Consolidation Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Consolidation Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., United States Steel Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Youngstown Mines Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Eastern Associated Coal Corporation, and Sterling Smokeless Coal Company, Corporations v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Olga Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Ranger Fuel Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Elmer Brown v. Consolidation Coal Company

442 F.2d 1261
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedMay 12, 1971
Docket15396-15402_1
StatusPublished

This text of 442 F.2d 1261 (Consolidation Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Consolidation Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., United States Steel Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Youngstown Mines Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Eastern Associated Coal Corporation, and Sterling Smokeless Coal Company, Corporations v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Olga Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Ranger Fuel Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Elmer Brown v. Consolidation Coal Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consolidation Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Consolidation Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., United States Steel Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Youngstown Mines Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Eastern Associated Coal Corporation, and Sterling Smokeless Coal Company, Corporations v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Olga Coal Company, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Ranger Fuel Corporation, a Corporation v. Disabled Miners of Southern West Virginia, Etc., Elmer Brown v. Consolidation Coal Company, 442 F.2d 1261 (4th Cir. 1971).

Opinion

442 F.2d 1261

CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY, a corporation, Appellee,
v.
DISABLED MINERS OF SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, etc., et al., Appellants.
CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY, a corporation, Appellant,
v.
DISABLED MINERS OF SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, etc., et al., Appellees.
UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, a corporation, Appellant,
v.
DISABLED MINERS OF SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, etc., et al., Appellees.
YOUNGSTOWN MINES CORPORATION, a corporation, Appellant,
v.
DISABLED MINERS OF SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, etc., et al., Appellees.
EASTERN ASSOCIATED COAL CORPORATION, and Sterling Smokeless Coal Company, corporations, Appellants,
v.
DISABLED MINERS OF SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, etc., et al., Appellees.
OLGA COAL COMPANY, a corporation, Appellant,
v.
DISABLED MINERS OF SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, etc., et al., Appellees.
RANGER FUEL CORPORATION, a corporation, Appellant,
v.
DISABLED MINERS OF SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, etc., et al., Appellees.
Elmer BROWN et al., Appellants,
v.
CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY et al., Appellees.

No. 15173.

No. 15396-15402.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 7, 1971.

Decided May 12, 1971.

Herbert J. Rogers, Wheeling, W. Va., and Kenneth J. Yablonski, Washington, Pa. (Donald L. Pitts and Clarice Fieldman, Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellants in No. 15173.

Harold R. Schmidt, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Karl Alexander and Rose, Schmidt & Dixon, Pittsburgh, Pa., on the brief), for appellee in No. 15173.

Charles A. Tutwiler, Welch, W. Va., Russell L. Furbee, Fairmont, W. Va., Harold R. Schmidt, Pittsburgh, Pa. and Charles M. Love, Charleston, W. Va. (Crockett, Tutwiler & Crockett, Welch, W. Va., Furbee, Amos, Webb & Critchfield, Fairmont, W. Va., Karl Alexander and Rose, Schmidt & Dixon, Pittsburgh, Pa., Campbell, Love, Woodroe & Kizer, Charleston, W. Va., and Thomas B. Miller, Schmidt, Laas, Schrader & Miller, Wheeling W. Va., on the brief), for appellants in Nos. 15396 through 15401 and for appellees in No. 15402.

Ray E. Ratliffe, Jr. for appellees in Nos. 15396 through 15401.

Richard M. Bank, Beckley, W. Va. (Naomi W. Cohen, Charleston, W. Va., Harvey M. Cohen, Huntington, W. Va., and Joseph F. Flynn, Heidrick, Ky., on the brief), for appellants in No. 15402.

Before WINTER, CRAVEN and BUTZNER, Circuit Judges.

WINTER, Circuit Judge:

These consolidated appeals arise from litigation instituted when disabled miners and their dependents picketed, and threatened to picket, plaintiffs' bituminous coal mines in the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia. Preliminary injunctions to enjoin picketing were entered in both district courts. The disabled miners and their dependents had resorted to this form of selfhelp to redress their alleged grievances against the trustees of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund of 1950 (the "Fund"). The Fund was established by collective bargaining, under the authority of § 302 of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 186, to receive royalties from the mine owners on coal mined and to establish and administer a program of benefits for the miners and their dependents. In essence, the disabled miners and their dependents claim that they have been denied benefits to which they are, or ought to be, entitled.

In No. 15,173 (from the Northern District of West Virginia) and in No. 15,402 (from the Southern District of West Virginia), the disabled miners and their dependents appeal from the entry of preliminary injunctions enjoining picketing. In Nos. 15,396-15,401 (from the Southern District of West Virginia), the plaintiffs, mine owners, appeal from the dismissal, as a party defendant, of the Association of Disabled Miners and Widows, Inc. (the "Association") in their several suits to enjoin actual and threatened picketing. The dismissal was granted on the ground that the Association had not been properly served.

We affirm the preliminary injunction entered in the Southern District of West Virginia appeals, although we will require it to be modified. We reverse the dismissal of the Association as a party defendant in the Southern District of West Virginia cases. We vacate the preliminary injunction in the Northern District of West Virginia cases on the grounds of procedural irregularities. We remand all cases to the respective district courts in which they originated for further proceedings and final determination.

- I -

The facts from which the legal issues are derived may be briefly stated. The Fund is administered by three trustees — one who is a representative of the coal companies (employers), one who is a representative of the union (United Mine Workers of America), and the third a neutral party selected by the other two. The Fund receives from the mine owners a royalty of forty cents per ton for each ton of coal mined. In accordance with the contract and the Act, the royalties received are used to make payments, from principal or income, or both, of (1) benefits to employees, their families and dependents, for medical care, pensions or retirement or death, and compensation for injuries or illness (or insurance to provide such compensation), (2) benefits for wage losses not compensated for by state or federal law, (3) benefits for sickness, temporary or permanent disability, death or retirement, and (4) other benefits as may be agreed upon, from time to time, by the trustees. The establishment of precise benefits and their administration are matters committed to the authority of the trustees. In the administration of existing benefits and in the establishment of new benefits, the disabled miners and their dependents claim that they have received unfair and unequal treatment.

The mine operators are engaged in mining bituminous coal for sale and shipment in interstate commerce to customers who use the coal principally to generate electricity and to produce steel. Over thirty million tons of coal are mined a year and thousands of coal miners are employed.

The disabled miners and their dependents have no direct grievance with the coal operators or with the union. What they seek is a more liberal administration of the benefits currently established under the Fund and/or the establishment of new benefits. To accomplish this purpose, the disabled miners and their dependents have relied on what is asserted to be a well-established tradition among members of the United Mine Workers of America that a coal miner will not cross a picket line, irrespective of the objective of the picketing. Thus, from June 21 to June 24, 1970, the disabled miners and their dependents picketed coal mines in the Southern District of West Virginia and succeeded in shutting down the mines for that period. The theory of the disabled miners and their dependents was that if they exerted economic pressure on the mine operators and the union, the operators and the union would exert pressure on the trustees of the Fund, designated by them, to establish the benefits sought.

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