Fishermen & Allied Workers, An Affiliate of National Maritime Union v. Quaker Oats Co.

109 So. 2d 321, 235 Miss. 401, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 441, 43 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2639
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 23, 1959
DocketNo. 40954
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 109 So. 2d 321 (Fishermen & Allied Workers, An Affiliate of National Maritime Union v. Quaker Oats Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fishermen & Allied Workers, An Affiliate of National Maritime Union v. Quaker Oats Co., 109 So. 2d 321, 235 Miss. 401, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 441, 43 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2639 (Mich. 1959).

Opinion

Holmes, J.

This litigation involves a controversy between The Quaker Oats Company and the Fishermen and Allied Workers, an affiliate of National Maritime Union, AFL-CIO.

The Quaker Oats Company is a New Jersey corporation qualified to do business, and doing business, in Pascagoula, Jackson County, Mississippi.

The Fishermen and Allied Workers, an affiliate of National Maritime Union, AFL-CIO, is a labor union having its principal place of business in Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi, and doing business in Jackson County, Mississippi.

The Quaker Oats Company, as complainant, instituted this action in the Chancery Court of Jackson County, Mississippi, against the said labor union and its president and secretary as defendants, seeking the issuance of an injunction to enjoin the defendants from picketing the complainant’s place of business in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The original and amended bills of complaint alleged that on November 16, 1957, the complainant was engaged [405]*405in the manufacture of Puss’n Boots Cat Food from trash fish as one of its ingredients; that at said time the complainant’s employees were members of the International Chemical Workers Union, Local No. 504, with which union the complainant had a contract; that the complainant never had a contract with the defendant union and has never had a controversy with the defendant union; that on the morning of November 16, 1957, the defendants caused to be placed pickets on the premises of the complainant bearing placards or signs inscribed as follows: “Quaker Oats Company unfair to organized labor. AFL-CIO, Fishermen and Allied Workers”; that the said defendants were continuing to so picket the premises of the complainant; that said picketing was being done for the following unlawful purposes: (1) To damage or destroy the complainant’s business in Pascagoula, Mississippi, pursuant to an unlawful conspiracy; (2) to intimidate the complainant’s employees and persons supplying complainant with trash fish by using placards or other writing, or verbally attempting by threats, direct or implied, to induce the employees of the complainant to abandon their employment; (3) and the defendants, in carrying out said picketing, were wrongfully trespassing upon the property of the complainant; that the picketing was, in addition, for the following unlawful purposes: (a) To restrain trade and commerce, (b) to limit or increase the price of complainant’s product, (c) to limit or reduce the production of complainant’s product, (d) to hinder competition in the production or output of complainant’s product, (e) to restrain or attempt to restrain the freedom of trade or production of complainant, (f) to monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, the production of raw materials used by complainant in the manufacture of its product and otherwise conspiring to violate the laws of the State of Mississippi regulating trusts, combine and labor; that the complainant’s product was transported to and from the complainant’s premises by the [406]*406L. & N. Railroad Company, which had a service track into the complainant’s place of business, and by trucks, and that the picketing was having the effect of interfering with the transportation of merchandise or products to and from the complainant’s place of business, and that if the picketing is permitted to continue, it will seriously and injuriously affect the business of the complainant for the reason that the train crews and truck drivers have refused to cross the picket line; that the controversy between the complainant and the defendants is not a labor dispute affecting’ interstate commerce, and that the State court is vested with jurisdiction to decide the same; that the complainant is entitled to an injunction to restrain the defendants from picketing the place of business of the complainant, and that unless the said defendants are so restrained, the complainant will suffer irreparable injury to its business, and that it is without an adequate remedy at law.

The chancellor issued the temporary injunction as prayed for. The defendants answered the original and amended bills of complaint and denied the material allegations thereof, and moved the court to dissolve the temporary injunction and further filed a plea to the jurisdiction of the court, alleging that the controversy in question constituted a labor dispute affecting interstate commerce, and that the exclusive jurisdiction of such controversy was vested in the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (29 U. S. C. A., Sec. 151, et seq.).

After a hearing, the chancellor overruled the plea to the jurisdiction of the court and the motion to dissolve the temporary injunction and entered a decree making the injunction permanent, and it is from this decree that this appeal is prosecuted.

The appellant contends on this appeal that the controversy involved is a labor dispute affecting interstate commerce within the purview of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, and that in the absence of violence, [407]*407threats or coercion, the state court was without jurisdiction to adjudge the controversy, and that such jurisdiction was vested exclusively in the National Labor Relations Board. The appellee does not controvert this contention, or the authorities cited in support thereof, if it be conceded that the controversy involved is a labor dispute affecting interstate commerce. We need not, therefore, review the several cases cited by the appellant in support of its contention. But the appellee says that the controversy is not a labor dispute affecting interstate commerce within the purview of the Labor Management Relations Act (29 U. S. C. A., Sec. 151, et seq.), and that, therefore, the doctrine of federal pre-emption does not apply, and the state court was not without jurisdiction to hear and determine the controversy.

The position of the parties, therefore, simplifies the issues presented to this Court for decision. We concern ourselves only with the questions whether or not the complainant was engaged in interstate commerce, and whether or not the controversy between the parties was a labor dispute affecting interstate commerce within the purview of the Labor Management Relations Act. It becomes pertinent in the consideration of these questions to consider the facts as disclosed by the record before us.

The appellee, The Quaker Oats Company, had its plant and principal place of business at Pascagoula, Mississippi. It employed approximately 103 employees who were inside workers at the plant. The company was engaged in the processing, production and distribution for sale of Puss’n Boots Cat Food. The product was processed and produced at the company’s plant in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was shipped out to different states by rail and truck for sale to customers. The ingredients used in the product were scrap fish and cereals. The product was put up in cans. The cereals came from The Quaker Oats Company in Memphis, Tennessee. The cans were obtained from the Continental Can Company of Harvey, Louisi[408]*408ana. The trash fish were bought by The Quaker Oats Company from George Castigliola, who with Vincent Castigliola was doing business as Castgliola Shrimp Company in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Under the terms of the agreement which The Quaker Oats Company had with George Castigliola, the fish, which were caught by fishermen who were members of the boat crews plying waters in the Gulf of Mexico, were delivered at the plant of The Quaker Oats Company and there unloaded by employees of the said company.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
109 So. 2d 321, 235 Miss. 401, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 441, 43 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fishermen-allied-workers-an-affiliate-of-national-maritime-union-v-miss-1959.