Chucales v. Royalty

164 Ohio St. (N.S.) 214
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 26, 1955
DocketNo. 34214
StatusPublished

This text of 164 Ohio St. (N.S.) 214 (Chucales v. Royalty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chucales v. Royalty, 164 Ohio St. (N.S.) 214 (Ohio 1955).

Opinions

Taft, J.

Defendants complain that the judgment of the Court of Appeals was based upon its finding that the picketing was for the purpose of bringing pressure upon plaintiffs to compel their employees to join the defendant union but that the [217]*217petition contains no allegation with respect to any such purpose. We believe that the power of this court, with respect to amendments to pleadings (Section 2309.58, Revised Code), and the directions of the General Assembly, with respect to disregarding defects in pleadings not affecting substantial rights of the adverse party (Section 2309.59, Revised Code), are such that we are not justified in setting aside the judgment of the Court of Appeals in the instant case merely because the petition fails to specify the unlawful purpose of the picketing. The petition does-allege that the picketing was unlawful, no motion to make it definite and certain was filed, no demurrer thereto was filed, and defendants were apparently not misled by such failure to specify the unlawful purpose of the picketing.

Defendants also complain because the agreed statement of facts does not include, as one of the agreed “facts upon which” the Court of Appeals “should consider” the appeal, that the picketing was for any such purpose. However, where parties agree that certain facts are “the facts upon which” the “court should consider” a case, the court, in deciding such case, may quite properly base its decision in part upon other facts that may reasonably be inferred from the facts agreed upon.

In view of the facts agreed upon in the instant case, the Court of Appeals could hardly have found that there was any purpose for the picketing except the purpose of pressuring plaintiffs to compel their employees to join the defendant union. Although the wording of the signs used in the picketing tends to show that the only thing defendants were interested in was getting plaintiffs’ employees into the union, plaintiffs had not objected to defendants’ talking to plaintiffs’ employees about joining the union and had even suggested that defendants do so. Especially before defendants had taken advantage of this opportunity to talk with plaintiffs’ employees, there would appear to be no apparent reason for defendants to picket in order merely to pressure or to persuade those employees to join the defendant union. It is quite clear from the facts agreed upon that the purpose of the picketing was to conscript plaintiffs, or to pressure plaintiffs into volunteering, as allies of defen[218]*218dants in pressuring plaintiffs’ employees to join defendant union.

In order to compel their employees to join defendant union, it would be necessary for plaintiffs to discharge employees unless they joined that union. In effect, therefore, defendants’ purpose of pressuring plaintiffs to compel their employees to join the defendant union amounted to a purpose of pressuring plaintiffs to discharge their employees unless they joined that union.

We have, therefore, in the instant case, peaceful picketing against an employer, conducted on the sidewalk in front of the employer’s premises by persons who were never employed by that employer and who do not represent anyone who ever was, and conducted for the purpose of pressuring the employer to discharge his employees unless they join the. union of those who are conducting the picketing.

After the decision in American Federation of Labor v. Swing, 312 U. S., 321, 85 L. Ed., 855, 61 S. Ct., 568, there was certainly room for doubt as to whether a state court could enjoin such picketing without conflicting with the right to free speech guaranteed by the federal Constitution. See also Senn v. Tile Layers Protective Union, 301 U. S., 468, 81 L. Ed., 1229, 57 S. Ct., 857; Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S., 88, 84 L. Ed., 1093, 60 S. Ct., 736; Carlson v. California, 310 U. S., 106, 84 L. Ed., 1104, 60 S. Ct., 746. But cf. Valentine v. Christensen, 316 U. S., 52, 86 L. Ed., 1262, holding that a state may prohibit use of its streets for distribution of advertising material.

Since the decision in the Swing case, the problems, with respect to infringement of the right of free speech by injunctions against picketing, have been considered in numerous decisions by the United States Supreme Court and by state courts of last resort, and have also been the subject of a considerable body of other legal literature. See for example Milk Wagon Drivers Union v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U. S., 287, 85 L. Ed., 836, 61 S. Ct., 552; Carpenters and Joiners Union of America v. Ritter’s Cafe, 315 U. S., 722, 86 L. Ed., 1143, 62 S. Ct., 807; Bakery & Pastry Drivers & Helpers Local 802 v. Wohl, 315 U. S., 769, 86 L. Ed., 1178, 62 S. Ct., 816; Cafeteria Employees Un[219]*219ion v. Angelos, 320 U. S., 293, 88 L. Ed., 58, 64 S. Ct., 126; Giboney v. Empire Storage & lce Co., 336 U. S., 490, 93 L. Ed., 834, 69 S. Ct., 684; Building Service Employers International Union v. Gazzam, 339 U. S., 532, 94 L. Ed., 1045, 70 S. Ct., 784; Hughes v. Superior Court, 339 U. S., 460, 94 L. Ed., 985, 70 S. Ct., 718; International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. Hanke, 339 U. S., 470, 94 L. Ed., 995, 70 S. Ct., 773, 13 A. L. R. (2d), 631; Local Union No. 10 v. Graham, 345 U. S., 192, 97 L. Ed., 946, 73 S. Ct., 585; annotations at 11 A. L. R. (2d), 1338; 93 L. Ed., 1151, 1186 et seq.; 94 L. Ed., 973, 975 et seq.; Teller, Picketing and Free Speech, 56 Harvard Law Review, 180; Dodd, Picketing and Free Speech: A Dissent, 56 Harvard Law Review, 513; Teller, Picketing and Free Speech: A Reply, 56 Harvard Law Review, 532; Jaffe, In Defense of the Supreme Court’s Picketing Doctrine, 41 Michigan Law Review (1943), 1037.

As a result, it may fairly be said that it is difficult to rescue the principles of law decided from the ocean of words in which they are submerged. For this reason, and because many of these cases were recently reviewed by Judge Hart in his opinion in W. E. Anderson Sons Co. v. Local Union No. 311, 156 Ohio St., 541, 104 N. E. (2d), 22, we will merely state our conclusions as to the principles of law which have in our opinion now been established by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, to the extent that those principles indicate whether or not the injunction against picketing in the instant case conflicts with the right to free speech guaranteed by the federal Constitution; and we will quote briefly some of the reasoning which was used in those decisions and which we believe supports our conclusions.

In our opinion, where the public policy of a state regards picketing of the kind involved in the instant case as unlawful, a state court may enjoin such picketing without infringing the right of free speech guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution; and the fact, that such public policy has been found by the courts of that state to be a part of its common law instead of being expressed by its Legislature in statutory form, is immaterial.

Thus in Building Service Employers Intl. Union v. Gazzam, supra (339 U. S., 532), it is said in the court’s opinion:

[220]*220“This court has said that picketing is in part an exercise of the right of free speech guaranteed by the federal Constitution.

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Related

Senn v. Tile Layers Protective Union
301 U.S. 468 (Supreme Court, 1937)
Thornhill v. Alabama
310 U.S. 88 (Supreme Court, 1940)
Carlson v. California
310 U.S. 106 (Supreme Court, 1940)
American Federation of Labor v. Swing
312 U.S. 321 (Supreme Court, 1941)
Valentine v. Chrestensen
316 U.S. 52 (Supreme Court, 1942)
Cafeteria Employees Union, Local 302 v. Angelos
320 U.S. 293 (Supreme Court, 1943)
Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co.
336 U.S. 490 (Supreme Court, 1949)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. Hanke
339 U.S. 470 (Supreme Court, 1950)
Crosby v. Rath
25 N.E.2d 934 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
164 Ohio St. (N.S.) 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chucales-v-royalty-ohio-1955.