United States ex rel. Sullivan v. Aytch

Decision Date20 February 1973
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. 73-311.
Citation355 F. Supp. 630
PartiesUNITED STATES of America ex rel. Frank SULLIVAN and John Ryan, Relators, v. Louis AYTCH, Superintendent of Philadelphia County Prisons, Respondent.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Leonard Sagot and John Poserina, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.

Arlen Specter, Dist Atty., by Judith Dean, Asst. Dist. Atty., Stanley W. Bluestein, D. Donald Jamieson, Philadelphia, Pa., Israel Packel, Atty. Gen. of Pa., by Philip Berg, Harrisburg, Pa., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BRODERICK, District Judge.

In a courtroom packed with the conflicting emotional reactions which the present school teachers strike in Philadelphia has engendered, this court held a hearing to determine whether the leaders of the Union, Frank Sullivan and John Ryan, who are presently serving a sentence of six months to four years in the Philadelphia County Prison for violating an order of the Court of Common Pleas, should be released on bail pending disposition of their appeals in the State Court System. The Court takes judicial notice of the school teachers strike and the irreparable injury which it must be inflicting on its innocent victims—the public school students in Philadelphia. We hope and pray that before this opinion is filed the strike will be settled. The determinations in this opinion will not, however, settle the strike. This Court must simply determine whether the Relators' Eighth or Fourteenth Amendment rights have been violated under circumstances which permit this Court to grant habeas corpus relief.

The instant petition was filed in this Court on Tuesday, February 13, 1973. On that same date, this Court issued the following Order:

ORDER
AND NOW, this 13th day of February 1973, after consideration of relators' petition for a writ of habeas corpus, it is ORDERED that the respondent, Louis Aytch, show cause why the writ should not be granted, said answer to be filed in this Court and a copy thereof served on the Relators and all parties hereinafter named on or before 1:00 P.M. Thursday, February 15, 1973.
ORDERED that the respondent, Louis Aytch, make a return certifying the true cause of the detention.
ORDERED that the petition is set for hearing on the merits on February 16, 1973 at 10:00 A.M. in Courtroom No. 13 of this United States Courthouse, 9th and Market Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
ORDERED that counsel for relators or their authorized representative be and is hereby authorized to make service of the petition herein and a copy of all other papers which have been filed of record in this Court, said service to be made before 10:00 A.M. on February 14, 1973 on the respondent, the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Philadelphia, the District Attorney of Philadelphia, and the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia, and the City Solicitor of Philadelphia.
ORDERED that proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, with briefs, in support thereof, shall be filed, in duplicate, by all parties with respect to the merits of the petition on or before 5:00 P.M. Thursday, February 15, 1973.

On Wednesday, February 14, 1973 this Court, after a hearing, entered a Memorandum and Order denying Relators' petition for bail pending the hearing and determination of the matter on the merits. There is presently pending in the Circuit Court of Appeals a petition for a Writ of Mandamus and an appeal in connection with this Court's Order of February 14, 1973.

At the hearing which took place on February 16, 1973 both Frank Sullivan and John Ryan were present. They were represented by Leonard M. Sagot, Esq. and John Poserina, Esq. Judith Dean, Esq., Assistant District Attorney, presented the Commonwealth's case urging the Court to deny the writ. Also appearing in opposition to the Writ was Stanley Bluestein, Esq., representing the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Philip J. Berg, Esq. appeared on behalf of the Attorney General, responding solely to the Relators' allegations relating to the unconstitutionality of Section 1003 of the Public Employe Relations Act of 1970 through its counsel. The School District of Philadelphia, through its counsel, Vincent J. Salandria, Esq., urged the Court by letter to "grant the petitioners reasonable bail." The City Solicitor of Philadelphia, Martin Weinberg, Esq., advised the Court by letter that the District Attorney's Office would file an answer and argue the matter.

At the bar of the Court all the parties agreed that the Relators were found guilty of criminal contempt and that the relevant facts are as follows:

Relator John Ryan, chief negotiator of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Local 3, AFT, AFL-CIO, and Relator Frank Sullivan, President of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Local 3, AFT, AFL-CIO, are citizens of the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. On January 4, 1973, the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia filed a Complaint in Equity pursuant to Section 1003 of the Public Employe Relations Act of 1970, 43 P.S. § 1101.1003, in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas as of January Term, 1973, No. 558, seeking to enjoin Relators and twenty-six (26) other named defendants including the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers from engaging in a work stoppage within the Philadelphia School District during the school year scheduled to commence in September 1972 and end on June 30, 1973.

On January 5, 1973 the Court, through the President Judge, sustained the defendants' Preliminary Objections challenging, inter alia, the jurisdiction of the Court, and then relisted the complaint for additional hearing on January 8, 1973. (See Exhibits P-1 and P-2.) The order in connection with the Preliminary Objections reads as follows:

AND NOW, to wit, this 5th day of January, 1973, defendants' preliminary objections raising the question of jurisdiction is sustained to the extent it deals with the jurisdiction of the Court in this case to grant an injunction before a strike actually occurs.
The complaint is listed for hearing on Monday, January 8, 1973, in Room 653, City Hall.

On January 8, 1973 a strike occurred by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers against the Philadelphia School District. On January 11, 1973 the Court issued an Injunction pursuant to the Complaint of January 4, 1973 and § 1003 of the Public Employe Relations Act of 1970, enjoining the defendants from engaging in a strike or work stoppage for the remainder of the 1972-1973 school year. (See Exhibit P-3.) It was agreed by all parties that the injunction be considered a final order. On January 12, 1973, the defendants filed an appeal to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, said appeal being docketed as No. 46 CD 1973. In the appeal to the Commonwealth Court from the Order of January 11, 1973, defendants challenged the jurisdiction of the lower court to entertain the Complaint in Equity subsequent to sustaining Preliminary Objections on a jurisdictional basis, and said appeal also challenged the legal propriety of the injunction in accordance with § 1003 of the Public Employe Relations Act of 1970. The parties to the appeal have filed briefs, and oral argument on the appeal was heard by the Commonwealth Court on January 29, 1973. The Court took the matter under advisement, and at the present time the parties are presently awaiting its decision. (See Exhibit P-4.) On January 18, 1973 the Philadelphia Board of Education filed two applications, one for indirect criminal contempt against all named defendants in the original complaint and the other citation for civil contempt. Preliminary objections were filed to the application for civil contempt citation. The Court determined that the indirect criminal contempt citation should issue and that the civil contempt citation be held in abeyance and ordered the District Attorney to prosecute the indirect criminal contempt citation. (See Exhibit P-5.) On January 18, 1973, the Relators appeared before the Court of Common Pleas for their preliminary arraignment with respect to the indirect criminal contempt charges brought against them. At that time, the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas ruled that the Act of 1931, the Indirect Criminal Contempt Act, controlled the procedure before the Court. On January 18, 1973, the Relators and all other Defendants were arraigned and pled not guilty to the criminal contempt bills lodged against them, and the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas afforded the Relators bail pending trial and permitted them to sign their own bond pending the commencement of the trial. (See Exhibit P-6.) On January 22, 1973, prior to the commencement of the trial by jury, the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas granted Defendants' Motion for Severance and ordered that Relators Frank Sullivan and John Ryan and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers be tried separate from the remaining named defendants. (Exhibit P-7(a), (b) and (c).) Prior to and throughout the course of the trial the Court ruled that the criminal trial of Relators would be governed and controlled by the rules and procedures specifically set forth in the Indirect Criminal Contempt Act of 1931, 17 P.S. § 2048. (See Exhibits P-8(a) and (b).) On January 22, 1973 the trial court denied Defendants' Motion to Quash the application for citation for Indirect Criminal Contempt, which Motion alleged in part that the Court was without jurisdiction to issue the injunction of January 11, 1973, thus rendering the application for Indirect Criminal Contempt void ab initio. (See Exhibits P-9; P-10(a), (b) and (c).) The trial court in its opening statements to the jury and throughout the duration of the trial repeatedly ruled that it had a narrow issue before it for decision. The issue according to the court was merely whether or...

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2 cases
  • Owens v. Beard, No. 3:CV-93-0320.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania
    • August 13, 1993
    ...Lewis v. Maine, 736 F.Supp. 13, 14 (D.Me.1990). Accord: Finetti v. Harris, 609 F.2d 594, 599 (2d Cir.1979) and United States v. Aytch, 355 F.Supp. 630, 642 (E.D.Pa.1973). Hence, if such a right exists, it must stem from the laws of "The existence of a statutorily created liberty interest de......
  • Levin v. Hall, Civil Action No. 96-7529.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania
    • November 13, 1996
    ...Bernard Smith v. Joseph M. Ryan, et al., No. 88-5246, 1989 WL 16190, at *1 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 23, 1989); United States ex rel. Sullivan v. Aytch, 355 F.Supp. 630, 642 (E.D.Pa.1973). 2. Owens v. Beard, 829 F.Supp. 736 (M.D.Pa. 1993) (distinguishing King v. Zimmerman, 632 F.Supp. 271 (E.D.Pa.1986)......

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