Cain, Brogden & Cain, Inc. v. Local Union No. 47, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers

285 S.W.2d 942, 155 Tex. 304, 1956 Tex. LEXIS 589, 37 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2298
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1956
DocketA-5008
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 285 S.W.2d 942 (Cain, Brogden & Cain, Inc. v. Local Union No. 47, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cain, Brogden & Cain, Inc. v. Local Union No. 47, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers, 285 S.W.2d 942, 155 Tex. 304, 1956 Tex. LEXIS 589, 37 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2298 (Tex. 1956).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Smith

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit to enjoin respondent Union and certain of its members from picketing the construction project of petitioner Cain, Brogden & Cain. A temporary injunction was issued by a district court of Tarrant County. The injunction has been dissolved by the Court of Civil Appeals. 272 S.W. 2d 243.

Respondent is Local 47 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers. Petitioner is Cain, Brogden & Cain Construction Company, a general contractor for two construction projects in Fort Worth, the Fair West Shopping Center and Matthews Memorial Methodist Church. Respondent, for some months before the events at issue here, had been trying to effect contracts with all of the general contractors in the Fort Worth area to insure that wages and working conditions commensurate with those required by union members would be maintained among all workers, union or nonunion, hired either directly or through subcontractors, for hauling jobs in connection with the construction industry in Tarrant County. The record shows that some seven weeks or two months before the picketing, which resulted in this injunction, a representative of respondent had a conversation with petitioner’s foreman, Sager, for the purpose of securing work for union truck drivers on petitioner’s Fair West job. Sager’s reply to this inquiry is squarely disputed by the parties but in any event the uncontroverted testimony is that petitioner Cain was never contacted by respondent until the day before the picket was placed on the Fair West project. Petitioner employed some of the workmen on the project directly, including both union and nonunion members, but subcontracted certain portions, of the work to subcontractors, including Childress, who had a subcontract for supplying sand and gravel to the construction site. The date of execution of this subcontract does not appear, nor is it clear whether it was before or after respondent’s first conversation with Sager regarding the hauling jobs.

On August 2, 1954, Blankenship, a representative of respondent, telephoned petitioner Cain and, as related by Cain, he following conversation transpired:

“The telephone rang and the man said he was Mr. Blanken *307 ship, business agent for the teamsters and truck drivers; he says, ‘You have got a man working out on Matthews Memorial Church that’s using — Joe Campbell,’ he said, ‘using nonunion truck drivers.’ I said, ‘Well, Mr. Campbell is a subcontractor/ He says, ‘If it isn’t stopped, we are going to put pickets on your job.’ I says, ‘You will have to talk to Mr. Campbell, because he has the subcontract and I have no control over him.’ ”
* * *
“During this construction [sic] he said that Jim Childress was hauling gravel at Fair West and if I didn’t stop that, he would put pickets on that job.”
“What did you say to that?”
“I told him Mr. Childress had a subcontract and I had no control over him.”
❖ Hi *
“He (Blankenship) wanted to come out and talk about Mr. Childress and I told him to go talk to Mr. Childress — that I had no control over him.”

Respondents’ witnesses denied that Blankenship mentioned Childress in the telephone conversation or made any statement to Cain “about taking anybody off of” the Fair West job, asserting that Blankenship only requested Cain to negotiate with respect to the payment of union wages and observance of union hours and working conditions on the Fair West project and on future construction projects.

On the following morning a picket was posted on the Fair West job. One picket was used. He carried a sign to the effect that respondent was on strike against petitioner “for better wages and working conditions.” As a result of this picketing, most of the union members on the project stopped working and petitioner was substantially injured.

The trial court found that no labor dispute existed between petitioner and its employees and that there was no complaint from such employees as to wages, hours or working conditions; that none of petitioner’s employees was a member of respondent Union and none was eligible for membership therein; that no labor dispute existed between petitioner and respondents; that *308 the picketing had prevented and, unless enjoined, would con-' tinue to prevent the delivery of supplies, material and equipment to petitioner’s premises to its irreparable damage; and, finally, that the action by respondent in picketing petitioner’s premises constituted secondary picketing and a secondary boycott.

The trial court accordingly enjoined respondent from “(a) picketing at or near any of the premises where plaintiff [petitioner] is engaged in construction work in Tarrant County, Texas; (b) interfering with or attempting to prevent the free flow of commerce to and from any of plaintiff’s [petitioner’s] premises in Tarrant County, Texas.”

The Court of Civil Appeals dissolved the injunction on the ground that it infringed upon the freedom of speech guaranteed respondents by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. In the light of that holding it is not inappropriate to examine some of the decisions which shed light on the question.

In Thornhill v. State of Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 60 Sup. Ct. 736, 84 L. Ed. 1093, the United States Supreme Court declared that the advertisement of a labor dispute by picketing was protected from statutory restriction by either Congress or any legislature because of the free speech guarantees of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. See also Carlson v. People of State of California, 310 U.S. 106, 60 Sup. Ct. 746, 84 L. Ed. 1104. Since that decision, in a long series of cases, the court has announced a great many qualifications upon this original doctrine. Indeed, even in the Thornhill case, it was broadly intimated that a state would be justified in regulation of picketing, based upon “either the number of persons engaged in the proscribed activity, the peaceful character of their demeanor, the nature of their dispute with an employer, or the restrained character and accurateness of the terminology used in notifying the public of the facts, of the dispute.”

In the cases which followed Thornhill, certain areas of permissible regulation were indicated. Picketing could be enjoined if it formed a part of a labor controversy characterized by threats and violence. Milk Wagon Drivers’ Union of Chicago v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U.S. 287, 61 Sup. Ct. 552, 85 L. Ed. 836. It could be enjoined if the objective of the picketing was to force a violation of a “Right to Work” law, similar to Art. 5207a, Vernon’s Annotated Texas Civil Statutes, Building Service Em *309 ployees v. Gazzam, 339 U.S. 532, 70 Sup. Ct.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Allied Marketing Group, Inc.
949 S.W.2d 816 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Ruiz v. Conoco, Inc.
868 S.W.2d 752 (Texas Supreme Court, 1994)
Highland Church of Christ v. Powell
633 S.W.2d 324 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)
United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO v. HE Butt Grocery Co.
590 S.W.2d 600 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Otto v. Rau Petroleum Products
582 S.W.2d 504 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Lloyd v. Alaska Worldwide, Inc.
550 S.W.2d 343 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1977)
Amalgamated Meat Cutters v. Carl's Meat & Provision Co.
475 S.W.2d 300 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)
United Farm Workers Organizing Committee v. La Casita Farms, Inc.
439 S.W.2d 398 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Millwrights Local Union No. 2484 v. Rust Engineering Co.
424 S.W.2d 283 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
Grant v. Grant
358 S.W.2d 147 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1962)
Chesterfield Finance Company v. State
331 S.W.2d 368 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1959)
Ex Parte Twedell
309 S.W.2d 834 (Texas Supreme Court, 1958)
Dallas General Drivers, Warehousemen & Helpers v. Wamix, Inc.
295 S.W.2d 873 (Texas Supreme Court, 1956)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
285 S.W.2d 942, 155 Tex. 304, 1956 Tex. LEXIS 589, 37 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cain-brogden-cain-inc-v-local-union-no-47-international-brotherhood-tex-1956.