King v. Weiss & Lesh Mfg. Co.

266 F. 257, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 1675
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided June 11, 1920·No. No. 3383·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

[1, 2] The court below granted an injunction restraining the appellants from continuing a course of threats and intimidation in promoting a strike against the plaintiff below. This company had some 150 employés, of whom about 20 were white and about 130 were colored. Most of the white men joined in the strike and picketed the plant. The next day most of the colored men did not go through the picket lines, and the plant Was shut down. Immediately upon the granting of the preliminary restraining order and the assurance that they were thereby protected, the colored employés generally returned, and the plant was continued in operation. The substantial complaint now made is that the weight of evidence was against the existence of any violence, or intimidation, or unlawful threats, but, on the contrary, showed that the strikers kept within their legal rights, whether measured by the Clayton Act (section 20, Act Oct. 15, 1914 [Comp. St. § 1243d]), or by the general principles independently applicable. More specifically, the complaint is that the District Judge gave undue weight'to the fact that the strikers and the pickets were white men and the intimidated employés were colored; that he considered, as constituting unlawful intimidation, words and acts to which there would have been no rightful objection, if addressed to or used against' white men; and thereby held that, in such cases, the defendants’ rule of -conduct must be varied according to the color of the nonstrikers. We do not so interpret the action of the District Judge. Whether or not we can take judicial notice ourselves of the supposed fact, certainly we cannot disregard the finding of the trial judge that it is a fact that, in that community and at the time in question, speech and action by white men would intimidate and terrify the typical colored laboring man, when the same things would not have serious effect upon the typical white laborer. The question is not one of color; it is one of individual or class intimidation. As was said by Judge McPherson, in Atchison Co. v. Gee (C. C.) 139 Fed. 582, 584:

“One man can be intimidated only wlien Knocked down. But the peaceful, law-abiding man can be and is intimidated by gesticulations and by menaces. ♦ * * Perhaps such a man * * * may be a timid man; but sucn a man is just as much entitled to go and come in quiet, without even mental disturbance, as is the man afraid of no one, and able, with or without weapons, to cope with all comers. The frail man, or the man who shuns disturbances, or the timid man, must be protected.”

[259] Not only must we apply the familiar rule that we will not overturn the fact findings of the trial judge, save in a very clear case, but we must recognize that a judge who has lived a lifetime in a community, and knows its atmosphere and feelings and prejudices, is more competent than we are to draw a correct inference as to what is and what is not intimidation as against one class in that community. As we said in Toledo v. Toledo Rys. Co., 259 Fed. 450, 453, 454, 170 C. C. A. 426, referring to our reluctance to overrule a finding of fact:

“Especially must that tie true where the rightfulness of the conclusion depends largely upon that general knowledge possessed by all citizens of the community, including the judge, and which cannot be reproduced in the printed record.”

[3] The finding that there was unlawful intimidation depends, not only upon the view which the judge took of the effect of the characteristic timidity of the colored laborers, but also upon his view of the credibility of certain of the colored witnesses. When they returned to work, they were given an increase of pay, and they then made affidavits showing some acts and some threats of physical violence. Later some of these same affiants were called before a public meeting of strikers, and, when interrogated, denied their former statements, and expressed hearty sympathy with the strike. The defendant insists that the judge should have rejected their first affidavits, because evidently influenced by their increase in pay, and should have accepted their later statements. We cannot say he was wrong in thinking that the earlier statements were less likely than the later ones to be the result of undue pressure, nor in concluding that the facts of stopping work when a picket line appeared, and of resuming work as soon as the injunction issued, were, after all, very persuasive upon the issue whether the first quitting of work was voluntary, or was the result of intimidation and fear.

[4] The first restraining order was issued upon a showing which was vague and general; and the restraining order was subject to special criticism for the reason that it forbade “all interference” with plaintiff’s workmen, rather than “all unlawful interference,” which was the language of the later orders. It also lacked compliance with some of the provisions of section 17 of the Clayton Act (section 1243a). However, any criticism on the form of this restraining order is now moot. '-It was very shortly superseded by the preliminary injunction, issued after a hearing, and that, in turn, has been superseded by the permanent injunction. It does not appear that any injury was done by the restraining order, as distinguished from the later injunctions, or that the due preservation of any right requires present attention to this criticism.

[5] The preliminary and final injunctions enjoined, not only threats and intimidation against the workmen, but also “all unlawful interference” with them. Such general language is not advisable in an injunction order of this kind, since it leaves the door open for controversy, both as to what is interference and as to what is unlawful. Doubtless words of general import, must sometimes be used so as to give an order its due breadth; but we think that, in most cases, more [260] distinctive words than these can he selected, and the defendants thereby be more accurately informed as to what is forbidden. This is also the effect of section 19 of the Clayton Act (section 1243c) — “in reasonable detail.” The record does not show any specific objection by defendants to the language of the injunction in this respect, or whether any modification in this particular would now be of practical importance. If the parties think it would be, our present order of affirmance will be without prejudice to any such modification which the trial court, on due application, may think proper to make.

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King v. Weiss & Lesh Mfg. Co., 266 F. 257, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 1675 (6th Cir. 1920).

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