Morton v. Local 20, Teamsters, Chauffeurs, & Helpers Union

200 F. Supp. 653, 19 Ohio Op. 2d 327, 49 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2381, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3724
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedDecember 26, 1961
DocketCiv. No. 8222
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 200 F. Supp. 653 (Morton v. Local 20, Teamsters, Chauffeurs, & Helpers Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morton v. Local 20, Teamsters, Chauffeurs, & Helpers Union, 200 F. Supp. 653, 19 Ohio Op. 2d 327, 49 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2381, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3724 (N.D. Ohio 1961).

Opinion

KLOEB, District Judge.

Under date of December 16, 1960, plaintiff filed his second amended complaint in which he alleges, in effect, the-following: That this action arises under the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 61 Stat. 136, 29 U.S.C.A. § 141 et. seq.; that complainant is engaged in the trucking business as a sole proprietor-under the name of Lester Morton Trucking Company, at Tiffin, Ohio, and that-defendant is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of [655]*655America; that, on the 17th day of August, 1956, at about 5:30 o’clock A. M., the defendant wilfully, maliciously and in pursuance of a conspiracy to injure, damage and destroy complainant’s trucking business, caused approximately fifteen men to appear at the complainant’s business premises and to picket said place of business with signs or banners, and that the aforesaid picketing by large numbers of men was caused to continue until August 21, 1956, on which date an injunction against picketing by more than two men at each entrance was issued by the Common Pleas Court of Seneca County, Ohio, and that said picketing by large numbers of men continued in violation of said injunction, and with the knowledge of and under the instructions of the defendant; that defendant unlawfully obstructed and interfered with complainant’s right to freely engage in his normal business activities by wilfully and maliciously threatening various persons and corporations with which the complainant had contractual relations with picketing at their construction sites if they continued to do business with complainant; that defendant further unlawfully obstructed and interfered with complainant’s right to freely engage in his normal business activities by inducing and encouraging, and attempting to induce and encourage, certain employers and the employees thereof, having contractual business relations with the complainant, to engage in a concerted refusal to continue such contractual business relations with complainant, and to force and require the complainant to recognize and bargain with the defendant, who was not certified as the representative of the employees of the complainant; that defendant further unlawfully obstructed and interfered with complainant’s rights by wil-fully and maliciously inducing and encouraging the employees of other employers to engage in concerted refusals in the course of their employment to perform services, all for the purpose of forcing and requiring such employers to cease doing business with the complainant; that the mass picketing and secondary boycott activities engaged in by the defendant against the complainant were in violation of the provisions of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 61 Stat. 136, 29 U.S.C.A. § 141 et seq., and caused great damage to the complainant in that, among other things, (1) He lost numerous trucking jobs as a result thereof from which he would have received substantia] profits but for said mass picketing and secondary boycott activities; (2) Numerous other jobs under contract by the complainant were delayed; and (3) Nearly all of complainant’s trucking equipment was forced to remain idle during the aforesaid period of time.

Wherefore, complainant prays judgment against the defendant in the amount of $50,000.00 as compensatory damages and $50,000.00 as punitive damages.

In due course, defendant filed its answer, in which it generally denied the allegations of the second amended complaint.

It appears that the plaintiff had, for many years, been engaged in the trucking business in Tiffin, Ohio, and that he engaged, among other things, in general dump truck operations in which he used his own employees to operate a fleet of approximately fifty dump trucks which were used primarily in work on highway construction; that for some years prior to the year 1956 plaintiff's drivers were members of Local 625 of the Teamsters Union, and when that Union was merged into the defendant these employees became members of the defendant, and were such members throughout the period of the strike in question; that there was no contract between the defendant and the plaintiff prior to the strike in question.

It appears further that, in August of 1956, after plaintiff’s drivers had met with representatives of the defendant, and had voted to strike in the event that the parties could not agree upon the terms of a contract, plaintiff met with representatives of the defendant on August 16, 1956, at the offices of the defendant in Fremont, Ohio; that no contract was concluded at that meeting, and that, in [656]*656the early morning of August 17, a large number of plaintiff’s drivers and representatives of the defendant appeared at plaintiff’s garage and office premises in Tiffin and initiated ■ the strike against plaintiff, which continued until October 5, 1956, when a contract was signed by the parties; that said contract (Defendant’s Exhibit D) was dated October 5, 1956, to expire March 1, 1959; that, at the time of the trial of this case in late April and early May of this year, there was no contract between the parties and apparently there is none at this date.

Plaintiff contends that the defendant engaged in unlawful strike activity during the strike when it encouraged the plaintiff’s customers and suppliers, sometimes through their employees and sometimes directly, to stop doing business with the plaintiff; that, since the defendant engaged in unlawful activities against plaintiff, plaintiff is entitled to collect all damages he suffered as a result of defendant’s total strike activity; that defendant violated both Federal statutory law and State common law, and that this Court, therefore, has jurisdiction to award damages.

Section 303 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 187, during the period complained of, provided, in part, as follows:

“(a) It shall be unlawful * * * for any labor organization to engage in, or to induce or encourage the employees of any employer to engage in, a strike or a concerted refusal in the course of their employment to * * * work on any goods * * * or to perform any services, where an object thereof is—
“(1) forcing or requiring any employer * * * to cease using * * or otherwise dealing in the products of any other producer * * * or to cease doing business with any other person;
“ (2) forcing or requiring any other employer to recognize or bargain with a labor organization as the representative of his employees unless such labor organization has been certified as the representative of such employees * * *;
“(b) Whoever shall be injured in his business or property by reason of any violation of subsection (a) of this section may sue therefor in any district court in the United States * * * without respect to the amount in controversy, or in any other court having jurisdiction of the parties, and shall recover the damages by him sustained and the cost of the suit.”

The unlawful secondary boycott by way of making direct appeals to a struck employer’s customers or suppliers to stop doing business with the struck employer, which plaintiff complains of, is predicated upon several Ohio cases, and particularly the case of Moores & Co. v. Bricklayers’ Union et al., 10 Ohio Dec.Reprint 665, 23 Wkly.Law Bull. 48 (affirmed by the Supreme Court of Ohio, 51 Ohio St. 605), and the case of Schmidt Packing Co. v. Local Union No. 346, Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America, et al., 48 ALC 547 (1947), and particularly the case of W. E.

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Bluebook (online)
200 F. Supp. 653, 19 Ohio Op. 2d 327, 49 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2381, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3724, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morton-v-local-20-teamsters-chauffeurs-helpers-union-ohnd-1961.