evidence.

For over fifteen years before March 10, 1947 plaintiffs worked in the drawing room department of Alsace Division of the Guerin Mills, Inc., in Woonsocket, hereinafter called the company. Upon reporting for work on that date they were discharged without notice solely on the demand of the Industrial Trades Union of America, hereinafter called the union. At that time the company was operating under a contract with the union which provided the employees with substantial economic benefits and required them to maintain membership in the union. Under the contract the company 'checked off' the union dues of its employees and paid them to the union. After they had been discharged plaintiffs paid their dues at the office of the union. At no time either before or after March 10, 1947 were they ever in default. Indeed defendants admitted at the trial that plaintiffs were still members of the union, but claimed that they had been expelled from the Alsace Local branch of the union which consisted of the employees in the Alsace mill. That claim was based upon the result of certain proceedings initiated in the drawing room department and carried through the Alsace Local and the executive board of the union to the executive council of the union.

On February 2, 1947 a meeting of the workers in the drawing room department at which plaintiffs were present was held to hear and consider certain complaints brought against them by some of their fellow women workers. These complaints consisted of instances of personal friction mostly of a trivial nature, although in the minds of women working closely together they could have taken on an appearance of importance which they did not merit. In any event, whether real or fancied, these grievances were deemed by a substantial majority sufficient justification for adopting a motion expressing the sense of the meeting 'that the workers of the Drawing Room Department don't want to work with Mrs. Josephine Proulx and Florence Savard any more because they cause a lot of trouble.'

That expression of opinion was considered at a meeting of Alsace Local on February 9, 1947 at which plaintiffs were present. After hearing the same complaints, it was voted by a small majority to approve the drawing room department workers' action. Defendant Omer Trudeau presided at this meeting and defendant Leo Laferte acted as secretary. Thereafter on February 28, 1947 the matter came before the executive board of the union and they approved the action of the local. On March 8, 1947 the executive council of the union reviewed the entire proceedings and sustained the executive board. Plaintiffs were present at those meetings and defendant Edwin Van Den Berghe, president general of the union, presided and defendant Raoul O. Vandal, secretary general of the union, acted as secretary.

The executive council is the supreme body of the union in the absence of a general meeting of all the locals which may be convened only upon the request of one third of the number of locals. Plaintiff mailed a written request for such a meeting to each local, but none was convened. The executive council's action was, therefore, final. Thereupon its officers caused the following letter to be sent to the company on the letterhead of the Industrial Trades Union of America:

'March 10, 1947

'Guerin Mills Inc.

292 East School St.

Woonsocket, R. I.

'Attention: John H. Lacouture, Pres-Treas.

Gentlemen:

'This is to inform you that that Executive Council at its meeting of March 8th, 1947 has upheld the Local's and Executive Board's decision to expel Mrs. Josephine Proulx and Mrs. Florence Savard from the Alsace Local, on account of their conduct in the department.

'Therefore, we are asking you to comply with the wishes of the majority of your employees and take necessary steps.

'Very truly yours,

(signed) Raoul O. Vandal

Raoul O. Vandal

General Secretary'

Defendants admit that this was a demand upon the company to discharge the plaintiffs. It was so understood and acted upon by the company's officers. Although the vote of the drawing room department was in form merely an expression of opinion and as such was approved by the local, it was interpreted by the officers of the local and the officers of the union as a vote of expulsion of the plaintiffs from the local. The letter to the company was apparently drafted to accord with that interpretation. Bertram Paul, the company's superintendent, testified that the company's president-treasurer John H. Lacouture ordered him to comply with the letter and discharge the plaintiffs to avoid labor trouble. He further testified this was the sole reason why they were discharged and that in doing so the company was not exercising any right to discharge its employees as reserved in its contract with the union.

After they had been discharged plaintiffs tried, but without success, to obtain other employment suitable to their skills in the Woonsocket area. However, on August 25, 1947 Mrs. Proulx did secure a job at a lower wage rate in the Lorraine Mills at Pawtucket. Mrs. Savard never secured another job, and at the date of the trial, January 19, 1948, she was still unemployed. Each plaintiff claimed damages for loss of earnings, past and prospective, and for mental anguish and consequent physical suffering caused by the shame and embarrassment directly resulting from their discharge.

The declarations alleged that defendants had unlawfully and maliciously procured such discharge and thereby deprived the plaintiffs of substantial economic benefits which were expressly assured to them under the union's contract made on their behalf with the company. Under the plea of the general issue defendants tried to show that their action was lawful because it was impliedly authorized by the constitution and by-laws of the union; because it was an exercise of disciplinary or police power which the union was obliged to perform under its contract with the company; and moreover because it was in accord with a custom or usage of the union, supplementary to the procedure prescribed in the by-laws and well known to the plaintiffs.

The constitution and by-laws are in evidence as an exhibit. It appears from article XI thereof that jurisdiction over expulsion of members for causes specifically enumerated therein is expressly reserved to the executive council. And the procedure for exercising such jurisdiction is meticulously spelled out in a manner which unequivocally guarantees to each member the right to be informed in writing of the charges alleged against him; the right to notice of the time and place of hearing; the right to be therein represented by counsel and to present witnesses in his own behalf. It is undisputed that none of those guaranties were accorded the plaintiffs.

Under sec. 6 of the constitution the locals are vested with power to manage their own immediate affairs but there is no provision anywhere in either the constitution or the by-laws pertaining to expulsion by locals of their own members. There is, however, an express provision in the by-laws, article VI, sec. 6, authorizing locals 'for such reason or cause that it may deem just and proper' to remove from service on the executive council any of their officers, delegates or alternates. In short, looking at the constitution and by-laws alone it appears that jurisdiction over the right of membership is vested exclusively in the executive council.

The contract with the company is also in evidence as an exhibit. It prescribes wage and working conditions of the employees, and sets out the mutual rights and obligations of the company and the union, but it does not provide that either the union or the local may demand the discharge of an employee because she has been found to be personally obnoxious to a majority of her fellow workers. Indeed it is clear from the contract that it is designed to govern solely the labor relations of the employees with the company and not at all the personal relations of the employees with each other while engaged in their employments. Nor does it refer to the rights of the employees as...