Humphreys, Hutcheson & Moseley v. Donovan

568 F. Supp. 161, 114 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2473, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16081
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedJune 22, 1983
Docket78-3450
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 568 F. Supp. 161 (Humphreys, Hutcheson & Moseley v. Donovan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Humphreys, Hutcheson & Moseley v. Donovan, 568 F. Supp. 161, 114 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2473, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16081 (M.D. Tenn. 1983).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

JOHN T. NIXON, District Judge.

This action seeking a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief presents novel and sensitive issues under sections 203(b) and 204, 29 U.S.C. § 433(b) and § 434 of Title II of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 401 et seq. Among other things, § 203 requires disclosure and reporting of certain information by every person involved in labor persuader activities and § 204 provides an exemption to attorneys from the disclosure and reporting requirements of § 203 for information obtained in the course of a legitimate attorney-client relationship. Jurisdiction over this dispute is conferred upon this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1337 and 1345 and § 210 of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 440 and has not been disputed. Both parties, agreeing that this case may be disposed of on summary judgment have so moved pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 56, seeking final disposition of this case. This Court finding the material issues of fact undisputed concludes, for the reasons that follow, that judgment will enter in favor of the defendant Secretary of Labor 1 and the plaintiff will be ORDERED to comply with § 203(b).

I.

The facts are not in dispute. The plaintiff is the Chattanooga, Tennessee law firm of Humphreys, Hutcheson & Moseley, which has a significant labor law practice. Affi *164 davit of Hal F.S. Clements (October 24, 1978). In 1977 one of the plaintiffs’ clients, Southern Silk Mills, Inc., located in Spring City, Rhea County, Tennessee, was facing a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) conducted election. The purpose of that election was to determine whether Southern Silk Mills’ employees would be represented by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), a labor organization. The plaintiff represented Southern Silk Mills before the NLRB and assisted in reaching agreements concerning the time, place and date of the election and describing the bargaining unit involved. Southern Silk Mills, its employees and the Union engaged in a campaign over the question of unionization.

The parties stipulate that prior to the NLRB election, William P. Hutcheson and Ray H. Moseley, partners in the law firm of Humphreys, Hutcheson and Moseley, made speeches to several groups of Southern Silk Mill employees. These speeches were made pursuant to an agreement or arrangement between Southern Silk Mills and the plaintiff, the object of which was to persuade employees of Southern Silk Mills to vote against the union in the upcoming NLRB election. Stipulation, Government’s Exhibit B. Because of Mr. Moseley’s prior experience involving a strike by the Textile Workers Union, which is the predecessor to the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union, Southern Silk Mills selected him to address its employees on the union’s prior activities. Mr. Moseley was introduced as an attorney in the law firm representing Southern Silk Mills. 2 He related the events involving the Union as set forth by the United States District Court in Kayser-Roth Corp. v. Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, 347 F.Supp. 801 (E.D. Tenn.1972), aff’d, 479 F.2d 524 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 976, 94 S.Ct. 292, 38 L.Ed.2d 219 (1973), in which the court assessed damages against the Union for unlawful strike activity. 3 Mr. Hutcheson also spoke on the union violence in the KayserRoth case and reiterated the need to reject the union, as did Mr. Moseley. See, e.g., Secretary’s Exhibit G. at 15-16.

The plaintiff has refused to comply with the disclosure and reporting requirements of § 203(b), 29 U.S.C. § 433(b), and mounts several challenges against application of § 203(b) to its labor persuader activities. First, the plaintiff argues that § 203(b) does not apply to it because the intent of Congress when enacting the statute was to *165 discourage covert persuader activities. Accordingly, the plaintiff argues that because its relationship to Southern Silk Mills was announced to employees before the plaintiff’s presentation, its activities were not covert and thus § 203(b) does not apply. Second, the plaintiff contends that if § 203(b) does apply to its activities, then application of that statute violates the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights of speech, association and privacy. The plaintiff, alternatively, maintains that if the Court finds that § 203(b) may constitutionally be applied to the plaintiff, § 204, 29 U.S.C. § 434, exempts it from supplying any information which it obtained in the course of its legitimate attorney-client relationship with Southern Silk Mills.

As expected, the Secretary disagrees with the plaintiff’s argument and has brought a counterclaim seeking to compel the plaintiff to comply with the disclosure and reporting requirements of § 203(b). Finding support for his position in the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Douglas v. Wirtz, 353 F.2d 30 (4th Cir.1965), cert. denied, 383 U.S. 909, 86 S.Ct. 893, 15 L.Ed.2d 665 (1966), and the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Wirtz v. Fowler, 372 F.2d 315 (5th Cir.1966), overruled in part on other grounds, Price v. Wirtz, 412 F.2d 647 (5th Cir.1969), the Secretary argues that not only is the plaintiff subject to the requirements of § 203(b), but that it does not violate the First Amendment to subject the plaintiff to this section. Moreover, the Secretary maintains that § 204 does not prevent the plaintiff from complying with § 203(b).

II.

The legislative history surrounding the LMRDA has been comprehensively reviewed by several courts. See, e.g., Donovan v. Master Printers Association, 532 F.Supp. 1140 (N.D.Ill.1981), aff’d, 699 F.2d 370 (7th Cir.1983); Douglas v. Wirtz; Wirtz v. Fowler, overruled in part by Price v. Wirtz. These courts have found and this Court agrees that the LMRDA was the result of extensive McClellan Committee hearings concerned with “management-hired labor spies and undisclosed middlemen who engaged in espionage and deceptive persuasion.” Wirtz v. Fowler, 372 F.2d at 324. Donovan, 532 F.Supp. at 1141-42.

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Bluebook (online)
568 F. Supp. 161, 114 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2473, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16081, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humphreys-hutcheson-moseley-v-donovan-tnmd-1983.