United States v. Beaty

• Decision Date: 06 April 1961
• Docket Number: 14434.,No. 14433,14433
• Citation: 288 F.2d 653
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. A. T. BEATY et al., Appellees. UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. R. J. BARCROFT et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

288 F.2d 653 (1961)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. A. T. BEATY et al., Appellees.

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. R. J. BARCROFT et al., Appellees.

Nos. 14433, 14434.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

April 6, 1961.

John Doar, Civil Rights Division, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C. (Harold R. Tyler, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Harold H. Greene and J. Harold Flannery, Jr., Attys. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellant.

Elmore Holmes, III, Philip L. Peeler, C. P. J. Mooney, Lucius E. Burch, Jr. (as amicus curiae), Burch, Porter, Johnson & Brown, Rives Manker, C. C. Gillespie, John S. Montedonico, Daniel D. Canale, Memphis, Tenn., Lawrence W. Morgan, Brownsville, Tenn., for appellees.

Thomas R. Prewitt, Robert E. Joyner, Memphis, Tenn., and Lawrence W. Morgan, L. Kirby Matherne, Brownsville, Tenn., on the brief, for appellees.

Robert W. Sturdivant, Trabue, Minick, Sturdivant & Harbison, Nashville, Tenn., and L. K. Matherne, Brownsville, Tenn., on the brief, for appellee Mrs. Frances Moore Woodson.

Before CECIL, WEICK and O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

These appeals are from an order of the United States District Court, for the Western District of Tennessee, denying a motion for a preliminary injunction pending the hearing and determination of the merits of the plaintiff's causes of action.

The United States of America, as plaintiff, filed an amended complaint in case number 4065, on the 18th of November, 1960, under section 1971(b) of Title 42 U.S.C.A., known as the Civil Rights Act. Seventy individual and corporate defendants were named. The individuals were all residents of Haywood county, Tennessee, except five. Of these, four owned land in Haywood county. The corporate defendants were banks which were incorporated in Tennessee and transacted business and had their principal places of business in Haywood county.

On December 1, 1960, a virtually identical action, case number 4121, was brought against ten additional defendants. The two actions were consolidated by the trial judge and both are now a part of this appeal.

It was charged in the complaints that the defendants engaged in numerous acts and practices which deprived the negro citizens of Haywood county of their right to be free from threats, intimidation or coercion, and the right to be free from attempted threats, intimidation, or coercion, for the purpose of interfering with their right to vote for candidates for federal offices.

A further charge was made that the defendants conspired among themselves and with others to accomplish the above stated purpose.

It is claimed by the government that part of the threats, intimidation and coercion was in the nature of economic pressure exerted by the defendants, through a well-organized plan and system that would, in part, deny them credit and the right to buy necessities through their usual business relations. In short, as claimed, this pressure would amount to economic strangulation.

It is further claimed that among the economic punitive devices to prevent negroes from registering to vote and to punish them for such registration, was a scheme on the part of the defendants to cause certain negroes and their families to be evicted from the farms where they lived and worked as sharecroppers.

On December 2, 1960, the United States filed a motion for a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants, during the pendency of the action, from engaging in, or performing any and all of the following acts:

"1. Evicting, or threatening to evict, any Negro sharecropper of voting age in Haywood County from property occupied by such Negro unless the defendant shall first have filed a sworn statement setting forth in detail his reasons for the eviction, and the plaintiff has not petitioned this District Court for a hearing on the subject within 20 days following service by mail of the statement on the plaintiff.

"2. Altering, or threatening to alter, the existing tenant farming or sharecropping agreement, including present financial arrangements, if any, with any Negro tenant of voting age in Haywood County, Tennessee, unless the defendant shall first have filed a sworn statement setting forth in detail his reasons for the change in the existing tenant farming agreement, and the plaintiff has not petitioned this District Court for a hearing on the subject within 20 days following service by mail of the statement upon the plaintiff.

"3. Engaging in any threats, intimidation, or coercion, or attempted threats, intimidation, or coercion, of any nature, whether economic or otherwise, for the purpose of interfering with the right of any other person to become registered to vote in Haywood County, Tennessee, and to vote for candidates for Federal office."

The District Judge set the motion for hearing on December 19th and devoted three days to its hearing and determination. At the conclusion of this hearing, the Judge rendered an oral opinion which he ordered transcribed and filed as findings of fact and conclusions of law.

He found upon this hearing "there is at least reasonable cause to believe there have been attempts by certain of the defendants, some twelve or fourteen for sure, to interfere with this right in Haywood County in various and sundry ways, and there is reason to believe such attempts might be persisted in unless these particular defendants the Court has in mind are restrained."

Thirteen defendants were preliminarily restrained during the pendency of the action, "from engaging in any threats, intimidation or coercion or attempted threats, intimidation or coercion of any nature for the purpose of interfering with the right of any other person to become registered to vote in Haywood County, Tennessee, and to vote for candidates for Federal office."

The District Judge granted no relief to the negro sharecroppers against the landowner-defendants for the reason as stated by him.

"But, Gentlemen, we run into trouble with respect to other relief sought in this litigation, especially with respect to the sharecropping contracts. The Court has been asked to enjoin the eviction of some of the sharecroppers by certain of these defendant landowners and to enjoin the altering of the existing sharecropping contracts which expire the first of the year or shortly thereafter. In effect, it seems to the Court the plaintiff is asking that the Court make new rental contracts for certain of the parties in this litigation. It ought to be evident to all that relief of this type cannot be awarded, especially on application for temporary injunction. The Congress, it is plain to see, did, in passing this Civil Rights Act, intend to protect the voting right but it did not, as the Court reads the Statute, vest the Courts with authority to adjudge contracts and property rights, and this is the main problem inherent in this very broad application by the Government. This litigation, as we are bound to recognize, involves a number of separate controversies between these landlords and tenants, the details and equities concerning which there has been no attempt to fully develop in this hearing, but it should be stated, and it is evident enough that on this phase of the investigation there are serious disputes on questions of fact and law, including constitutional questions. Constitutional questions concerning due process and among others, I believe are present."

As will be noted, the denial of relief was not based upon any finding of fact made by the District Judge, but on the legal proposition that the Court had no right to deal with contracts or property rights of the parties.

On motion of the plaintiff, our Court granted, on December 30, 1960, a preliminary restraining order pending appeal. By this order the landowners were restrained and enjoined "from intimidating, threatening, coercing, or attempting to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any of their Negro sharecropper tenants for the purpose of interfering with the right of such persons to vote as th...