Abrams v. Hart Cotton Mills, Inc.

85 F. Supp. 664, 24 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2454, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2525
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. North Carolina
DecidedSeptember 2, 1949
DocketCiv. No. 283
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 85 F. Supp. 664 (Abrams v. Hart Cotton Mills, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abrams v. Hart Cotton Mills, Inc., 85 F. Supp. 664, 24 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2454, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2525 (E.D.N.C. 1949).

Opinion

GILLIAM, District Judge.

Hart Cotton Mills, Inc., a North Carolina corporation, hereinafter called “the Mill”, instituted this action in the North Carolina Superior Court for Edgecombe County and filed its complaint containing the following allegations':

“That the defendants are conspiring together and acting in concert to prevent by unlawful means, as hereinafter set forth, the plaintiff from operating its said plant.

“That the plaintiff desires to operate its said plant as heretofore; that employees of the plaintiff desire to enter the said plant and work therein . as heretofore; and various, and sundry persons desire to enter the plaintiff’s plant and do business with the plaintiff as heretofore; but since May 12, 1949, as employees of the plaintiff seek tq enter the said plant for the purpose of going to work, therein, and as persons seek to enter said plant for the pur[665]*665pose of doing business with the plaintiff, the defendants and numbers of other persons whose names are unknown to the plaintiff gather in front of the open gates of the plant, which constitute the entrance to the said plant, and there massing themselves solidly in the gate openings, they forcibly and continuously block and prevent any person from entering.

“That repeatedly since May 12, 1949, and up to the present time, employees of the plaintiff and persons desiring to do business with the plaintiff have sought to make their way through the defendants and other persons thus gathered and massed at the aforesaid gates and have been physically and forcibly blocked and pushed back, the defendants and other unknown persons with them meantime declaring and asserting that they intend to prevent any person whomsoever from working in the plaintiff’s plant or doing business with the plaintiff until and unless they, the defendants, see fit to permit otherwise; that employees of the plaintiff and persons seeking to do business with the plaintiff have on such occasions been repeatedly assaulted and threatened with further bodily injury by the defendants or some of them in case they, the plaintiff’s employees and other persons seeking to enter the plaintiff’s plant, persisted in their efforts to enter said plant.

“That as the plaintiff is informed and believes the individual defendants, and •other persons referred to above whose names are unknown to the plaintiff, engaging in the acts and course of conduct described above is caused and brought about by their joint association or membership in the above-named unincorporated association known as Textile Workers Union of America, CIO; and that the acts and course of conduct described above are, as the plaintiff is informed and believes, co-ordinated, planned and directed by the said unincorporated association, its officers, agents, representatives, members and associates; that as the plaintiff is informed and believes, R. H. Harris, Howard Parker, Ted Thomas, Charlie Stancil, Henry Byrd, Melvin Hoard, J. C. Hughes, and Sylvester Sawyer are agents and official representatives of said unincorporated association.

“That by reason of the unlawful acts above set forth employees desiring to work in the plaintiff’s plant and persons desiring to do business with the plaintiff are not able to enter the said plant to work therein or to do business with the plaintiff, that as a result thereof, employees of the plaintiff have been and are daily losing large sums of money in wages which they would be earning, and the plaintiff has been and is daily losing large sums of money in production which its said plant would be turning out, were it not for the aforesaid continuing unlawful acts of the defendants and other persons above referred to; that the plaintiff, employees of the plaintiff and all others wrongfully injured by the aforesaid unlawful acts * * *”

Upon the foregoing allegations the Mill prayed for relief, as follows:

“Wherefore, the' plaintiff prays the Court to restrain and enjoin the defendants and other persons referred to above from continuing to commit the unlawful acts hereinabove referred to; and the plaintiff prays the Court to restrain and enjoin the defendants and other persons referred to upon such specific terms and conditions as will prevent them from continuing the said unlawful acts.

“And the plaintiff prays the Court forthwith to issue an order directing the defendants and each of them to appear before this Court and show cause, if any they have, why they should not be so restrained and enjoined.”

The defendants in the action, hereinafter called “defendants”, in due time filed in this Court a verified petition for removal and in all respects complied with the formalities prescribed by the, statutes. Thereafter the Mill moved to remand to the State Court as allowed by Title 28 U.S. C.A. § 1447, sub-section (e).

The only debatable question, I think, involved on this motion to remand to the State Court is does “the matter in controversy * * * (arise) under the Con[666]*666stitution, laws or treaties of the United States”. Title 28.U.S.C.A. § 1331, or does the “civil action or proceeding (arise) .under any Act of Congress regulating commerce or protecting trade and commerce against restraints and monopolies.” Title 28 U.S.C.A. § 1337. The contention of the defendants that this Court has jurisdiction under the diversity of citizenship statutes is dismissed without discussion as the contention was not pressed at the hearing upon the motion and clearly could not be sustained. Likewise, the Mill’s- contention that the jurisdictional amount of $3,-000.00,is not involved cannot be sustained. This position was not urged upon the Court at the hearing and will not be further discussed. It is found as a fact that on the record the jurisdictional amount is involved in this controversy.

It appears to me that in the light of numerous decisions the matter in controversy here (the action or proceeding) does not arise “under the Constitution or laws of the United States”. (Laws of the United States, of course, including laws “regulating commerce or protecting trade and commerce against restraints and monopolies” mentioned in Sec. 1337, Title 28.) As stated in Gully v. First National Bank, 299 U.S. 109, page 112, 57 S.Ct. 96, page 97, 81 L.Ed. 70: “To bring a case within the statute, a right or immunity created by the Constitution or laws of .the United States must be an element, and an essential one, of the plaintiff’s cause of action. * * * The right or immunity must be such that it will be supported if the Constitution or laws of the United States are given one construction or effect, and defeated if they receive another. * * * A genuine and present controversy, not merely a possible or conjectural one, must exist with reference thereto * * *, and the controversy must be disclosed upon the face of the complaint, unaided by the answer or by the petition for removal. * * * Indeed, the complaint itself will not avail as a basis of jurisdiction in so far as it goes beyond a statement of the plaintiff’s cause of action and anticipates or replies to a probable defense. •'* * *” 299 U.S. at page 114, 57 S.Ct. at page 98. “A suit to enforce a right which takes its origin in the laws of the United States is not necessarily, and for that reason alone, one arising under those laws, for a suit does not so arise unless it really and substantially involves a dispute or controversy respecting the validity, construction, or effect of such a law, upon the determination of which the result depends.”

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Bluebook (online)
85 F. Supp. 664, 24 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2454, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abrams-v-hart-cotton-mills-inc-nced-1949.