Jolly v. Gorman

304 F. Supp. 15
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedMarch 4, 1969
DocketCiv. A. No. 2283
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 304 F. Supp. 15 (Jolly v. Gorman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jolly v. Gorman, 304 F. Supp. 15 (S.D. Miss. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND SUSTAINING DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

DAN M. RUSSELL, Jr., District Judge.

The above styled action is before the Court on plaintiffs’ motion for a summary judgment and defendants’ responses thereto, and on motion for summary judgment by defendants, and plaintiffs’ responses thereto. Subsequent to the filing of these motions, plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint by adding a second ground to their second cause of action. Defendants object to the proposed amendment. The Court has not ruled on the motion to amend, but, for purposes of this opinion, treats the motion as granted.

On August 28, 1968, J. D. Jolly, Gran-ville Sellers, Herbert Ishee, and John A. West, individually, and as members and officers of International Woodworkers of America, AFL-CIO, Local 5-443, representing employees of Masonite Corporation, Laurel, Mississippi, filed their complaint for a preliminary and permanent injunction against Walter Gorman, individually, and as Trustee, International Woodworkers of America, AFL-CIO, and Masonite Corporation, in a first cause of action, based on provisions of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 29 U.S.C. § 401 et seq., seeking an injunction against the trusteeship invoked [17]*17over Local 5-443. This first cause is directed solely against the Trustee and IWA, alleging that the trusteeship was illegally invoked without adequate notice or a fair hearing in violation of pertinent statutes, and in the absence of adequate remedies appearing in the constitution and by-laws. The first claim in the second cause of action is directed against IWA and Masonite alleging that a supplemental bargaining agreement of December 6, 1967, by and between Masonite and IWA on behalf of the local, is illegal, not having been entered into in conformance with the union’s constitution and by-laws or the then existing bargaining agreement of March 3, 1967. The proposed amendment is a second claim to the second cause of action, alleging that Masonite and IWA, in entering into the supplemental agreement, have conspired to deny plaintiffs’ right to bargain and to challenge the agreement. Defendants’ objections to the proposed amendment are that it is unconscionably late, legally frivolous and avers no facts on which to base its conclusions.

The trustee and IWA denied the claims and causes of action.

Masonite denied the claims and causes and interposed separate defenses, cross-claims and a counterclaim. Masonite alleged that all named plaintiffs have been suspended as officers of the local and have no standing to sue; that the trusteeship is valid; that Masonite entered into the bargaining agreement of March 3, 1967, and the supplemental agreement of December 6, 1967 with IWA on behalf of the local and they were and are valid. As a prelude to other defenses, Masonite set forth the labor history of its relations with IWA and the local, showing that in 1946 IWA was certified by the National Labor Relations Board as the bargaining agent on behalf of Masonite employees. That bargaining contracts have continued up to and including the agreement of March 3, 1967, in which Article 23 consisted of a “no strike” clause. On April 21, 1967, the local, including plaintiffs, instituted an illegal strike by over 2000 employees, prompting mass picketing, acts of violence, and injuries to persons and property. Masonite promptly obtained an injunction from the Mississippi Supreme Court and the local was held in civil contempt. On April 25, 1967, Masonite filed in this Court its action for damages against IWA and the local, being Civil Action No. 2183. In May 1967, IWA and the local filed with NLRB an unfair labor practice charge against Masonite under Section 158(a) (1) (3) and (5), 29 U.S.C., which the Regional Director of NLRB investigated and dismissed. Later in the same month, Masonite filed unfair labor practice charges against IWA and the local upon which a formal complaint was issued, and the local and plaintiffs Jolly and West were found guilty. After numerous negotiation meetings, and in order to settle the dispute, Masonite and IWA, for and on behalf of the local, entered into the supplemental agreement of December 6, 1967, whereby Masonite withdrew its unfair labor practice charges, re-hired numerous former employees, reinstating their seniority and other benefits, and joined with IWA and the local to dismiss its damage suit, No. 2183, on the docket of this Court. Masonite avers that, as required by 29 U.S.C. § 159(a), it has bargained with IWA, and the supplemental agreement is an accord and satisfaction of all pending controversies; that the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S. C. Sections 101, 104 and 107, denies the Court’s jurisdiction and bars this action; that plaintiffs, being fully aware of the supplemental agreement, have unreasonably delayed the filing of the suit and are guilty of laches, and are estopped to bring this action by having joined in the dismissal of Civil Action No. 2183; and finally, there was a five-step grievance procedure under the terms of the March 3, 1967 agreement which plaintiffs failed to use, instituting an illegal strike instead. In the event the Court finds the supplemental agreement void, [18]*18Masonite cross-claims against IWA for $6,000,000.00 in damages, including all damages, costs and attorney fees which would allegedly have been recoverable in Civil Action No. 2183, and for the reinstatement of that suit. Masonite’s counterclaim against plaintiffs is that if the supplemental agreement is void, the order dismissing Civil Action No. 2183 should be set aside.

Both IWA and plaintiffs responded respectively to the cross-claim and counterclaim, denying that Civil Action No. 2183 should be reinstated.

Prior to any hearing hereon, the parties began discovery proceedings by way of interrogatories. On November 6, 1968, plaintiffs filed their motion for summary judgment based on the pleadings, answers to interrogatories and the affidavits of Elton Odom, J. D. Jolly, Melbourne Buckhaults, Jack Peebles and John A. West, not filed until December 9, 1968, and on additional affidavits of Jolly, Granville Sellers, Orange Herrington and Audrey Holifield, not filed until December 19, 1968, all of these persons being members and/or officers of the local.

On the same day as their motion for summary was filed, plaintiffs sought to enjoin a meeting of the executive board of IWA to be held in Memphis, Tennessee on November 12, 1968. After a hearing before this Court on the morning of November 12, this motion was denied.

On November 11, 1968, Masonite filed its motion for summary judgment as to the second cause of action, based on the record, the affidavit of James D. Robertson, Masonite’s director of employee relations, as supplemented on December 10, 1968, and on the affidavit of Denton Gibbes, Masonite attorney, to which are attached as exhibits copies of final judgments and decrees in the court actions referred to by Masonite in its affirmative defenses.

On December 6, 1968, the trustee and IWA filed their motion for summary judgment based on the pleadings, on affidavit of Ronald F. Roley, IWA president, to which are attached copies of the minutes of all IWA executive board meetings from November 28, 1967 to November 12, 1968, and on the affidavit of James E.

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304 F. Supp. 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jolly-v-gorman-mssd-1969.