Loyal Order of Moose Lodge No. 145 v. Commonwealth, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission

328 A.2d 180, 16 Pa. Commw. 433, 1974 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 652
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 22, 1974
DocketAppeal, No. 5 C.D. 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 328 A.2d 180 (Loyal Order of Moose Lodge No. 145 v. Commonwealth, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loyal Order of Moose Lodge No. 145 v. Commonwealth, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 328 A.2d 180, 16 Pa. Commw. 433, 1974 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 652 (Pa. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge Kramer,

This is an appeal filed by the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge No. 145 (Lodge) from an adjudication of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (Commis[435]*435sion) dated December 5, 1973, in which the Commission found that the Lodge had committed an unlawful discriminatory practice in violation of Section 5(i) (1) of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (Act), Act of October 27, 1955, P. L. 744, as amended, 43 P.S. §955 (i) (1) (Supp. 1974-1975).

The basic facts in this case are not in dispute. Donald L. Hamilton is a Specialist 6 in the United States Army with more than 13 years military service. He and his wife, Sherry Hamilton, were reared in the Williams-port area of Pennsylvania. Prior to his departure for duty in Korea in 1972, Mr. Hamilton moved his wife, his son and his two daughters from Fort Monmouth, New Jersey to Williamsport. The Hamiltons and their children are of the black race. At the time of the hearings in this case the Hamiltons’ son was ten years of age and their two daughters were eight and six years of age. As part of their children’s training, the Hamiltons had involved them in organized junior bowling competition. All three of the Hamilton children were duly certified and eligible to bowl in the bantam category under the regulations of the American Junior Bowling Congress (AJBC).

Upon the family’s arrival in Williamsport in early November, 1972, the children asked their parents if they could continue to participate in organized bowling. On November 18, 1972, Mrs. Hamilton telephoned the director of bowling at the Williamsport YMCA. The YMCA director advised Mrs. Hamilton that the bantam league at the YMCA could accept her son, but that the YMCA, due to lack of support, did not offer organized bantam bowling for girls. The YMCA director told Mrs. Hamilton, however, that the Lodge sponsored a bantam bowling league, in which girls could participate, at the bowling alley in the Lodge’s building. The YMCA director stated for the record that he did not know at the time of the conversation that the Hamiltons were black, [436]*436or he would not have recommended the Lodge bowling league to Mrs. Hamilton because he knew the Lodge had restrictions as to race. In any event, on November 18, 1972, after Ms wife’s conversation with the YMCA director, Mr. Hamilton telephoned the Lodge and talked with the Lodge’s junior bowling coach. After the coach determined that the Hamiltons’ daughters were duly certified by AJBC, she advised Mr. Hamilton that there were openings for additional bowlers at that time and that the Hamiltons’ girls would be welcome. Near the conclusion of this telephone conversation, Mr. Hamilton inquired whether the race of his children would have any bearing upon their acceptance into the Lodge’s bantam bowling league. At this point, the coach apologetically advised him that Ms daughters would not be permitted to bowl in the league because the Lodge’s rules and policies would not permit their acceptance. At no point during this telephone conversation was Mr. Hamilton told that the Lodge allowed only children and grandchildren of members to bowl in the Lodge’s bantam league.

Mr. Hamilton complained to the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and to the local Human Relations Committee. Both of these orgamzations attempted to conciliate the matter but were unsuccessful because the officials of the Lodge steadfastly asserted that cMldren of nonmembers were not permitted to participate in the Lodge’s bantam bowling league. The record in this case indicates that the Lodge did have an unwritten rule or policy wMch required participants in the bantam bowling league to be either children or grandchildren of members. The record also indicates, however, that the Hamilton incident triggered some immediate and dramatic changes in the operation of the Lodge’s bantam bowling league. Almost immediately the Lodge’s junior bowling coach telephoned all of the parents of the some 60 bowlers in the [437]*437league and discovered, apparently for the first time, that a considerable number of the participants in the league were neither children nor grandchildren of members.1 The coach admitted calling the parents of eight of the bowlers and inviting them to become members of the Lodge. Four parents did become members and the children of the remaining four were required to leave the league.

In 1972, Mr. Hamilton could not have become a member of the Lodge because membership in the Loyal Order of Moose was restricted to Caucasians. The race restriction was deleted, however, in May of 1973, by the Supreme Lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose. So that today, the only requirements are that a prospective member be invited by a member, that he be a male twenty-one years of age or older, that he be of good character, that he believe in a Supreme Being and that he be free of any felony convictions. There is also a women’s auxiliary, known as the Women of Moose, which is similarly organized and operated.

The record establishes quite clearly that from at least February 1, 1971, the Lodge restricted entrance into its building to members, members’ immediate families and members’ girlfriends. Apparently the only exceptions to this rule were public banquets and functions, such as Christmas parties for the community and Little League baseball banquets, to which people of all races were admitted. The record also establishes that the personnel who operated the bantam bowling league had failed to enforce for several years the unwritten rule [438]*438that participants had to be either children or grandchildren of members. Instead the supervisory personnel merely assumed that each parent who presented a child was a member. It was only after the Hamilton incident of November 18, 1972, that strict compliance with the unwritten rule was enforced.

The Commission concluded, under these facts, that the Lodge’s bantam bowling league was a “place of public accommodation” as defined by Section 4(1) of the Act, 43 P.S. §954(1) (Supp. 1974-1975) and that the Lodge had committed an unlawful discriminatory practice in violation of Section 5(i) (1) of the Act, 43 P.S. §955(i) (1) (Supp. 1974-1975), by denying the use of its bowling league facilities to the Hamilton children because of their race.

Our scope of review in this case is to determine whether the Commission’s adjudication is in accordance with law and whether the findings of fact necessary to support the Commission’s adjudication are supported by substantial evidence. Straw v. Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 10 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 99, 308 A. 2d 619 (1973).

On appeal to this Court, the Lodge contends (1) that the Commission was in error in holding that the Lodge bowling league in question constituted a place of public accommodation, when the Lodge’s unwritten rules restricted its use on the basis of membership; (2) that the Lodge was denied a fair hearing because of the fact that the attorney for the complainants and Commission is the son of the chairman of the Commission; and (3) that the Commission lacks power to award monetary damages.

The definition of “place of public accommodation” in the Act includes the following: “[A]ny place which is open to, accepts or solicits the patronage of the general public, including . . . bowling alleys . . . but shall not include any accommodations which are in their na[439]*439ture distinctly private.” Section 4(1) of the Act, 43 P.S. §954(1) (Supp.

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328 A.2d 180, 16 Pa. Commw. 433, 1974 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 652, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loyal-order-of-moose-lodge-no-145-v-commonwealth-pennsylvania-human-pacommwct-1974.