Jerome Crowley v. Local No. 82

679 F.2d 978, 34 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 263, 110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2445, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 19036
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMay 21, 1982
Docket81-1545
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 679 F.2d 978 (Jerome Crowley v. Local No. 82) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jerome Crowley v. Local No. 82, 679 F.2d 978, 34 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 263, 110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2445, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 19036 (1st Cir. 1982).

Opinion

679 F.2d 978

110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2445, 94 Lab.Cas. P 13,562

Jerome CROWLEY, Anthony Coyne, Joseph Fahey, Robert Lunnin,
James Hayes, Gerald Owens, John Lynch, Joseph
Trask, Joseph Montagna, and Dennis
Bates, Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
LOCAL NO. 82, FURNITURE AND PIANO MOVING, FURNITURE STORE
DRIVERS, HELPERS, WAREHOUSEMEN, AND PACKERS; Bart Griffiths,
Secretary-Treasurer, Local No. 82; George Harris, President,
Local No. 82; Phillip Piemontese, Chairman of the Election
Committee of Local 82; and John Doe, James Doe and Jerome
Doe, Members of the Election Committee of Local 82,
Defendants-Appellants.
Raymond J. Donovan, Secretary of Labor, United States
Department of Labor, Intervenor.

No. 81-1545.

United States Court of Appeals,
First Circuit.

Argued Jan. 6, 1982.
Decided May 21, 1982.

Gary S. Witlen, Washington, D. C., with whom Kathryn Noonan, Boston, Mass., was on brief, for defendants-appellants.

Kurt M. Pressman, Cambridge, Mass., with whom Mark D. Stern, Benjamin Hiller, and Goldstein, Pressman & Stern, Cambridge, Mass., were on brief, for plaintiffs-appellees.

Susan M. Webman, Atty., U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., with whom T. Timothy Ryan, Jr., Sol. of Labor, John F. Depenbrock, Associate Sol., and Joseph M. Woodward, Atty., U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., were on brief, for The Secretary of Labor, amicus curiae.

Before COFFIN, Chief Judge, CAMPBELL and BOWNES, Circuit Judges.

BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

Local No. 82, Furniture and Piano Moving, Furniture Store Drivers, Helpers, Warehousemen, and Packers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (the Local) and certain of its individual officers1 appeal the order of the district court issuing a preliminary injunction against them that principally requires the Local to conduct new elections for officer positions in the Local. The injunction was sought by several members of the Local, Jerome Crowley, Anthony Coyne, Joseph Fahey, Robert Lunnin, James Hayes, Gerald Owens, John Lynch, Joseph Trask, and Joseph Montagna, who raised a number of claims regarding the Local's conduct of nominations and elections in November and December, 1980. The claims all arose under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 29 U.S.C. §§ 401-531. The primary question posed here is whether the district court had jurisdiction under Title I of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 411-415, to grant the injunction, or whether, as appellants contend, the plaintiffs' only recourse was to the Secretary of Labor under Title IV of the Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 481-483. The Secretary of Labor has intervened on the side of appellants because of his concern over this issue. Additional questions in this appeal concern the propriety of the preliminary injunction under traditional equitable doctrines and the district court's refusal to require plaintiffs to post bond. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1).

This case concerns only one event, the meeting held by the Local on November 9, 1980, for the nomination of candidates for positions in the Local. The November 9 meeting attracted more interest than was usually shown in the Local's monthly meetings, which was due in part to the efforts of dissident members to gather support to turn the then-current Local officials out of office. Two aspects of the meeting provoked considerable controversy. First, admission to the meeting was restricted to those members who had with them a computerized receipt (the TITAN receipt) showing that their dues had been paid up to date. Several members were denied admission because they did not have TITAN receipts, and they became angry and vocal. At one point, four of the men outside the meeting, plaintiff Lunnin, Kenneth Sprague, and two others, entered the meeting to see Bart Griffiths, the secretary-treasurer of the Local, about easing the rule. Griffiths refused to alter the rule or to allow the shop stewards to check their own dues records and admit paid-up members, but he offered to hold up the meeting for an hour in order to allow members to return home to pick up their receipts. The four-man delegation refused this offer. Lunnin and Sprague, however, had their receipts and were admitted. At the hearing before the district court, both sides presented evidence concerning the regularity with which the TITAN receipt requirement was imposed at Local meetings.

The second controversy occurred when nominations were made. Before nominations began, Griffiths read aloud lists of members ineligible and eligible for candidacy, eleven on the ineligible list and sixteen on the eligible list. Four of the plaintiffs, Crowley, Coyne, Lunnin, and Hayes, were ineligible; one, John Lynch, was on the eligible list. Eligibility was based on timely payment of dues.2 The remainder of the approximately 750 members of the Local, including plaintiffs Fahey, Owens, Trask, Montagna, and Bates, were on neither list.3 At this point, proceedings began to break down-several members often spoke at once-and order was never fully restored. Questions were raised concerning eligibility requirements and the lists, and, at least in the minds of some, Griffiths did not answer them adequately. Nominations were then opened. Griffiths was nominated for secretary-treasurer, and according to the plaintiffs, Lynch was as well. At the close of nominations, however, Griffiths declared himself the sole nominee for secretary-treasurer and included Lynch among the candidates for president. Protests were unavailing. Nominations for other positions went on while similar turmoil prevailed, but plaintiffs' principal objection, and the important fact for this appeal, concerns Lynch's nomination.

Plaintiffs then filed suit in federal district court, alleging ten claims, five of them charging denials of equal rights in violation of 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(1),4 three for denials of free expression of views in violation of 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(2),5 one for unlawful discipline in violation of 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(5),6 and one for a violation of the right to nominate candidates protected under 29 U.S.C. § 481(e).7 The complaint, seeking preliminary relief, was filed on December 1, 1980, after the nomination meeting but before the subsequent by-mail election had been completed.

On December 12, in order to preserve the status quo and to protect its own jurisdiction, the district court issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Local from counting the ballots, some of which had already been received. Several days of hearings on a preliminary injunction, and many more days of negotiations regarding the terms of an order followed. On July 13, 1981, the district court, 521 F.Supp. 614, issued a preliminary injunction and memorandum opinion.

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679 F.2d 978, 34 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 263, 110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2445, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 19036, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jerome-crowley-v-local-no-82-ca1-1982.