Vickers v. Western Elec. Co.
| Decision Date | 27 May 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 6469,6469 |
| Citation | 339 P.2d 1033,86 Ariz. 7 |
| Parties | E. F. VICKERS, Sr., Gene Bogard and W. P. Mahoney, as Chairman and members respectively of, and constituting the Employment Security Commission of Arizona, Communication Workers of America Local 8490, Dale Ripley, Arizona Representative of Communications Workers of America, Local 8490, W. M. Demarest, T. D. Carver, R. K. Brooks, Theodore R. Gray and Ten Other Claimants for Unemployment Compensation, Appellants, v. WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, Incorporated, a corporation, Appellee. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
Robert Morrison, Atty. Gen., Morris K. Udall, Robert R. Steward, Special Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellants.
Cunningham, Carson & Messinger, and William H. Rehnquist, Phoenix, for appellee.
The employees of Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, represented by Communication Workers of America, Local 8519, became involved in a labor dispute with their employer on March 7, 1956. Hereafter we will refer to Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company as the Telephone Company, and its employees concerned with that labor dispute as the striking employees. These striking employees then stopped work, and that evening and the next morning they set up picket lines around the various premises of the Telephone Company in said Metropolitan area, including the main building at 242 West Adams Street in Phoenix.
The work locations and offices of appellee, Western Electric Company, in this Metropolitan area are on the premises of the Telephone Company. The installers of appellee in this area are represented by the appellant Communication Workers of America, Local 8490. Such installers refrained from working from March 7, 1956, until the strike of the Telephone Company employees ended on May 11, 1956. During such time they refused to cross the picket lines maintained by the striking employees of the Telephone Company. The picket lines were orderly and peaceful. Supervisory employees of appellee are not represented by the union, and they continued to work. Installers of appellee, so unemployed because of refraining from work and refusing to cross such picket lines, filed claims for unemployment compensation.
The hearing of the claimants herein was reached on April 6, 1956. On April 13, 1956, the special deputy before whom the hearing was held released his decision in which he found, among other things:
'2. All of the employer's work locations and offices in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area are on premises of the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company.
'3. Local 8490, Communication Workers of America, hereinafter called the union, represents in bargaining the installers of the employer.
'4. The workers represented by the union refrained from working after March 7, 1956 because there is a labor dispute at the premises in which they work. The dispute is between the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company and certain of its employees. The workers represented by the union refused and are refusing to cross the picket lines which announce the existence of the dispute.
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The special deputy then decided that the claimants were disqualified for unemployment benefits 'for the week in which they left work voluntarily without good cause in connection with their work and for the four weeks which immediately follow such week * * *.' This decision apparently was based on A.R.S. § 23-775.
Both appellee and claimants made timely appeals from the decision of the special deputy to the entire Employment Security Commission of Arizona, which will be herein referred to as the Commission. Appellee contended in its appeal that the claimants should have been found ineligible for benefits for the duration of the strike, because claimants had failed to establish they were 'available for work' within the meaning of A.R.S. § 23-771. In the alternative, appellee contended that even if claimants were eligible, they were disqualified for the duration of the strike because of their participation in a labor dispute (A.R.S. § 23-777) rather than disqualified only for four weeks for voluntary quitting (A.R.S. § 23-775) as was held by the deputy.
The hearing before the entire Commission was held on May 17, 1956, at which time appellee endeavored to put in further proof, and when that was denied made certain avowals. On May 21, 1956, the Commission made its decision affirming the decision of the special deputy.
Within the time allowed by law, and in pursuance of A.R.S. § 23-681, appellee petitioned the Superior Court of Maricopa County for a review. No petition for review was made by claimants or any other appellants.
The review was by the Honorable J. Mercer Johnson, then a Judge of Pima County Superior Court, sitting in Maricopa County. The case was thoroughly argued and briefed, and taken under advisement. After due consideration Judge Johnson entered a minute order, reversing the decision of the Commission which had granted benefits after the four-week disqualification period provided for in A.R.S. § 23-775, for the reason 'That claimants are ineligible for employment compensation for the entire period by reason of A.R.S. § 23-771.'
In conformity with the minute order, judgment was settled and entered herein in the Superior Court on February 5, 1957. In that judgment it was expressly found that the decision of the Commission was affected by errors of law and not supported by competent, material and substantial evidence in view of the entire record; and that the claimants having been found ineligible for benefits for the entire period of their employment by reason of A.R.S. § 23-771, the court had no necessity to, and did not, rule upon the matter of disqualification of claimants under either A.R.S. § 23-775 or A.R.S. § 23-777. The court then by its judgment reversed the decision of the Commission and denied claimants any benefits for the entire period of their unemployment. The case is now here on appeal by appellants from said judgment.
There are three assignments of error but it seems to us that the one which encompasses all and which goes to the heart of the question which must be determined on this appeal is Assignment of Error No. III, which is as follows:
'The Superior Court erred as a matter of law in ruling that claimants, employees of Western Electric Company, who refrained from working because of the existence of a labor dispute between the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company and some of its employees at the premises in which they worked, and who refused to cross the picket lines which announced the existence of the dispute, were ineligible for compensation during the entire period of their unemployment under Section 23-771, A.R.S.'
We will briefly refer to fundamentals as we so often find that by so doing the way is pointed to the correct solution of whatever problem may be presented.
The Declaration of Policy contained in the Employment Security Act of Arizona, A.R.S. § 23-601, reads in part as follows:
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