LOCAL LODGE NUMBER 1248, ETC. v. St. Regis Paper Co.

125 So. 2d 337, 47 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2487
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 20, 1960
DocketC-251
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 125 So. 2d 337 (LOCAL LODGE NUMBER 1248, ETC. v. St. Regis Paper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LOCAL LODGE NUMBER 1248, ETC. v. St. Regis Paper Co., 125 So. 2d 337, 47 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2487 (Fla. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

125 So.2d 337 (1960)

LOCAL LODGE NUMBER 1248 OF INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS et al., Appellants,
v.
ST. REGIS PAPER COMPANY, a corporation, Appellee.

No. C-251.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.

December 20, 1960.
Rehearing Denied January 6, 1961.

*339 Booth & Taylor and Schwartz, Proctor, Bolinger & Austin, Jacksonville, for appellants.

Adair, Ulmer, Murchison, Kent & Ashby, Jacksonville, and Jones & Harrell, Pensacola, for appellee.

WIGGINTON, Chief Judge.

This is an interlocutory appeal from an order in chancery by which the chancellor denied defendants' several motions to dissolve a temporary injunction theretofore issued without notice, to dismiss the complaint on which the temporary injunction was based, to discharge a rule to show cause why the defendant labor union and 85 of its members should not be adjudged to be in contempt of court for violating the terms and provisions of the temporary injunction, and adjudging the named members of the union to be in contempt of court for their violation of the injunctive order.

The cause is now before the court on a series of motions filed by appellee paper company by which it attacks most of the assignments of error filed by appellants, together with those portions of appellants' brief based upon the assignments of error under assault. Appellee also seeks dismissal of the appeal for the alleged failure of appellants to properly comply with the rules of procedure pertaining to interlocutory appeals.

Appellee paper company filed in the Circuit Court of Duval County a complaint by which it sought to enjoin appellant labor union and certain of its members who were appellee's employees from committing alleged acts of trespass, from interfering with appellee's use of its plant by itself and other employees and from authorizing the continuance of an existing interruption of work in the plant. Upon ex parte hearing the chancellor issued without notice a temporary injunction by which it restrained and enjoined the individually named appellants from occupying appellee's premises for any reason other than the performance of their regularly assigned duties; from occupying the premises in any manner other than that specifically authorized by appellee; from interfering with the ingress or egress to and from appellee's premises by any of its employees, and enjoining and restraining appellant labor union from authorizing the continuance of the existing interruption of work at appellee's plant.

Subsequent to the issuance of the foregoing injunction appellee filed in the cause a petition for issuance of a rule commanding appellants to appear before the court and show cause why they should not be adjudged in contempt for their wilful violation of the terms and provisions of the temporary injunction. It was at this point in the proceedings that appellants filed in *340 the cause their several motions by which they prayed for an order dissolving the temporary injunction, dismissing the complaint and discharging the rule to show cause theretofore issued and served on them. After hearing before the court during which considerable testimony was taken, the chancellor entered the order which is now the subject of this interlocutory appeal. With respect to the injunctive aspects of the proceeding the order denied appellants' motion to dissolve the temporary restraining order and to dismiss the complaint. With respect to the contempt aspects of this proceeding, the chancellor specifically found that inasmuch as all 85 individual appellants "had notice and knowledge of the provisions of said restraining order and acted, at their peril, in concert to willfully disobey it, they are equally guilty, in fact and in law, of contempt, but they offer substantially nothing in justification or mitigation. Such circumstances impose upon the Court a judicial duty to impose such punishment in the case as seems appropriate to insure compliance with its orders and remove temptation to disobey same." Based upon the foregoing finding the order appealed adjudged that each of the 85 named appellants separately and severally are in contempt of court "for their respective wilful failure and refusal to obey and comply with the said Temporary Restraining Order, dated August 2nd, 1960, and as punishment for their respective contempt, * * * [they] and each and every one thereof separately and severally, shall pay to the Sheriff of this Court, for deposit into the Fine and Forfeiture Fund of Duval County, Florida, the sum of Fifteen Dollars ($15.00) within fifteen (15) days from the date hereof, and in the event any thereof default in payment thereof within the time so specified herein, then the person, or persons, so defaulting, and each and every thereof, shall be forthwith taken into the custody of said Sheriff, and confined in the County Jail of Duval County, Florida, for a period of thirty-six (36) consecutive hours from the time said confinement is commenced. The Clerk of this Court is hereby directed to issue commitments accordingly."

Upon appellants' motion the chancellor entered a subsequent order which provided that further proceedings under the order appealed be stayed upon the condition that (1) each of the individual appellants who prosecutes an appeal from that part of the order adjudging him to be in contempt shall file a bail bond in the amount of $15; and (2) that with respect to an appeal from the remaining portions of the order the defendants shall jointly file a supersedeas bond in the sum of $1,500 payable to appellee paper company conditioned upon payment of the costs of the appeal and the costs which have accrued in the trial court in the event the order is affirmed.

Appellant labor union and its several members who are adjudged to be in contempt of the trial court have filed in support of their interlocutory appeal 95 assignments of error. Two of the questioned assignments of error numbered 2 and 5 allege that the trial court erred in issuing the rule to show cause and in denying appellants' motion to discharge or quash it. Assignment of error numbered 6 questioned the action of the trial court in setting aside its former order dismissing defendant labor union from the rule to show cause and in reinstating the rule against the union for further proceedings. Eighty-four of the remaining assignments of error numbered 10 to 93, inclusive, are identical except for names, there being one assignment of error on behalf of each of the 84 individual appellants by which they charge that the court erred in adjudging them to be in contempt for a wilful failure or refusal to comply with the restraining order. Thus we see that 87 of the 95 assignments of error relate exclusively to that phase of the proceeding taken in the lower court dealing with the question of appellants' contempt for violating the terms and provisions of the temporary injunction. Appellee has moved to strike each of these *341 assignments of error, to dismiss that phase of this interlocutory appeal dealing with the contempt proceedings and to strike from appellants' brief those points relating to this phase of the case.

The order appealed is properly divisible into two parts. One part deals exclusively with that phase of the proceeding relating to the temporary restraining order. The remaining portion deals exclusively with that phase relating to the question of contempt. Such an order is categorized under our system of procedure as a split or severable decree.[1]

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Bluebook (online)
125 So. 2d 337, 47 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/local-lodge-number-1248-etc-v-st-regis-paper-co-fladistctapp-1960.