Finley v. United Mine Workers of America

300 F. 972, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 3067
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 12, 1924
DocketNo. 6541
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 300 F. 972 (Finley v. United Mine Workers of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Finley v. United Mine Workers of America, 300 F. 972, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 3067 (8th Cir. 1924).

Opinion

KENYON, Circuit Judge.

This is the third appearance here of this case. The first time the correctness of the ruling of the United States District Court, Western District of Arkansas, in sustaining a demurrer to the complaint was challenged. Dowd v. United Mine Workers of America et al., 235 Fed. 1, 148 C. C. A. 495.

The second time the case was brought to this court it was upon writ of error to review the proceedings of the District Court resulting in a judgment against the present defendants in error. United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 258 Fed. 829, 169 C. C. A. 549. This court affirmed the judgment of the trial court, outside of a question of interest.

The case then proceeded on its way to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was reversed and remanded to the District Court. United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 259 U. S. 344, 42 Sup. Ct. 570, 66 L. Ed. 975, 27 A. L. R. 762.

On the second trial of the case in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas no new pleadings were filed. The issues were the same, and at the close of the evidence the court directed a verdict for the defendants in error, holding that the evidence did not show that the direct purpose of the alleged conspiracy was to interfere with or monopolize interstate commerce, that the interference with such commerce was incidental, and hence that plaintiffs in error could not recover under.the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (Comp. St. § 8820 et seq.).

The Coronado Coal Company is now in the hands of a receiver, Clyde H. Finley. Plaintiffs in error bring writ to this court and ask for a reversal of the judgment of the trial court.

I. The facts giving rise to this cause of action are set out fully in the previous decision of this court in 258 Fed. 829, 169 C. C. A. 549, and in United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 259 U. S. 344, 42 Sup. Ct. 570, 66 L. Ed. 975, 27 A. L. R. 762. They need not be repeated here. They relate to the alleged actions of defendants in error in destroying plaintiffs in error’s property.

It is the well-established doctrine of the federal courts that questions of law determined on a writ of error or appeal are the law of the case both for the trial court and this court on a second writ of error or appeal, provided the facts remain substantially the same. Thatcher [974]*974v. Gottlieb, 59 Fed. 872, 8 C. C. A. 334; Guarantee Company of North America v. Phenix Ins. Co. of Brooklyn, N. Y., 124 Fed. 170, 59 C. C. A. 376; National Surety Co. v. Kansas City Hydraulic Press Brick Co., 182 Fed. 54, 104 C. C. A. 494; Town of Fletcher v. Hickman, 208 Fed. 118, 125 C. C. A. 346; Meyer & Chapman State Bank v. First Nat. Bank of Cody (C. C. A.) 291 Fed. 42.

The Supreme Court of the United States, passing on the former record, held as to the international union that the strike involved was a local one, declared by officers of district No. 21, which embraced Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; that the circumstances were ample to supply a full local motive for the same; that the international board was not shown to have authorized the strike or participated therein; that the acts of President White of the international union, consisting of certain speeches, extracts from which are set forth in the Supreme Court opinion,.did not amount to a ratification by the international board, saying:

“It would be going very far to consider sucb acts of the president alone a ratification by the international board creating liability for a past tort. The president had not authority to order or ratify a local strike. Only the board could do this.”

Again on this question the Supreme Court said: •

“It is a mere question of actual agency, which the constitutions of the two bodies settle conclusively. If the international body had interfered, or if it had assumed liability by ratification, different questions would have arisen.”

It decided that a verdict should have been instructed by the trial court for the international union, the United Mine Workers of America, its president, and other officers.

As to district No. 21 and its liability, the holding in brief was that, to make a case against the district under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, it must be shown that the conspiracy to attack the Bache-Denman property and stop the nonunion employment there was with the intent to restrain interstate commerce and to monopolize the same, and to subject it to the control of the union; that the intent to injure, obstruct, or restrain interstate commerce must appear as an obvious consequence of what was to be done, or be shown by direct evidence or other Circumstances. The court expressed itself on this subject as follows:

“And so, in the case at bar, coal mining is not interstate commerce, and obstruction of coal mining, though it may prevent coal from going into interstate commerce, is not a restraint of that commerce,' unless tbe obstruction to mining is intended to restrain commerce in it, or bas necessarily sucb a direct, material, and- substantial effect to restrain it that the intent reasonably must be inferred.”

And it held that, while the evidence might be sufficient to show a common-law liability as to district No. 21 for the acts of its members, it did not show a direct intent to restrain interstate commerce, nor that a sufficient amount of coal production was affected, to supply the inference of an attempt to restrain such commerce, and concluded with the statement:

“The result of our consideration of the entire record is that there was no evidence submitted to the jury upon which they properly could find that the [975]*975outrages, felonies, and murders of district 21 and its companions in crime were committed by them in a conspiracy to restrain or monopolize interstate commerce. The motion to direct the jury to return a verdict for the defendants should have been granted.”

II. Is there such substantial change in the evidence in the present record as to make this a new case from the one decided by the Supreme Court? The trial court evidently concluded there was not. Plaintiffs in error urgently insist there is, and that the link missing in the former trial to malee the local situation a step in an actionable conspiracy to restrain the freedom of interstate commerce, which the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was intended to prevent, has been supplied.

We refer first to some of the matters in this record, not in the former one, claimed to create a different case from that passed on by the Supreme Court as to the responsibility of the international organization. It is urged that the present record shows the international organization to be a co-conspirator. While the same language may not appear in the former record bearing on this question, the same thing in effect was urged. The Supreme Court discussed whether or not the international organization was shown to have initiated, participated in or ratified the interference with plaintiffs in error’s business, and held it was not. The broad proposition of the international ganization co-operating with the alleged conspirators and as a part thereof was before the Supreme Court.

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300 F. 972, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 3067, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/finley-v-united-mine-workers-of-america-ca8-1924.