Dixie Electrical Manufacturing Co. v. United Steelworkers of America

536 So. 2d 32, 1988 Ala. LEXIS 337, 31 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2045, 1988 WL 79947
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJuly 1, 1988
Docket86-1638
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 536 So. 2d 32 (Dixie Electrical Manufacturing Co. v. United Steelworkers of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dixie Electrical Manufacturing Co. v. United Steelworkers of America, 536 So. 2d 32, 1988 Ala. LEXIS 337, 31 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2045, 1988 WL 79947 (Ala. 1988).

Opinion

BEATTY, Justice.

Petition by United Steelworkers of America, Local Union 7533; Calvin Smith; and Vernon S. Osborne, petitioners, for writ of certiorari to the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, to review that court’s finding of contempt of court.

A collective bargaining agreement between Dixie Electrical Manufacturing Company (“Dixie Electrical”) and United Steelworkers of America, Local Union 7533, expired at or near the end of April 1987, whereupon Local Union 7533 went on strike against Dixie Electrical and established a picket line at Dixie Electrical’s plant. Smith and Osborne were members of that local union.

On May 1, 1987, Dixie Electrical filed a complaint in the Jefferson Circuit Court, seeking injunctive relief and damages against United Steelworkers of America; United Steelworkers of America, Local Union 7533; Osborne; Smith; and other persons. On that same date, the circuit court issued a temporary restraining order restraining the national union, the local union, and certain individuals, including Smith and Osborne, from certain acts. Thereafter, on May 12, 1987, the circuit court issued a preliminary injunction substantially following the temporary restraining order.

On June 12, 1987, Dixie Electrical filed its verified petition for rule nisi. Following a four-day hearing on this petition, the trial court, on August 19, 1987, found Smith, Osborne, and Local Union 7533 guilty of contempt by violating the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction. Smith and Osborne were each sentenced to two days in the Jefferson County jail; however, the sentences were suspended on the condition that they not be found guilty of any additional violations occurring after August 14, 1987, or violations of other orders. Local Union 7533 was found guilty of:

“participating in, through the actions of its officers and members, and condoning the violations of the Court’s orders which resulted in damages to tires, a broken window and certain corporate equipment inside the office in which the window was broken. The Court finds the damages to the tires to be FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY AND 58/100 DOLLARS ($530.58), the damages to one broken window to be ONE HUNDRED AND ONE AND 80/100 dollars ($101.80), and the damage to the corporate equipment to be SIX HUNDRED NINETY THREE AND 33/100 DOLLARS ($693.33). ... The Court orders the Defendant, United Steelworkers of America, Local 7533, to pay, to the Plaintiff within 30 days of the date of this Order, the amount of ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE AND 71/100 dollars ($1,325.71).”

The petitioners contend that there was no legal evidence on which any of them could be found guilty of contempt. Local Union 7533 also questions, on due process grounds, the trial court’s failure to grant its motion to dismiss the petition for a rule nisi, as well as its liability in damages.

The certiorari standard of review is whether the law was properly applied and whether the ruling was supported by any legal evidence. Marshall Durbin & Co. of Japser, Inc. v. Environmental Manag[34]*34ement Commission, 495 So.2d 79 (Ala.Civ.App.1986); Smith v. Smith, 380 So.2d 897 (Ala.Civ.App.1980). See also International Molders & Allied Workers Union v. Aliceville Veneers Division, Buchanan Lumber Birmingham, 348 So.2d 1385 (Ala.1977) (no evidence to sustain the grant of a preliminary injunction).

According to the petitioners, the law requires that a union’s liability for contempt be based on evidence that the union authorized, participated in, or ratified, the contemptuous acts. Cited as authority for this proposition are NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 102 S.Ct. 3409, 73 L.Ed.2d 1215 (1982), and our own decision in United Steelworkers of America AFL-CIO-CLC v. O’Neal, 437 So.2d 101 (Ala.1983). Claiborne was not a contempt case, but concerned a tort action brought by a number of merchants against the NAACP and certain individuals to obtain an injunction and damages on account of a boycott practiced against the plaintiff. The United States Supreme Court held that the conduct complained of, being peaceful and nonviolent, could not be used by the state of Mississippi as a basis for damages or be suppressed by injunction. It is significant that the United States Supreme Court, in determining that no judgment could be upheld in Claiborne, stated the following, 458 U.S. at 924-25, 102 S.Ct. at 3431:

“Respondents’ supplemental brief also demonstrates that on the present record no judgment may be sustained against most of the petitioners. Regular attendance and participation at the Tuesday meetings of the Claiborne County Branch of the NAACP is an insufficient predicate on which to impose liability. The chancellor’s findings do not suggest that any illegal conduct was authorized, ratified, or even discussed at any of the meetings. The Sheriff testified that he was kept informed of what transpired at the meetings; he made no reference to any discussion of unlawful activity. To impose liability for presence at the weekly meetings of the NAACP would — ironically — not even constitute ‘guilt by association,’ since there is no evidence that the association possessed unlawful aims. Rather, liability could only be imposed on a ‘guilt for association’ theory. Neither is permissible under the First Amendment.” (Footnotes omitted.) (Emphasis in original.)

That statement concerning the basis for a finding of liability of the association (or union) was followed by an even more pointed requirement for imposing liability upon the association itself, 458 U.S. at 930-32, 102 S.Ct. at 3435:

“The chancellor made no finding that Charles Evers or any other NAACP member had either actual or apparent authority to commit acts of violence or to threaten violent conduct. The evidence in the record suggests the contrary. Aaron Henry, president of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and a member of the Board of Directors of the national organization, testified that the statements attributed to Evers were directly contrary to NAACP policy. Record 4930. Similarly, there is no evidence that the NAACP ratified — or even had specific knowledge of — any of the acts of violence or threats of discipline associated with the boycott.
“To impose liability without a finding that the NAACP authorized — either actually or apparently — or ratified unlawful conduct would impermissibly burden the rights of political association that are protected by the First Amendment. As Justice Douglas noted in NAACP v. Overstreet, 384 U.S. 118, 86 S.Ct. 1306, 16 L.Ed.2d 409, dissenting from a dismissal of a writ of certiorari found to have been improvidently granted:
“ ‘To equate the liability of the national organization with that of the Branch in the absence of any proof that the national authorized or ratified the misconduct in question could ultimately destroy it. The rights of political association are fragile enough without adding the additional threat of destruction by lawsuit. We have not been slow to recognize that the protection of the First Amendment bars subtle as well as obvious devices by which [35]*35political association might be stifled.

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

Related

State Personnel Board v. State Department of Mental Health & Mental Retardation
694 So. 2d 1367 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
536 So. 2d 32, 1988 Ala. LEXIS 337, 31 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2045, 1988 WL 79947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dixie-electrical-manufacturing-co-v-united-steelworkers-of-america-ala-1988.