Allen v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees' International Alliance

217 P.2d 699, 97 Cal. App. 2d 343, 1950 Cal. App. LEXIS 1535
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 4, 1950
DocketCiv. 14058
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 217 P.2d 699 (Allen v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees' International Alliance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees' International Alliance, 217 P.2d 699, 97 Cal. App. 2d 343, 1950 Cal. App. LEXIS 1535 (Cal. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinions

GOODELL, J.

Plaintiffs sued for an injunction and $50,-000 damages, on their own behalf and in a representative capacity for all members of their local union who are similarly situated. The defendants are Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ International Alliance and Bartenders’ International League of America, a voluntary, unincorporated association [344]*344and labor union, Hugo Ernst, its general president, and four other representatives thereof, including appellants Haskins and Burke. A preliminary injunction was ordered on February 24, 1948, and this appeal was taken from that order.

Plaintiffs sought the injunction because they contended they had been expelled from the International union without due process.

Bartenders and Culinary Workers Union, Local 560, of Vallejo, is a constituent member of the defendant International, and appellants Haskins and Burke are officers and representatives thereof and, at the same time, representatives and agents of the International, also of its general president and of defendant McDonough.

At the time the injunction issued a case was pending in which Joseph Killeen and others were appellants and the same International was a respondent, and five days after it issued that ease was decided (Killeen v. Hotel & Restaurant Emp. Int. Alliance, 84 Cal.App.2d 87 [190 P.2d 30]). From the opinion therein it appears that there was serious dissension in the Vallejo local, and the International threatened to take charge thereof by putting in a trustee, as authorized by the International’s constitution. Anticipating that McDonough, who had been designated as trustee, would take charge of the local, Killeen and others filed suit in the Superior Court in Solano County to permanently enjoin him from doing so. A temporary restraining order was issued in that case. The defendants therein moved to set it aside, and on September 18, 1946, the court did so “on the chief ground that plaintiffs failed to appeal from the decision of the president of the International ... or to exhaust their remedies” provided by its constitution. On appeal the order dissolving the restraining order and refusing a preliminary injunction was affirmed.

Three of the five plaintiffs in the present ease, namely, Allen, Woody and Pohlman were coplaintiffs with Killeen in that case, and their action in so joining with him was used by the International as the basis for one of the charges it preferred, looking to the expulsion of said three members. The principal ground of such charge was that by starting the Killeen suit and getting a restraining order against the International and its trustee they had failed to exhaust their remedies within their own organization, in violation of section 156 of the International’s constitution. There were other charges as well against the same three.. Plaintiffs Richards and Cotter, who were not parties to the Killeen suit, were charged with [345]*345other claimed offenses. Those five accusations and the International’s action thereon gave rise to the present litigation.

The charges against all five members were preferred by defendant McDonough, the International’s trustee of the Vallejo local, and were contained in five separate letters dated November 18, 1947 from him to the general president of the International, resident in Cincinnati, specifying the charges. On November 25 the president wrote to each of the five, transmitting a copy of McDonough’s letter, and giving them fifteen days within which to answer the president. All of them did so except Woody. On December 30, the president wrote to each of the five saying “We are adjudging you guilty and penalizing you the amount of $25.00 and expulsion from membership in the International Union.”

The complaint alleges all these facts respecting the expulsions and that the plaintiffs had no hearing; were not confronted with witnesses; that there was no production of evidence ; no opportunity to defend themselves; in short that they were expelled without due process. The complaint also alleges that the plaintiffs had lost their employment and had been prevented from obtaining further work, as a result of their expulsions.

The plaintiffs’ application for a preliminary injunction was heard on their verified complaint and on a counteraffidavit filed by appellant Frances Haskins. A demurrer and motion to strike out parts of the complaint were also before the court.

The injunction, dated February 24, 1948, opens with self-contradictory language commanding defendants, during the pendency of the action and until the further order of the court, to desist and refrain “from doing or attempting to do any of the following described acts alleged to have been done by plaintiffs, or any of them, prior to December 30, 1947.” The emphasis is ours. The defendants were thereby commanded to refrain from doing something which they had done almost two months before—December 30 having been the date of the letters of expulsion. Then follow five separate paragraphs reading:

“(1) From interfering in any way whatsoever with the employment or jobs of plaintiffs and each of them, and from prohibiting plaintiffs, or any of them, from working at the culinary trade in any place or places of business wherein said defendant Union and Local Union 560 thereof have jurisdiction, or any other place of business, whether in Vallejo or any [346]*346other city or place; and defendants, and each of them, are further ordered to advise plaintiffs’ last employers that plaintiffs are free to work at said establishments without objections by or interference from said defendants, or any of them, or their agents, servants, employees or representatives. (Emphasis added.)
“(2) From expelling or purporting to expel plaintiffs, or any of them, from the said Hotel & Restaurant Employees’ International Alliance and Bartenders’ International League of America, or Local Union 560 thereof, or from in any way or by any means whatsoever interfering with the membership of plaintiffs, and each of them, in said Union and Local Union 560 thereof.
“ (3) From giving effect in any way or by any means whatsoever to the purported orders of expulsion against plaintiffs, and each of them, by Hugo Ernst, General President, dated December 30, 1947, and said orders of expulsion for the purposes of this order are hereby declared to be suspended. (Emphasis added.)
“(4) From interfering with or preventing plaintiffs, and each of them, participating in the business and affairs of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees’ International Alliance and Bartenders’ International League of America and Local Union 560 thereof, on the same terms and conditions as other members in good standing of said Unions.
“ (5) From refusing to accept dues, assessments, or other monies from plaintiffs, and each of them, upon the same terms and conditions as all other members in good standing of Local 560. The purpose of this provision is to restore plaintiffs to the membership and dues status they enjoyed im said Unions prior to the purported expulsion orders of December 30,1947, and to protect their property rights and benefits in the Union.” (Emphasis added.)

The last part of paragraph (1), which we have emphasized^ is mandatory, directing the defendants to take affirmative, substantive, action by communicating with plaintiffs’ former employers.

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Allen v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees' International Alliance
217 P.2d 699 (California Court of Appeal, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
217 P.2d 699, 97 Cal. App. 2d 343, 1950 Cal. App. LEXIS 1535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-hotel-restaurant-employees-international-alliance-calctapp-1950.