United States v. PAINTERS'DIST. COUNCIL NO. 14, ETC.

• Decision Date: 09 October 1930
• Docket Number: No. 8556.,8556.
• Citation: 44 F.2d 58
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. PAINTERS' DIST. COUNCIL NO. 14 OF CHICAGO AND VICINITY OF BROTHERHOOD OF PAINTERS, DECORATORS AND PAPER HANGERS OF AMERICA et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

44 F.2d 58 (1930)

UNITED STATES v. PAINTERS' DIST. COUNCIL NO. 14 OF CHICAGO AND VICINITY OF BROTHERHOOD OF PAINTERS, DECORATORS AND PAPER HANGERS OF AMERICA et al.

No. 8556.

District Court, N. D. Illinois, E. D.

October 9, 1930.

George E. Q. Johnson, U. S. Atty., of Chicago, Ill., John Lord O'Brian, Asst. to Atty. Gen., and Mary G. Connor, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen., for the United States.

Wm. E. Rodriguez, of Chicago, Ill. (John M. Humphrey, of Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for defendants.

LINDLEY, District Judge.

The government brings this proceedings in equity against defendants, viz., Painters' District Council No. 14 of Chicago of painters and others, Chicago local unions of the Brotherhood of Painters, Arthur W. Wallace, secretary-treasurer of the council, certain business agents of the council, recording secretaries of the local unions and, as a class, represented by the council and the local unions, all of the members of the local unions, alleging that defendants have entered into a combination and conspiracy for the purpose of preventing manufacturers of finished kitchen cabinets, store fixtures, and interior woodwork, whose manufacturing plants are located in states other than the state of Illinois, from selling and delivering their products in Chicago. The allegation is that this conspiracy since early in 1927 has unlawfully restricted and interfered with the free flow of commerce between the states of Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois, contrary to the provisions of the Anti-Trust Law (15 USCA § 1 et seq). Thus it is observed that this is not a controversy between employer and employees, but a suit in which the issue is as to whether or not defendants, irrespective of their association with labor organizations, have unlawfully interfered with interstate commerce.

In support of its position the government has produced evidence as follows: It has been customary for some time for manufacturers in the state of Indiana, who produce and sell built-in kitchen cabinets, to manufacture the same in Indiana and ship the same to Chicago as well as other parts of the United States, so far as painting is concerned, in a finished condition. Until the interference complained of, this painting was done in the factories by means of an air spray, and dried in a high temperature. Interior woodwork has been manufactured in the same manner in Kentucky and Wisconsin and sold and shipped in a completely finished condition into Chicago. The paint or lacquer was applied thereto in the factories with a spray, and cannot be effectively applied with a hand brush. Defendants' rules in Chicago forbid the finishing of such work with a spray. None of the manufactured work could be finished on the various jobs on the ground in Chicago as effectively as in the factories, and all work was completed and finished at the factories in accordance with specifications from contractors, who buy the articles to place in apartment buildings and similar structures.

In the year 1927 defendants decided that the painters of Chicago, that is, members of the union, should paint kitchen cabinets and other similar woodwork, then being brought into the state in finished condition, and should compel manufacturers to bring their products into the state unfinished, so that the finishing might be done by local painters. The minutes of the council meeting held September 29, 1927, refer to such agreement and decision, and on December 15, 1927 the council included in its minutes the following: "Motion made and seconded that the Business Agents be instructed to pull all jobs where cabinets come in with more than a protective coat. Motion carried." Similar decision with the same ultimate end in view with regard to finished interior woodwork is evidenced by the minutes of meetings of council held at various times during the year 1929. The secretary-treasurer of the council refused to permit retouching on finished woodwork installed in the Foreman National Bank building, and notified the Kentucky union painters that sprayed work from Louisville would not be handled in Chicago. Defendants through their business agents called strikes of painters and glaziers at work in buildings in which outside finished products were being installed, and repeatedly announced that painters would not be allowed to work in buildings where such finished products were being brought in and installed.

Certain of defendants stated to the representatives of the manufacturers that their representatives would throw business in the way of the manufacturers if they agreed to the conditions imposed, and that they would pass the word around to decorators and painters that the manufacturers were in good standing so far as such conditions were in question. They insisted that the goods must be shipped into Chicago with only a prime coat of paint thereon, and that Chicago painters must be employed to put at least two coats of enamel upon the cabinets upon their arrival in Chicago to be placed in the buildings. The manufacturers testified that the finish thus produced is inferior to that produced in the factory by means of sprays, and that as a result of the pressure put upon them by defendants various building contractors canceled orders and stated that they were compelled to refuse to place orders with manufacturers who had no permission from the union to ship their goods into Chicago finished. The business of the manufacturers in Chicago decreased materially. Defendants offered no evidence.

Without reciting the facts in detail, it is sufficient to say that it is apparent that defendants were engaged in a plan whereby they decided to and did prevent shipment in interstate commerce into Chicago of manufactured products in anything other than an unfinished condition; that the effect of this was materially to curtail the volume of business in Chicago and to impose upon the manufacturers engaged in interstate commerce onerous conditions that resulted in the installation of their products in Chicago in a condition of finish inferior to that which they were prepared to furnish, and had previously furnished themselves. By threats of strikes, by coercing demands, by statements that they would fight in court for their position, defendants openly took the position that, right or wrong, they would prevent the shipping into Chicago by interstate commerce of finished products.

Defendants insist that the evidence shows at the most merely a position upon their part opposed only to the installation of finished cabinets by the local contractors; that interstate commerce terminated with delivery by the manufacturers upon the job; that such delivery was completed by placing the cabinets upon the sidewalks in front of the buildings; and that therefore any interference by defendants was wholly local in character and did not directly affect interstate commerce.

Manufacture of cabinets in Indiana and Kentucky, even though those articles were intended to be shipped out of those states, was not interstate commerce. United Leather Workers v. Herkert, 265 U. S. 457, 44 S. Ct. 623, 68 L. Ed. 1104, 33 A. L. R. 566; Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251 at page 272, 38 S. Ct. 529, 62 L. Ed. 1101, 3 A. L. R. 649, Ann. Cas. 1918E, 724; D., L. & W. R. Co. v. Yurkonis, 238 U. S. 439, 35 S. Ct. 902, 59 L. Ed. 1397; United Mine Workers v. Coronada Co., 259 U. S. 344 at page 411, 42 S. Ct. 570, 66 L. Ed. 975, 27 A. L. R. 762. But shipping manufactured articles from one state into another obviously constitutes such commerce, and it becomes necessary therefore to determine whether the interference complained of was merely local in character, as contended by defendants, or whether it unreasonably restricted interstate commerce.

The evidence shows, in the minutes of the painters' council, a communication from one of the manufacturers "agreeing to abide by our regulations...