Stafford v. Wood
| Decision Date | 12 December 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 604,604 |
| Citation | 68 S.E.2d 268,234 N.C. 622 |
| Parties | STAFFORD, v. WOOD et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Robert S. Cahoon, Atlanta, Ga., for the defendants, David Draper Wood and the Textile Workers Union, appellants.
Pittman & Webb and McNeill Watkins, all of Rockingham, for plaintiff, appellee.
It appears on the face of the record that the Textile Workers Union is an unincorporated labor union. In consequence, we necessarily consider at the outset whether this organization is such a being as can be subjected to the jurisdiction of the court. Jinkins v. Carraway, 187 N.C. 405, 121 S.E. 657. In the very nature of things, a court must observe the limits of its own authority, and stay or dismiss a legal proceeding of its own motion in case it lacks power to try the cause. Henderson County v. Smyth, 216 N.C. 421, 5 S.E.2d 136; Miller v. Roberts, 212 N.C. 126, 193 S.E. 386; Nelson v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. Relief Department, 147 N.C. 103, 60 S.E. 724.
An unincorporated association is merely a body of individuals acting together, without a corporate charter, but upon the methods and forms used by incorporated bodies, for the prosecution of some common enterprise. Hecht v. Malley, 265 U.S. 144, 44 S.Ct. 462, 68 L.Ed. 949. At common law such an association is not an entity, and has no existence independent of its members. This being true, an unincorporated association has no capacity at common law to contract, or to take hold, or transfer property, or to sue or be sued. Venus Lodge v. Acme Benevolent Ass'n, 231 N.C. 522, 58 S.E.2d 109, 15 A.L.R.2d 1446. In short, the common law regards an unincorporated association as an 'airy nothing,' or a 'non-existent legal ghost,' no matter how powerful it may be in reality. Venus Lodge v. Acme Benevolent Ass'n, supra; Nelson v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. Relief Department, supra. The common law view that an unincorporated association does not exist as a legal entity and can neither sue nor be sued still prevails in this State, except to the extent it has been altered by statute. Ionic Lodge v. Ionic Lodge Free Ancient & Accepted Masons, 232 N.C. 648, 62 S.E.2d 73, and Id., 232 N.C. 252, 59 S.E.2d 829.
The common law rule that an unincorporated association cannot be sued was applied to unincorporated labor unions in these cases: Hallman v. Wood, Wire & Metal Lathers Union, 219 N.C. 798, 15 S.E.2d 361; Citizens Hotel Co. v. Asheville Typographical Union, 187 N.C. 42, 121 S.E. 31; Tucker v. Eatough, 186 N.C. 505, 120 S.E. 57.
Subsequent to the rendition of these decisions, the legislature enacted chapter 478 of the 1943 Session Laws, which is now embodied in G.S. § 1-97(6) and reads as follows:
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