State v. Stockford

• Decision Date: 12 August 1904
• Citation: 77 Conn. 227,58 A. 769
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. STOCKFORD et al.

58 A. 769

77 Conn. 227

STATE

v. STOCKFORD et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Aug. 12, 1904.

Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; Milton A. Shumway, Judge.

Orrin J. Stockford and others were convicted of criminal conspiracy, and appeal. Affirmed.

The information contains six counts charging conspiracies to injure as many different parties, each alleged to have been committed by the eight named defendants. In the first three counts the defendants are described as being the officers, agents, and members of an association or labor union known as "Local 340 of the Team Drivers' International Union," and in the remaining counts as the officers, agents, and members of a labor union known as "Local No. 483, Carriage Drivers' Union of the City of New Haven Connecticut." The first count charges that said defendants and other unknown persons on the 18th of April, 1903, unlawfully and maliciously conspired and agreed together to compel the Peck & Bishop Company, a corporation located in New Haven, and engaged in the business of trucking, etc., in New Haven, and employing a large number of teamsters, who were members of said "Local 340," and the officers and agents of said Peck & Bishop Company, against their will, to execute and enter into the following agreement with said association and the members thereof:

"Agreement between the Master Teamsters of the City of New Haven and Vicinity and the Members of Local 340 of the Team Drivers' International Union.

"Article I. Party of the first part agrees to employ as teamsters none but members of Local 340, or those who are willing to become members at the next regular meeting.

"Art. H. It is further agreed that no objections shall exist on the part of the employees to the conditions of this contract for a stipulated time from date herein named.

"Art. Ill. Each and every member of Local 340 shall be treated in a fair and impartial manner, and shall suffer no persecution because of his union principles, or affiliation with organized labor.

"Art IV. This local shall at all times have at heart the interest and welfare of its employers' business, and every member is expected to acquit himself in an honorable and straightforward manner, leaving as little as possible for criticism.

"Art. V. If any employer becomes dissatisfied with the services of any member of this local, such member shall be given a chance to hear charges by employer, and shall be heard in his own behalf before dismissal; and any member found guilty of violating this agreement shall be fined, suspended, or expelled from Local 340, according to the option of the local.

"Art VI. Ten hours to constitute a day's work.

"Art. VII. All members driving one horse shall receive not less than $10.50 per week, six days to constitute a week's work. Two horse drivers shall receive not less than $12 per week, six days to constitute a week's work. Pour horse drivers to receive not less than $13.50 per week, six days to constitute a week's work. All members to receive time and one-half for all overtime.

"Art. VIII. Under no circumstances will any member of Local 340 work July 4, Labor Day, or Christmas, unless absolutely necessary.

"Teams to be taken care of on such days free of charge, if necessary. If members of Local 340 work on said holidays they shall receive double time for same.

"Art IX. This agreement to remain in effect for the term of one year from the 1st day of May, 1903, unless altered by the consent of both parties affected.

"For Local 340."

It is further alleged in the first count that as a part of said conspiracy the defendants agreed together upon the following unlawful methods and means by which to accomplish said purpose of the conspiracy: (1) That the defendants and their unknown associates would cause, induce, and persuade all the employes of the Peck & Bishop Company to strike, and leave the employment of said company; (2) that they would place pickets near the places of business of said company, who would, by threats and intimidation, prevent persons from continuing or entering into the employment of said company; (3) that they would threaten and intimidate the business customers of said company, and force and compel them to give up all business relations with said company; (4) that they would, by threats, intimidation, and persuasion, compel the members of said association, and of other associations and labor unions, to refrain from employing said company and from employing or trading with those who employed said company; (5) that they would prevent said company from carrying on its business, and would ruin and destroy the business and property of said company; and that in pursuance of said conspiracy the defendants and their said associates performed said acts so agreed upon as the methods of accomplishing the purpose of said conspiracy. The remaining five counts are similar to the first count, excepting that the names the Smedley Company of New Haven and Sheldon L. Squier of New Haven appear in the second and third counts, respectively, in place of the name the Peck & Bishop Company in the first count, and that the names of Martin C. Swaner, Frank N. Palmer, and James L. Nesbit, each described as of New Haven, and as engaged in the livery business, etc., and employing for that purpose a large number of workmen, who were members of "Local 483," appear in the fourth, fifth, and sixth counts, respectively, in the place of the name the Peck & Bishop Company in said first count, and with the further exception that the agreement described in the fourth, fifth, and sixth counts, alleged to have been required to be executed by the liverymen, did not contain articles 2 and 8 of the agreement above set forth to be executed by the team owners, and contained different provisions as to the time required for a day's or week's work and as to the wages to be paid.

It appears from the finding that the state offered evidence tending to prove all these allegations, and to show that, the team owners described in the first three counts and liverymen described in the last three counts having refused to sign said agreements, the acts described in the information as the methods and means adopted to accomplish the purpose of the alleged conspiracy were performed and carried out by the defendants and their associates, and that the defendants offered evidence to show that said allegations were not true, and that neither they nor other officers or members of the union ever instructed any pickets to in any way interfere with the employes of said team owners and liverymen, or to use any threats, intimidations, or violent methods, but instructed them that without using any violence or stopping them from their work they might persuade nonunion men to join the union.

The state having offered evidence that the defendants and other members of the unions had, after the commencement of the strike, endeavored, by threats, to prevent customers from further patronizing said team owners and liverymen, one Norton, an employs of the Peck & Bishop Company, and familiar with its business, and one Donnelly, secretary of the Smedley Company, were permitted to testify as to the number of customers lost by said companies, respectively, after the strike, against the objection of the defendants that it did not appear how said customers were lost. Alfred Coolman, a teamster of the Peck & Bishop Company, testified that he ceased work the first week of the strike, and then resumed work; that afterwards he saw twenty-five or thirty teamsters wearing the union button, some of whom insulted and threatened him; that on one occasion a crowd of twenty or more teamsters hooted and yelled at him as he was driving a team of the Peck & Bishop Company, and three of them, who wore the union button, stopped him, and talked of "pulling him off the wagon and smashing him," and told him they would get even with him; that on another occasion while the witness was driving a wagon for said company one Taylor, a teamster, who, it had been shown, belonged to the union, and had worked for the Peck & Bishop Company, and had at least on one other occasion interfered with the teams of the company, said to the witness, "If I had you out of the wagon here, I would break your bloody head, and I will do it yet;" that one night while the witness was acting as a watchman for the Peck & Bishop Company, about a week after said remark of Taylor, some one shot at him, and that "he felt the wind of it," and one of the bullets struck a wire on a bale of hay against which the witness was leaning. This testimony was received against the objection of the defendants that the shooting had not been connected with any union man.

William Talmadge, one of the defendants, having testified on behalf of the defendants that he was president of Local 340, and assisted in preparing the form of said agreement; that he was the business agent of the union, and presided at its meetings; and that the men were instructed not to interfere with or annoy any one—was asked on cross-examination, after he had testified that he was present at the meeting when the strike was ordered, if he did not understand that the purpose of calling out the men from those concerns and individuals who had refused to sign the agreement, was to cripple them in their business. The witness answered: "I knew that if they did not sign that agreement the men would be called out That was the object of calling the men out, naturally." This evidence was admitted against the defendants' objection that it was immaterial and improper and called for the witness' construction of an act of the union. The same witness was asked whether it was not the purpose, as he understood it that his branch of the union should be in absolute control of all the teamsters employed in New Haven. He answered that he could not state they controlled them all. The...