General Teleradio, Inc. v. Manuti

284 A.D. 400, 131 N.Y.S.2d 365, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2361, 1954 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3413
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 8, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 284 A.D. 400 (General Teleradio, Inc. v. Manuti) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
General Teleradio, Inc. v. Manuti, 284 A.D. 400, 131 N.Y.S.2d 365, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2361, 1954 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3413 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

Cohn, J.

Plaintiffs are engaged in the business of radio and television broadcasting, operating stations WOR and WOR-TV pursuant to authority granted by the Federal Communications Commission. The defendant union is a labor organization of professional musicians.

For a number of years peaceful relations have existed between plaintiffs and the union under collective bargaining agreements, the last r? which expired in February, 1954. Under this last agreement,, plaintiffs were required to employ at their stations WOR and WOR-TV a staff orchestra of forty musicians. Early in the year 1954, negotiations were had'for a new agreement. The union demanded that plaintiffs continue to employ a staff orchestra of forty musicians or in the alternative, that plaintiffs use the services of single-engagement musicians in place of recorded or transcribed music on all “ live ” programs. Plaintiffs took the position that they did not need a staff orchestra and had no desire to employ forty musicians or any other number on a staff basis. Negotiations broke down.

The union began picketing in front of plaintiffs’ places of business in the city of New York and at Carteret, New Jersey. The pickets displayed signs charging plaintiffs with having locked out its musicians. This action in equity seeking’ to restrain defendants from picketing plaintiffs’ premises was instituted. Plaintiffs moved for a temporary injunction and defendants made a cross motion to dismiss the complaint. Plaintiffs have appealed from the order denying their motion for temporary injunction and from the order granting the cross motion to dismiss the complaint.

The complaint alleges, among other things, that defendant union entered into a conspiracy to compel plaintiffs to comply with the union’s demands, in furtherance of which, the union picketed plaintiffs’ places of business, using signs stating that plaintiffs had Locked Out Its Musicians ”. It is further alleged that there is no labor dispute existing between the parties and that the picketing is designed solely to compel plaintiffs to use employees not needed by plaintiffs to perform actual services in connection with their broadcasting business and to compel plaintiffs to discontinue the use of recorded and transcribed music.

Appellants urge that the complaint sets forth a violation of a Federal statute known as the Lea Act (U. S. Code, tit. 47, § 506). The pertinent provisions of the Lea Act are as follows:

(a) It shall be unlawful, by the use or express or implied [403]*403threat of the use of force, violence, intimidation, or duress, or by the use or express or implied threat of the use of other means, to coerce, compel or constrain or attempt to coerce, compel or constrain a licensee —
“ (1) to employ or agree to employ, in connection with the conduct of the broadcasting business of such licensee, any person or persons in excess of the number of employees needed by such licensee to perform actual services; or * * *
“ (4) to pay or give or agree to pay or give any money or other thing of value for services, in connection with the conduct of the broadcasting business of such licensee, which are not to be performed; * * *
“ (b) It shall be unlawful, by the use or express or implied threat of the use of force, violence, intimidation or duress, or by the use or express or implied threat of the use of other means, to coerce, compel or constrain or attempt to coerce, compel or constrain a licensee or any other person —
(1) to pay or agree to pay any exaction for the privilege of, or on account of, producing, preparing, manufacturing, selling, buying, renting, operating, using, or maintaining recordings, transcriptions, or mechanical, chemical, or electrical reproductions, or any other articles, equipment, machines, or materials, used or intended to be used in broadcasting or in the production, preparation, performance, or presentation of a program or programs for broadcasting; or
(2) to accede to or impose any restriction upon such production, preparation, manufacture, sale, purchase, rental, operation, use, or maintenance, if such restriction is for the purpose of preventing or limiting the use of such articles, equipment, machines, or materials in broadcasting or in the production, preparation, performance, or presentation of a program or programs for broadcasting;

Punishment for violating the act is imprisonment for not more than a year or a fine of not more than $1,000 or both. No civil remedies by way of injunction or otherwise in behalf of an aggrieved licensee are provided.

The union argues that plaintiffs’ entire case rests upon an alleged violation by respondents of the Lea Act.

Paragraph “ Eighteenth ” of the complaint, as the learned Justice at Special Term pointed out, does set forth a violation of the Lea Act. The paragraph reads as follows: There is no labor dispute existing between plaintiffs and defendant union or its members, and the picketing and boycotting carried [404]*404on ancl the threats made by said defendants, their agents, servants and employees, are for an unlawful labor objective, and solely for the purpose of compelling plaintiffs to employ, in connection with their broadcasting business, musicians in excess of the number needed by plaintiffs to perform actual services in connection with their broadcasting business and to compel plaintiffs to discontinue the use of recorded or transcribed music.”

In this case it appears that a Federal penal statute has been enacted for the benefit of broadcasters, such as plaintiffs. It provides for the imposition of penal provisions to be imposed upon application by the Government, but grants no remedies to the protected class. The rule is well settled that where a criminal or penal statute imposes a duty but furnishes no civil remedy to the protected class, a breach of that duty gives rise to a cause of action in favor of the latter class. Where, as here, the complaint alleges a violation of a Federal statute, a State court has full power to enforce the liability which arises from the breach of such statutory duty. (Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U. S. 130, 136, 137; Second Employers’ Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 1, 56, 57; Fairport R. Co. v. Meredith, 292 U. S. 589, 594, 595.) In Claflin v. Houseman (supra), the United States Supreme Court said at page 137: “ If an act of Congress gives a penalty to a party aggrieved, without specifying a remedy for its enforcement, there is no reason why it should not be enforced, if not provided otherwise by some act of Congress, by a proper action in a State court. The fact that a State court derives its existence and functions from the State laws is no reason why it should not afford relief; because it is subject also to the laws of the United States, and is just as much bound to recognize these as operative within the State as it is to recognize the State laws. The two together form one system of jurisprudence, which constitutes the law of the land for the State; and the courts of the two jurisdictions are not foreign to each other, nor to be treated by each other as such, but as courts of the same country, having jurisdiction partly different and partly concurrent.”

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284 A.D. 400, 131 N.Y.S.2d 365, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2361, 1954 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-teleradio-inc-v-manuti-nyappdiv-1954.