United Farm Workers National Union v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters

• Decision Date: 11 December 1978
• Citation: 150 Cal.Rptr. 761,87 Cal.App.3d 225
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: UNITED FARM WORKERS NATIONAL UNION, etc. et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, etc. et al., Defendants and Respondents. Civ. 3322.

Page 761

150 Cal.Rptr. 761

87 Cal.App.3d 225

UNITED FARM WORKERS NATIONAL UNION, etc. et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, etc. et al., Defendants and Respondents.

Civ. 3322.

Court of Appeal, Fifth District, California.

Dec. 11, 1978.

Jerome Cohen, Sanford N. Nathan and George C. Lazar, Salinas, for plaintiffs and appellants.

Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin, Washington D. C., Hurlbutt, Clevenger, Long & Richmond, Visalia, Milano & Cimmet, John G. Milano, San Francisco, Ropers, Majeski, Kohn, Bentley & Wagner, Michael J. Brady, Redwood City, Bishop, Barry, Martin, Hines & Howe, Peter S. Meyerhoff, San Francisco, for defendants and respondents.

OPINION

FRANSON, Associate Justice.

We review the propriety of the trial court's order dismissing the appellants' complaints for want of prosecution in not bringing the actions to trial within two years after filing, as provided by Code of Civil Procedure section 583, subdivision (a). ¹ The procedural events upon which the trial court based its order of dismissal are as follows: On June 27, 1974, appellants United Farm Workers National Union, AFL-CIO, and 158 named individuals filed two complaints in the San Mateo County Superior Court against the respondents International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Western Conference of Teamsters, individual respondents John J. Kovacevich and Martin Bozina, and many other named individuals and Doe defendants. The complaints arose out of events which allegedly occurred on June 28, 1973, at the property of respondent Kovacevich in Kern County. Appellants assert that they were peaceably picketing the Kovacevich property in support of recognition of the United Farm Workers Union as the collective bargaining representative for farm workers employed by Kovacevich; that various Teamsters (named and Doe defendants described in the complaints on file) under the direction of respondent Bozina threatened, assaulted, and battered the appellants and caused severe injury to their person, property, and state of mind. The complaints further alleged a deprivation of the appellants' rights of peaceable assembly and freedom of speech and sought substantial damages for redress of the alleged wrongs.

The union and grower respondents who had been served with summons appeared and answered both actions on November 6, 1974. The actions were ordered consolidated on November 18, 1974, and in response to respondents' motion to transfer the action to Kern County where the incident occurred, the San Mateo court ordered the requested transfer on December 20, 1974.

Approximately a year and a half elapsed before appellants took the next step toward prosecuting this action. On May 21, 1976, they substituted four new attorneys in place of Kennedy and Rhine whose firm had dissolved. ² On June 29, 1976, appellants' new attorneys served respondents with interrogatories the first attempt at discovery. On August 2, 1976, the respondent Western Conference of Teamsters responded to the interrogatories by objecting to each interrogatory, and on August 13, 1976, it also filed a motion to dismiss for lack of prosecution pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 583, subdivision (a). Similar motions were filed by the respondent International Brotherhood of Teamsters on September 7, 1976, and by the grower respondents on September 13, 1976. These motions were consolidated for hearing on November 1, 1976. During the pendency of the motions to dismiss, appellants continued to pursue discovery, and a motion to compel answers to interrogatories was granted on September 8, 1976.

In support of the respondents' motions to dismiss, a declaration was filed by Attorney Robert Long asserting that the respondents were prejudiced by appellants' delay in prosecuting the actions because "Many of the witnesses to the events in question . . . were field workers and transient pickets who are commonly known to be migratory and whose presence will be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. The same may be true of many law enforcement officers who may be potential witnesses. Such unexcused delay also results in memories becoming dimmed by the passage of time."

Appellants filed a written opposition to the motions to dismiss supported by declarations of their past and present attorneys. Attorney Joseph Rhine stated in his declaration that he was an officer of Kennedy and Rhine, a professional corporation; that on March 31, 1975, the professional corporation was dissolved; and because of disagreements over division of cases, litigation was initiated between the former officers of the corporation. He further alleged that he had been aware that other attorneys representing the appellant United Farm Workers (hereinafter UFW) were pursuing discovery in other actions relating to the dispute between the farm workers and the respondent International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Barbara Rhine and Peter Haberfeld in a joint declaration stated that they were among the attorneys of record in the actions; that during the pendency of the actions discovery was being conducted on behalf of the UFW in two other lawsuits that "involved related factual situations."

The first of these other suits was "UFW, et al., v. Albert Leddy, individually and as District Attorney of Kern County, No. F-74-81 Civ. (E.D.Calif.)," and discovery was conducted in that case from August 27, 1974, until December 1975. The declaration further stated that the Leddy action was based on alleged violations of civil rights of the UFW and its members by the Kern County District Attorney and his agents during the UFW strike in Kern County in the summer of 1973, and "it included within its scope the events described in the pleadings of the case at hand."

The second related lawsuit was Murguia et al., v. Municipal Court for the Bakersfield Judicial District of Kern County, LA 30426, which involved the prosecution of UFW members as defendants on various criminal charges. In that action discovery was sought on the theory that discriminatory law enforcement and prosecution constituted a valid defense. Discovery was initiated in that action on April 1, 1974, and was denied by the defendant municipal court. Rhine and Haberfeld as attorneys for the UFW and the individual defendants sought a writ in the Court of Appeal which was denied, then petitioned the Supreme Court for a hearing which was granted. The declaration states that the defense of discriminatory law enforcement "included the events described in the pleadings of the case at hand."

The declaration then recited the extensive and time consuming legal problems which arose from the UFW strike activity from August 1974 through September 1975; throughout the period of inactivity in the present actions the attorneys were handling a vast number of criminal and civil cases throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Rhine and Haberfeld stated that in light of their schedules and the related discovery underway in the other two cases, "we made the decision that in our professional opinions to hold off discovery in the (present) case until we had the results of discovery from the other two cases would do no disservice to our clients." The attorneys concluded their declarations by stating that in September 1975 the Agricultural Labor Relations Act went into effect and they were "busier than ever, . . . covering the area around Sacramento, Yuba City, Marysville and Napa Valley." In November 1975, they took official leave from the UFW.

The declaration of Attorney George C. Lazar states that he assumed the responsibility of lead counsel for appellants in the present action on April 1, 1976. He reviewed the files, reports and declarations relating to the action; the official police reports on the June 28, 1973, incident at the Kovacevich ranch (filed in this action by respondent Kovacevich in support of his motion for change of venue) showed that certain persons associated with the respondent International Teamsters Union traveled from Coachella Valley to Kern County the day prior to the incident forming the basis of this action. The police report showed that these individuals and others went to a picket line maintained by members and supporters of the appellant UFW at the Kovacevich property; within minutes of arrival they physically attacked persons on the picket line. The actions of these Teamsters terminated upon their arrest.

In response to the declarations of Attorneys Robert Long and Michael Brady that prejudice to respondents had resulted from the delay in the prosecution of the action because of the difficulty in locating potential witnesses due to their migratory nature Mr. Lazur stated that the Western Conference of Teamsters had available to it two ready sources for the location of potential farm worker witnesses: (1) a complete list of employees and their social security numbers as required by the Western Conference of Teamsters contracts covering farm workers in California; (2) authorization cards which contain the name, address, social security number, and beneficiary designation of the employees of the Kovacevich ranch as required by the collective bargaining agreements between the Western Conference of Teamsters and California growers. Finally, Mr. Lazar's declaration states that many of the potential witnesses in this action for the Western Conference of Teamsters are not farm workers but "guards" organized under the Teamster banner who was allegedly recruited from the Los Angeles area to protect agricultural fields. The declaration states that the respondent Western Conference of Teamsters already had supplied to appellants the addresses of those persons who appellants allege perpetrated the attack upon them.

Attorney Lazar's declaration states that from the filing of the action against District Attorney Leddy on July 23, 1974, to the end of 1975, extensive discovery was undertaken in that action encompassing interrogatories to sheriff's...