Carpenters Local Union No. 1016 v. J & D Hernly Construction Co.

582 N.E.2d 381, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 2054, 1991 WL 249919
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 2, 1991
DocketNo. 18A05-9104-CV-130
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 582 N.E.2d 381 (Carpenters Local Union No. 1016 v. J & D Hernly Construction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carpenters Local Union No. 1016 v. J & D Hernly Construction Co., 582 N.E.2d 381, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 2054, 1991 WL 249919 (Ind. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

SHARPNACK, Judge.

Carpenters Local Union No. 1016 and Allan Bramlett individually (“Carpenters”) appeal from a court order temporarily enjoining them from engaging in any picketing activities at or near a construction site run by J & D Hernly Construction Company (“Hernly Construction”). We reverse.

Carpenters raise three issues for review, however we address only the following dis-positive issue:

Whether the trial court had jurisdiction to enter an injunction.

The city of Muncie hired Hernly Construction to pour concrete walks and steps and install outdoor lighting on a job site in Tuhey Park. After Hernly Construction began work at the site, Carpenters approached Joe Hernly, a partner in Hernly Construction, and indicated that they wanted the company’s employees to join their union. Shortly thereafter, Carpenters began picketing the job site. The picketing interfered with the delivery of cement to the job site because all of the local cement companies’ employees refused to cross the picket line. The picketing was conducted in a peaceful manner. It is unclear exactly what the picket signs said, but they apparently stated that Hernly did not have a union contract. (Record, 89)

On April 10, 1991, Hernly Construction filed a complaint for a preliminary and permanent injunction against Carpenters “from picketing, or from loitering, grouping, or collecting at or near the site or at [382]*382any approaches on public streets leading to [the site].” 1 The trial court issued a temporary restraining order on the same day. On April 12, the trial court sentenced Bramlett to serve three days in jail for contempt of court. Following a hearing on April 19, at which Joe Hernly and two of his employees testified, the trial court issued an order temporarily enjoining Carpenters from “directly or indirectly, interfering with plaintiff in picketing, loitering, grouping or collecting at or near the Tuhey Park construction site_” (Record, 45-46)

The trial court issued the following relevant findings in support of its order:

“7. That other Union member suppliers have refused to make deliveries to the Tuhey Park job site because of the presence of the picketing;
8. That it is a matter of common knowledge that the objective of picketing is to impair the business of an employer until it is forced to yield to the demands of the pickets;
9. That the defendant Union, by picketing the job site, is attempting to compel plaintiff Hernly to unlawfully force his employees to join a Union;
10. It is the public policy of this State that the individual unorganized worker shall be free to decline or accept Union membership and no employer has the right to require an employee to join or refrain from joining a labor Union;
11. That because of this unlawful picketing, the plaintiff has suffered damages and will continue to suffer irreparable injury if said picketing were to continue[.]”

(Record, 45)

Carpenters assert that the trial court’s jurisdiction in this case was pre-empted under the doctrine expressed in San Diego Building and Trades Council v. Garmon (1959), 359 U.S. 236, 79 S.Ct. 773, 3 L.Ed.2d 775. In that landmark ruling, the Court held that, in enacting federal labor laws, Congress intended that matters of national labor policy be decided in the first instance by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). To that end, the court stated:

When it is clear or may fairly be assumed that the activities which a state purports to regulate are protected by § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, or constitute an unfair labor practice under § 8, due regard for the federal enactment requires that state jurisdiction must yield.

359 U.S. at 244, 79 S.Ct. at 779, 3 L.Ed.2d at 782. The primary rationale behind the rule announced in Garmon is “the need to avoid conflicting rules of substantive law in the labor relations area and the desirability of leaving the development of such rules to the administrative agency created by Congress for that purpose.” Vaca v. Sipes (1967), 386 U.S. 171, 180-181, 87 S.Ct. 903, 912, 17 L.Ed.2d 842, 852.

State courts need not yield jurisdiction on every question that arguably implicates federal labor laws. The Garmon decision itself recognized an exception to the rule where the state has a compelling interest in maintaining the domestic peace in cases marked by violence and immediate threats to the public order. Garmon, 359 U.S. at 247, 79 S.Ct. at 781, 3 L.Ed.2d at 784. Other conduct that is so deeply rooted in local law that courts should not assume Congress intended to pre-empt the application of state law include: cases containing allegations of false and malicious statements injurious to one’s reputation, which are actionable under state law, even if such statements were themselves unfair labor practices; and state law actions for intentional infliction of emotional distress, even though a major part of the state cause of action consists of conduct that is arguably an unfair labor practice. Belknap Inc. v. Hale (1983), 463 U.S. 491, 509-510, 103 S.Ct. 3172, 3182-3183, 77 L.Ed.2d 798, 814.

A critical inquiry in applying Garmon pre-emption is whether the controversy [383]*383presented to the state court is identical to that which could be presented to the NLRB. Belknap, 463 U.S. at 610, 103 S.Ct. at 3183, 77 L.Ed.2d at 814 (citing Sears Roebuck & Co. v. Carpenters (1978), 436 U.S. 180, 98 S.Ct. 1745, 56 L.Ed.2d 209); Communication Workers Local 5900 v. Bridgett (1987), Ind.App., 512 N.E.2d 195. In Belknap, employees went out on strike when bargaining reached an impasse. The employer responded by unilaterally granting a wage increase for all employees remaining on the job. The union filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB based upon the unilateral wage increase. The employer hired replacement workers and assured them that they were being hired on a permanent basis. However, the employer subsequently reached a settlement with the strikers and laid off the replacement workers to accommodate the returning strikers. The replacement workers filed suit in state court to recover damages for misrepresentation and breach of contract. 463 U.S. at 494, 103 S.Ct. at 3174-3175, 77 L.Ed.2d at 804. The Court noted that the facts suggested that the strike might have been termed an unfair labor practice strike, and that as such, it would have been a violation of federal law to discharge the strikers. However, it was the discharged replacement workers, not the strikers, who sought relief for the employer’s misrepresentations. The maintenance of the misrepresentation action would not interfere with the Board’s determination of matters within its jurisdiction, and therefore the action was of no more than peripheral concern to the Board and federal law. 463 U.S. at 511, 103 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
582 N.E.2d 381, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 2054, 1991 WL 249919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carpenters-local-union-no-1016-v-j-d-hernly-construction-co-indctapp-1991.