Philadelphia Record Co. v. Manufacturing Photo-Engravers Ass'n of Philadelphia

63 F. Supp. 254, 17 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 600, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1680
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 30, 1945
DocketNo. 5202
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 63 F. Supp. 254 (Philadelphia Record Co. v. Manufacturing Photo-Engravers Ass'n of Philadelphia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Philadelphia Record Co. v. Manufacturing Photo-Engravers Ass'n of Philadelphia, 63 F. Supp. 254, 17 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 600, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1680 (E.D. Pa. 1945).

Opinion

BARD, District Judge.

Plaintiff brought this action to enjoin defendants from continuing an alleged conspiracy violating Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act1 and to obtain a declaratory judgment defining its rights under Section 274d of the Judicial Code as amended, 28 U.S.C.A. § 400. Plaintiff’s petition for a restraining order having been denied, it moved for issuance of a temporary injunction. After hearing of testimony and arguments and submission of briefs, the motion for a preliminary injunction is before the Court for determination.

I make the following special

Findings of Fact.

1. Plaintiff, Philadelphia Record Company, is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with its principal office and place of business at Broad and Wood Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is engaged in the business of printing, publishing and distributing a daily and Sunday morning newspaper and, as an adjunct of this business, it has operated a photoengraving department during the daytime and night-time since 1929.

2. Defendants, Artcraft Photo-Engravers Co., Inc.; Beck Engraving Co., Inc.; Century Engraving Co., Inc.; Chestnut Street Engraving Co.; Enterprise Engraving Co., Inc.; Gatchell & Manning, Inc.; Graphic Arts, Inc.; Keystone Photo-Engraving Co.; Lang Co., Inc.; Lincoln Photo-Engraving Co.; Lotz Photo-Engraving Co.; Philadephia-Weeks Engraving Co.; Photo-Chromotype Engraving Co., Inc.; Phototype Engraving Co., Inc.; Royal Jones Photo-Engraving Co.; William P. Groves, Jr., Stephen A. Murphy, Joseph L. Johnston and Edward A. McGinnis, copartners trading as Aldine Photo-Engraving Co.; Leon J. Eckell and Karl Zartarian, copartners trading as Allied Photo-Engraving Company; and William J. Henderson, Morris S. Lieb, Howard D. Mathues, and Lewis Pollock, co-partners trading as Peerless Engraving Company, are corporations or partnerships separately engaged in the business of photo-engraving in Philadelphia, Pa., in direct and active business competition with plaintiff. Hereinafter these defendants will be referred to as defendant competitors.

3. Defendant, Manufacturing PhotoEngravers Association of Philadelphia, is an unincorporated association whose membership is comprised entirely of the defendant competitors named in paragraph 2. Hereinafter this defendant will be referred to as the defendant association. Plaintiff is not a member of this association.

4. Defendant, Philadelphia Photo-Engravers Union No. 7, I.P.E.U. of N.A., is an unincorporated labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor with offices in Philadelphia, Pa. Its membership is composed of photo-engraver craftsmen and apprentices in and about the City of Philadelphia, including all of the photo-engravers employed by plaintiff. Hereinafter this defendant will be referred to as defendant union.

[256]*2565. Defendants Warner D. Curry and Charles J. Kraft are, respectively, the business manager and the president of defendant union.

6. Plaintiff produces about $100,000 of photo-engraving products yearly which are sold in intrastate and interstate commerce to customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

7. Plaintiff employs twenty-seven photo-engravers, five in the daytime and twenty-two during the night. The. day employees work, almost exclusively, on commercial work. The night photo-engravers produce newspaper work and, when they are not engaged in the newspaper work, they do commercial work. Plaintiff requires a minimum of twenty-two photo-engravers on the night shift in order to meet its newspaper deadline on pictures and advertising cuts.

8. Defendant union and plaintiff have a contract known as a newspaper contract, which applies to photo-engraver employees doing newspaper work for the plaintiff.

9. Defendant union and plaintiff have a contract covering the commercial work done by plaintiff’s photo-engravers during the day. There is no contract covering night commercial work.

10. For many years defendant competitors, the defendant association and defendant union have had a written contract covering their general relationship. On February 2, 1937, these parties executed a supplemental agreement providing, inter alia, "that future wight forces sh&tt be prohibited unless by consent of both parties to the agreement.” (Italics supplied.) These agreements were renewed periodically, the latest renewed supplemental agreement having been executed on March 17, 1944. This last supplemental agreement expired February 28, 1945.

11. Peerless Engraving Company, one of the defendant competitors and a member of defendant association is permitted to engage in night commercial work with the approval of the parties to the supplemental agreement. In addition to commercial work, Peerless does photo-engraving at night for the Daily News, a Philadelphia newspaper.

12. For many years the International Photo-Engravers’ Union of North Ameri-ca has pursued a policy of discouraging commercial work in newspaper plants.

13. During 1944 plaintiff asked the union to negotiate a night commercial agreement, but the union would not consent to negotiate due to the provision in the supplemental contract between the union and the association. The union did offer, upon advice of counsel, an agreement which would bind plaintiff to the terms of the union-association contract and would prohibit night commercial work by plaintiff unless the association would consent thereto.

14. On September 6, 1944, a meeting was held at the office of Gilbert J. Kraus, vice-president of plaintiff company. Present were Gilbert J. Kraus, David S. Loeb and Mr. Hutton of the Record, Warner D. Curry of the Union, and Wal-leston K. James and Albert W. Sanson, Esquire, representing the Association, whose attendance was requested by Curry. The purpose of the meeting was to find a solution which would permit the Union to negotiate the desired contract. The association representatives objected to the proposed negotiation on the ground that plaintiff was charging lower prices which the association representatives declared was unfair competition, and on the ground that there was insufficient work for the members of the association. The parties were unable to agree upon a definition of “commercial work” and the meeting disbanded.

15. On September 14, 1944, the association adopted a resolution as follows: “Resolved: That the Association insist upon compliance of the Supplemental Agreement dated February 2, 1937 made and executed by the Photo-Engravers’ Union No. 7 of Philadelphia and Manufacturing Photo-Engravers’ Association of Philadelphia, and continued by supplemental agreement each year, which agreement is now in full force and effect.” A copy of this resolution was sent to the Union.

16. On July 30, 1945, a strike vote of the union photo-engraver employees of the Record was taken under the provisions of the Smith-Connally Act2 to determine whether the Record photo-engravers should stop doing commercial work at night. The employees rejected the strike, proposal.

[257]*25717. On September 16, 1945, defendant union ordered the members of the union employed by plaintiff to discontinue all work upon commercial photo-engraving products at night after 12:01 a.m., September 24, 1945.

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63 F. Supp. 254, 17 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 600, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1680, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/philadelphia-record-co-v-manufacturing-photo-engravers-assn-of-paed-1945.