Weakley County Municipal Elec. System v. Vick

• Decision Date: 25 July 1957
• Citation: 43 Tenn.App. 524,309 S.W.2d 792
• Parties: WEAKLEY COUNTY MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC SYSTEM, Tom Grooms, H. J. Ramer, W. M. Stowe, H. B. Bell and Milton Roberts, as Commissioners and/or Board of Public Utilities of Weakley County, Tennessee, and B. B. Crockett, Superintendent, v. Kenneth VICK, Hoyt Killebrew, Wilson Clark, Jack Hutchens, J. C. Wilbur, Harold Bunch, Billy Green, Doyle Killebrew, Travis Smith, Lebern Allen, Hershell Winsett, W. C. Cooper, Billy Lewis, Walter Barber, Joe Smith, Fred Page, Willis Rogers, Tommy Oliver, Finis Hagler, Charles Swearingen, Barney Jones, Brodie Rickman, and E. L. Cooper, and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 792

309 S.W.2d 792

43 Tenn.App. 524

WEAKLEY COUNTY MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC SYSTEM, Tom Grooms, H. J.

Ramer, W. M. Stowe, H. B. Bell and Milton Roberts, as

Commissioners and/or Board of Public Utilities of Weakley

County, Tennessee, and B. B. Crockett, Superintendent, v. Kenneth VICK, Hoyt Killebrew, Wilson Clark, Jack Hutchens,

J. C. Wilbur, Harold Bunch, Billy Green, Doyle Killebrew,

Travis Smith, Lebern Allen, Hershell Winsett, W. C. Cooper,

Billy Lewis, Walter Barber, Joe Smith, Fred Page, Willis

Rogers, Tommy Oliver, Finis Hagler, Charles Swearingen,

Barney Jones, Brodie Rickman, and E. L. Cooper, and

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, Western Section.

July 25, 1957.

Certiorari Denied by Supreme Court Feb. 6, 1958.

Brooks McLemore, Jackson, for Kenneth Vick, and others.

Robert G. Jeter, King Webb and Allen J. Strawbridge, Dresden, for Weakley County Municipal Electric System, and others.

BEJACH, Judge.

This cause involves an appeal by Kenneth Vick and others as members of Local Union Number 835, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, on behalf of said Local Union Number 835, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, from a final decree granting an injunction against them entered by Hon. John T. Gray, Chancellor of the Chancery Court of Weakley County, Tennessee, in a suit against them filed by the Weakley County Municipal Electric System, its Board of Commissioners and B. B. Crockett, its superintendent. The injunction appealed from prohibits the appellants, who were defendants in the lower court, from maintaining picket lines and in any way picketing the Weakley County Municipal Electric System, its offices, warehouses, and property, and from intimidating, harming, harassing, or molesting said Weakley County Municipal Electric System, its agents, servants, and employees. Said injunction was granted in a suit filed by the Weakley County Municipal Electric System, organized under and by virtue of Chapter 32, Public Acts of Tennessee, 1935, and Amendments thereto, Sections 6-1501-6-1537, T.C.A., the short title of which is the 'Municipal Electric Plant Law of 1935', and by Tom Grooms, H. J. Ramer, W. M. Stowe, H. B. Bell, and Milton Roberts, as Commissioners and/or Board of Public Utilities of Weakley County, Tennessee, and B. B. Crockett, Superintendent for said Weakley County Municipal Electric System, against Kenneth Vick, Hoyt Killebrew, Wilson Clark, Jack Hutchens, J. C. Wilbur, Harold Bunch, Billy Green, Doyle Killebrew, Travis Smith, Lebern Allen, Hershell Winsett, W. C. Cooper, Billy Lewis, Walter Barber, Joe Smith, Fred Page, Willis Rogers, Tommy Oliver, Finis Hagler, Charles Swearingen, Barney Jones, Basil Rickman, and R. L. Cooper, individually, all citizens and residents of Weakley County, Tennessee, and as members of Local Union Number 835, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Jackson, Tennessee; and H. N. Bell, agent and representative of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and individually; and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and W. E. Nichols, a citizen and resident of Jackson, Tennessee, individually, and as representative or agent for Local Union Number 835, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Jackson, Tennessee; and Local Union Number 835, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Jackson, Tennessee; and John Pinkleton, a citizen and resident of Weakley County.

For convenience, the parties will be designated, as in the lower court complainants and defendants, or, as circumstances may require, referred to as appellants and appellees, or called by their individual names or titles.

Complainants' bill alleges that the Weakley County Municipal Electric System has been and is organized and existing under and by virtue of Chapter 32, Public Acts of Tennessee, 1935, together with amendments thereto; that said Weakley County Municipal Electric System is governed by the Quarterly County Court of Weakley County, Tennessee, and the Board of Commissioners, composed of five men duly elected or appointed by the Quarterly County Court of Weakley County, Tennessee, of which Board, Milton Roberts is Chairman, H. B. Bell, Vice Chairman, and W. M. Stowe, H. J. Ramer, and Tom Grooms, the other members; that said Weakley County Municipal Electric System is operated and managed by said Board of Commissioners, which has employed B. B. Crockett as superintendent, and that said B. B. Crockett has the authority and responsibility to operate said System under the supervision and control of said Board of Commissioners and the Quarterly County Court of Weakley County, Tennessee, and that the Weakley County Municipal Electric System is wholly owned by Weakley County, Tennessee. The defendants named are sued as individuals and as agents and representatives of the Union named, and in particular, Local Union Number 835, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The bill alleges that the employees of the Weakley County Municipal Electric System named as defendants have gone on a strike, which strike began December 10, 1951--said strike having been called for the purpose of requiring complainants to recognize Local Union Number 835, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, as the bargaining agent of complainants' employees and to require the signing of a contract with said Union. Complainants' bill alleges numerous acts of violence and intimidation of employees of complainants, who had been employed subsequent to the strike or who had not gone out on strike; and that defendants have set up a picket line at various offices and places of business of the Weakley County Municipal Electric System. The bill alleges that the strike by defendants, and especially the picketing by them, is illegal, prays for an injunction against same, and prays especially that the defendants be enjoined from trespassing on the property or properties of complainants, from coercing or threatening employees or management, from interfering with customers of complainants, or the general public, and from doing bodily injury to any of complainants' employees, or damage to any of complainants' property, from following, pursuing and intimidating employees and prospective employees, and from interfering with customers. The fiat for the issuance of the writ of temporary injunction was signed by Hon. E. A. Morris, Circuit Judge.

After the defendants, through H. G. D. King of Chattanooga, Tennessee, had filed their answer in this cause, complainants filed an amended or additional bill, and there were some attachments for contempt of Court, which are not now involved in this litigation. Still later, Hon. George C. Rowlett of Martin, Tennessee, who had been employed to represent defendants, replacing H. G. D. King, leave of court so to do having been granted, withdrew the answer filed by H. G. D. King and filed an amended or supplemental answer, which raises the issue of constitutionality of the Municipal Electric Plant Law of 1935, as applied to Weakley County and its Municipal Electric System. Mr. Rowlett also signed on behalf of defendants, along with Messrs. King Webb and Robert G. Jeter for complainants, an agreement to hear this cause on oral evidence without the intervention of a jury, which agreement also stipulated that same be heard January 18, 1955 at an adjourned hearing of the Court. When the cause came on for hearing on January 18, 1955, however, Mr. Rowlett appeared and announced that he and his clients had disagreed about his duties, obligations, and other matters concerning his employment in this cause and that he had withdrawn from the case with the approval and consent of his clients, the defendants herein, who had full knowledge and notice that the cause was set for trial, January 18, 1955. Mr. Rowlett was permitted to withdraw as solicitor for defendants and said defendants were called to come into Court and defend their suit, but came not. Notwithstanding the calling of defendants the hearing of the cause proceeded, ex parte, and the proof of complainants was presented orally in accordance with a stipulation previously filed. A considerable volume of testimony was presented, same occupying 674 pages of typewritten matter in the bill of exceptions now before this Court. Consideration of this testimony is rendered unnecessary, however, by reason of the fact that defendants' present solicitor and counsel makes no question as to the findings of fact made by the Chancellor, based on said testimony. He does, however, challenge certain of the conclusions of law reached by the Chancellor which were embodied in the final decree, and limits the case to two questions of law to be adjudicated by this Court, viz.,

First, whether or not Chapter 32, Public Acts of Tennessee, 1935, is constitutional, so that complainants can lawfully maintain this action.

Second, whether or not the Weakley County Municipal Electric System, if it has been legally organized and constituted, can lawfully enter into a contract with a labor union with respect to its employees and their working conditions, rates of pay, etc.

The Hon. Brooks McLamore, present counsel for defendants, appeared before the Chancellor, in this cause, after the hearing, referred to above, but before the Chancellor had rendered his decision,--the cause having been taken under advisement. He was permitted to file with the Chancellor a brief on behalf of defendants, and he approved the form of the final decree entered in the lower court, November 8, 1955, after the Chancellor had on November 1, 1955 filed his written opinion, which is made part of the record in this cause. The final decree contains an elaborate recital of finding of facts, which follow and sustain the allegations of complainants' bill in this cause. Among these recitals is an adjudication,

'that the Weakley County Municipal Electric System is...