U.S. v. Wilford, s. 82-1185
| Decision Date | 01 August 1983 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 82-1185,s. 82-1185 |
| Citation | 710 F.2d 439 |
| Parties | 114 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2257, 97 Lab.Cas. P 10,247, 13 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1163 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Harry J. WILFORD, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Everett G. DAGUE, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Herman J. CASTEN, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Herman B. BOEDING, Appellant. to 82-1188. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Raymond Rosenberg, Rosenberg & Margulies, Des Moines, Iowa, for appellants Harry J. Wilford, Everett G. Dague, Herman Casten and Herman B. Boeding.
Tom Riley, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for appellant Herman Casten.
Robert F. Wilson, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for appellant Herman B. Boeding.
Evan Hultman, U.S. Atty., N.D. Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Robert J. Erickson, Atty., Randy Kehrli, Sp. Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for appellee.
Before LAY, Chief Judge, HENLEY, Senior Judge, and ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.
Harry J. Wilford was convicted of conspiracy to obtain property by extortion in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951 (1976), three misdemeanor offenses of unlawfully demanding or receiving money on behalf of a labor union in violation of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 186(b)(1) (1976), and five misdemeanor offenses of demanding or accepting a fee for the unloading of a vehicle employed in commerce in violation of 29 U.S.C. Sec. 186(b)(2) (1976) and 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2 (1976). Everett G. Dague was convicted of conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951, four substantive counts of extortion, one count of unlawfully demanding or receiving funds on behalf of a labor union, and three counts Facts.
of demanding or accepting an unloading fee. Herman J. Casten was convicted of one count of conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951, one count of extortion, one count of receiving funds on behalf of a labor union, and two counts of demanding or accepting an unloading fee. Herman B. Boeding was convicted of conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951, five counts of extortion, three counts of unlawfully receiving funds on behalf of a labor union, and five counts of unlawfully demanding an unloading fee. 1 These appeals followed. We affirm
Wilford was the secretary/treasurer and chief executive officer of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa local (Local 238) of the Teamsters Union. Dague and Casten were business agents for the local. Boeding, unlike the other three defendants, was not an officer or an employee of the local; he was, however, a member of Local 238.
The defendants' indictment and convictions stem from their activities at a waste treatment construction site in Cedar Rapids. Darin and Armstrong, Inc. (D & A) was the general contractor at the site, and the defendant Boeding was employed by D & A as a truck driver on the site. Construction began in 1976. Sometime during that year, Boeding began stopping over-the-road trucks coming into the site to deliver materials, and "carding" the driver of each truck--asking him if he belonged to a union. If the driver belonged to a union, he was allowed to drive his truck onto the site and have it unloaded. If the driver indicated that he belonged to no union, Boeding informed him that his truck would not be unloaded by anyone on the construction site 2 unless he joined Local 238. Most drivers, confronted with this choice, agreed to join Local 238 rather than leave the site without having their trucks unloaded. When a non-union driver agreed to join, Boeding would contact Dague or Casten, two of the union's business agents, at the union's offices. Dague or Casten would then come out to the site, fill in the driver's application for membership, request and accept a payment of $49 from the driver (for initiation fee and first month's dues), and provide the driver with a receipt. Later the union would mail the driver a computerized receipt and a membership card. As secretary and treasurer of the union, Wilford endorsed all checks received from the drivers, and signed the membership cards received by each driver. 3
On some occasions when a non-union driver either refused or was unable to pay the fee to join Local 238, a representative of D & A would pay the fee for the driver, in order to complete the delivery of the driver's materials to the site and avoid delays. At least one driver refused to pay the fee, and left the site without having been unloaded.
The National Labor Relations Board began investigating the situation at the D & A site in April 1978, after a non-union driver filed a complaint with the NLRB about the defendants' activities. Although the NLRB filed suit to enjoin the union's activities, the NLRB and the union eventually entered into a formal settlement stipulation in which the union did not concede that its The NLRB then recommended to the Department of Justice that it investigate the conduct of the union officials for violation of criminal statutes. The Department's investigation resulted in a 16-count indictment against the defendants, charging them with conspiracy and substantive violations of the Hobbs Act 5 and with violations of two provisions of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 186(b)(1) and Sec. 186(b)(2). 6
members had committed any illegal acts, but agreed that its members would stop carding incoming trucks on the D & A site. The union also agreed to refund membership fees to several drivers. 4
The defendants argue that their conduct did not come within the definition of "extortion" in the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951 In United States v. Enmons, 410 U.S. 396, 400-01, 93 S.Ct. 1007, 1009-10, 35 L.Ed.2d 379 (1973), the Supreme Court held that "wrongful," as that term is used in section 1951(b)(2) to define "extortion," has meaning in the Hobbs Act "only if it limits the statute's coverage to those instances where the obtaining of the property would itself be 'wrongful' because the alleged extortionist has no lawful claim to that property." 410 U.S. at 400, 93 S.Ct. at 1009. 8 The Court concluded that the use of violence during the course of a lawful strike for higher wages was not prohibited by the Hobbs Act.
and therefore that the trial court erred in denying the defendants' motion for acquittal of all Hobbs Act charges. 7
The defendants in this case argue that they were pursuing two legitimate labor objectives: (1) the defendants were enforcing their rights under the collective bargaining agreement in force at the D & A site, which stated that "[a]ll truck driving is the jurisdiction of the Teamsters Union"; and (2) the defendants were soliciting membership in the Teamsters Union and organizing those members. Because these were their objectives, and because these are "legitimate labor objectives," the defendants argue, they may not be prosecuted under the Hobbs Act, because their use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear was not "wrongful." 9 The government counters on appeal that the defendants' actions "constituted an attempt to bolster Local 238's treasury by wrongfully taking money from transient truckers under the guise of obtaining 'union dues.' "
We need not decide whether the defendants' asserted objectives are "legitimate labor objectives." The evidence is sufficient to support the jury's conclusion that the defendants had no lawful claim to the money they received from the non-union drivers. In spite of the defendants' assertions as to what the objectives of their conduct were, there is evidence to support the jury's conclusion that these were not the defendants' true objectives. The jury expressly found all four defendants guilty of demanding and accepting an unloading fee in violation of 29 U.S.C. Sec. 186(b)(2). Even though the defendants claim that one of their legitimate labor objectives was to solicit and organize members of the Teamsters Union, evidence showed that at least one new "member" was told that he would receive no union benefits in return for his payment except the opportunity to have his truck unloaded in the Cedar Rapids area. In addition, some of the non-union drivers were self-employed, and thus were persons for whom the union could provide no real membership benefits, at least not in the areas of standardization of wages and the representation of those drivers in a collective bargaining situation. 10
The defendants also claim that by their actions they were attempting to enforce the Thus, the jury reasonably could have concluded that among the defendants' objectives were to force non-union drivers to pay an unloading fee, and to force all non-union drivers, even self-employed drivers, to join, not just any Teamsters Union local, but Local 238 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, regardless of whether the drivers' home or usual route of travel included Cedar Rapids. This constitutes a pattern of obtaining money through the use of fear, money to which the defendants had no lawful claim. We therefore conclude that the jury reasonably could find, and did find, that the defendants were guilty of extortion under the Hobbs Act because they obstructed, delayed, or affected commerce or the movement of an article or commodity in commerce by using fear of economic loss to obtain property to which they had no lawful claim. 11
provisions of the collective bargaining agreement in force at the D & A site. Two of those provisions stated in essence that no member of a union would be required to work with a non-union person, and that all truck driving would be the jurisdiction of the Teamsters Union. But the defendants' asserted objective is belied by the fact that non-union drivers were not allowed by the defendant Boeding to trade their loads with a union driver, and by the fact that the new "members" were not allowed to drive the trucks of...
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