Grace Co. v. Williams

20 F. Supp. 263, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1597
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJuly 6, 1937
Docket2915
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 20 F. Supp. 263 (Grace Co. v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grace Co. v. Williams, 20 F. Supp. 263, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1597 (W.D. Mo. 1937).

Opinion

COLLET, District Judge.

This is an action brought by the Grace Company, a Missouri corporation engaged in the manufacture, sale, and distribution of infants’ and children’s garments, for an injunction against certain individuals and Local Union No. 47, for the purpose, as stated in the complaint, of restraining defendants and each of them:

(1) From picketing or parading in front of or around or in the vicinity of the premises of plaintiff’s' plant located at Kansas City, Mo.

(2) From engaging in any act or conduct at or near said plant or at any place, in anywise calculated to interfere with, among, etc., any officer, agent, or employee of plaintiff in the peaceful pursuit of his or her business or in going to or returning home from plaintiff’s plant.

(3) In doing any act calculated to injure or interfere with or disturb any persons making delivery of goods or parcels to the plant, or hauling or conveying goods or parcels from pláintiff’s plant.

(4) From interfering in any way with the freedom of a contract negotiated by plaintiff with the Grace Company Workers’ Labor Union.

(5) From attempting by intimidation or coercion to compel any of plaintiff’s employees to withdraw or resign from an association of employees designated as the Grace Company Workers’ Labor Union, or to compel any of the Grace Company employees, by intimidation or coercion, to join the United Garment Workers of America, Local Union No. 47, or any other organization.

(6) From doing any act or acts whatsoever calculated to interfere with business dealings between plaintiff and its customers dealing with it.

The complaint alleges that approximately 50 per cent, of the raw materials from which the garments are manufactured by plaintiff is purchased outside of the state of Missouri and is shipped to plaintiff in interstate commerce, and that more than 80 per cent, of all the products manufactured by plaintiff is sold to customers outside of the state of Missouri and shipped by plaintiff to points outside of the state of Missouri in interstate commerce; that the interruption of the sale of plaintiff’s goods and merchandise materially burdens, obstructs, and interrupts commerce between the states and interrupts the free flow of raw materials from points in the United States outside of the state of Missouri to the plaintiff and materially burdens, obstructs, and interrupts the free flow of manufactured goods from and into the channels of interstate commerce, and materially affects the cost of manufacture and the price of such, materials and goods and causes diminution of employment and wages in such volume as substantially to impair the market of goods flowing from and into the channels of commerce.

The foregoing allegation is bottomed upon the following facts: Plaintiff, on May '3, 1937, had in its employ 62 employees working in its plant, other than janitors and mechanics and those in executive positions; 42 of these employees organized a union which they designated the Grace Company Workers’ Labor Union and selected 7 representatives designated as a “Union Committee” from among their number for the purpose of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment. These representatives demanded the right to be recognized by plaintiff as the exclusive representatives of all of plaintiff’s employees for the purpose of collective bargaining in respect to the above-stated matters; the Union Committee and the plaintiff negotiated a contract between the Grace Company Worker’s Labor Union and plaintiff on May 3, 1937, which contract was duly executed and made provision as to hours of labor per week, minimum wages, the arbitration of disputes, and provided that all plant employees with the exception of janitors and machinists should become and remain members in good standing of the plant union and that all employees holding membership in other unions should become members of the plant union. Since May 3, 1937, and up until the filing of the petition, the defendants and their agents and servants, persistently picketed plaintiff’s plant, paraded in front of the plant with banners, and wrote upon space in front of plaintiff’s place of business: “Van Brunt Scab Shop Grace Company” (Grace W. Van Brunt being president of the company). The defendants interfered with, molested, and intimidated plaintiff’s employees coming to and going from plaintiff’s plant and in numerous instances resorted to physical violence, waylaid employees and struck them, tore thdir clothing, seized parcels from their hands, broke the spectacles of some, forced *265 others into automobiles, threatened numerous individuals with physical violence, threw at and struck certain employees with rotten eggs, and by those means produced a state of fear of serious personal injury at the hands of defendants in the minds of the employees for the purpose of preventing the employees from continuing their regular work and coercing them into withdrawing from the Grace Company Workers’ Labor Union and joining the United Garment Workers of America, Local Union No. 47, in order that plaintiff would be forced to recognize the defendant United Garment Workers of America, Local No. 47 as the exclusive bargaining agency for plaintiff’s employees; that the defendants interfered with the delivery to and from plaintiff’s plant of interstate and intrastate shipments of merchandise, intimidated, by threats of violence, drivers of trucks carrying merchandise into failing to deliver it to the plant or taking merchandise away from the plant, and forcibly tore boxes and cartons of merchandise destined for interstate shipments from trucks loaded with outgoing shipments of merchandise; that defendants padlocked the entrance to the plant and conspired together to act in concert in the commission of the above-stated acts, for the purpose of interfering with the movement of plaintiff’s goods in interstate commerce and with that result.

The petition further alleges that there is no dispute between plaintiff and any of its employees or any group of its employees in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment; that prior to February 15, 1937, plaintiff’s plant was located in the basement of the residence of Mrs. Grace W. Van Brunt and employed approximately 8 employees. On that date the plant was moved into a factory building at its present location, considerable sums of money were ex- , pended in additional equipment, and the purchase of quantities of raw material and on April 17, 1937, the number of employees had been increased to 62; that the plaintiff company enjoys the good will of the public which is valued at more than $3,000 and which will be totally lost and destroyed if defendants are not enjoined as prayed; that in addition to the loss of good will plaintiff has suffered loss of business and profits and will suffer similar losses in large amounts in the future to an extent in excess of $3,000 and that no adequate remedy at law exists. It is alleged that by reason of the facts stated an emergency and imperative necessity for a temporary restraining order existed. It was prayed that such order issue without notice in order that irreparable injury be avoided. The petition is duly verified by Grace W. Van Brunt, president of plaintiff company.

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

Related

Markham & Callow, Inc. v. International Woodworkers
135 P.2d 727 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1943)
Grace Co. v. Williams
96 F.2d 478 (Eighth Circuit, 1938)
Lipoff v. United Food Workers Industrial Union
33 Pa. D. & C. 599 (Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, 1938)
Cupples Co. v. American Federation of Labor
20 F. Supp. 894 (E.D. Missouri, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
20 F. Supp. 263, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1597, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grace-co-v-williams-mowd-1937.