Sherman v. Abeles

150 Misc. 497, 269 N.Y.S. 849, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1114
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 2, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 150 Misc. 497 (Sherman v. Abeles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sherman v. Abeles, 150 Misc. 497, 269 N.Y.S. 849, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1114 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1934).

Opinion

Collins, J.

This motion for an injunction pendente lite presents a contest between rival labor unions and a contention between one of those unions and a cluster of employers.

The plaintiff is Moving Picture Machine Operators Union, Local 306, of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada, a voluntary association of more than seven persons. (It will be referred to hereinafter as Local 306.) This local and its former competitor, but now ally, Empire State Motion Picture Operators Union, Inc. (hereinafter called Empire), dominate the motion picture projectionists’ craft in Greater New York. Local 306 comprises about 1,800 members, and Empire approximately 500. In addition there are a great number of non-union projectionists in New York. Local 306 is affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

The defendant Independent Theatre Owners Association, Inc. (designated the Association), is a group of motion picture theatre proprietors, operating or controlling (according to plaintiff) 420, or (taking defendants’ count) 360 motion picture theatres in Greater New York.

The Association came into being in May, 1933. Thereafter the defendant Allied Motion Picture Operators Union, Inc. (herein called Allied), was created. Allied is the rival union to Local 306 and Empire. The remaining defendants are motion picture theatre proprietors.

Dissatisfied with Local 306 and Empire, the Association, on August 21, 1933, entered into a ten-year contract with Allied, whereunder Allied projectionists exclusively were to be employed in the theatres of the Association members. In about a dozen Association theatres projectionists holding membership in Local 306 were discharged before the expiration of their contracts (defendants, however, insisting that they were paid for the balance of the respective terms). In some instances they were supplanted by Allied projectionists, and in other instances there were no replacements. In the latter cases the result was to diminish the number of projectionists employed. Wages of the substituted projectionists were lowered from those theretofore received by members of Local 306 and their working hours were lengthened.

Thus, Local 306 and Allied, and Local 306 and Association, have launched a labor war. The contest has become acrimonious. Admittedly, the confederation of Association and Allied aims at the extermination of Local 306 and Empire; admittedly, too, Local 306 and Empire aspire to crush and supplant Allied. The struggle [500]*500is for supremacy; the prize, domination. This court is called upon to lend its assistance.

Local 306 charges Allied with being a pseudo, or “ company union,” created by Association to wreck Local 306 and Empire. It assails the agreement between Association and Allied as 'monopolistic, designed to disrupt contractual relations between Local 306 and Empire projectionists and members of Association; it asserts that Association and Allied have conspired to wreak doom upon Local 306 by boycotting Local 306 projectionists, and that the effect of the conspiracy constitutes a violation not only of established legal principles but of the President’s Re-employment Agreement (PRA), the National Recovery Act (NRA), the Moving Picture Industry Code (the Code), and chapter 781 of the Laws of 1933 (Extraordinary Session) of the State of New York (the State act in aid of NRA).

The complaint demands a more comprehensive judgment than is requested on this motion. The temporary relief now sought is “ that the defendants be required to observe the applicable provisions of the Code and restore to their jobs the projectionists who have been discharged in violation of the National Recovery Act and pursuant to the unlawful conspiracy charged in the complaint.”

The defendants stoutly deny the plaintiff’s charges. They point to the litigious record of Local 306 and Empire and to the nefarious, if not criminal, record of Local 306’s deposed leader. The Association denies "that it dominates Allied; Allied disavows obeisance to Association. The defendants counter by charging the plaintiff with aspirations to control the projectionist craft, to the detriment of the motion picture theatre industry, as well as to the harm of the vast majority of projectionists. Not only is the indictment of transgressing the above laws traversed, but the defendants insist that the State court is not invested with jurisdiction over the PRA, the NRA or the Code. Further opposing the motion, defendants advance the objection that the Code has not been filed with the Secretary of State of New York as provided in section 2 of chapter 781 of the Laws of 1933, and that, hence, the terms of the Code are not enforcible by the State court. Finally, the defendants urge that even if there be jurisdiction, the equities here do not call for its exercise.

There will be examined:

First. Whether the record of Local 306 precludes it from obtaining relief in equity.

Second. Whether the papers before the court reveal such a conspiracy as justifies the intervention of equity.

Third, (a) Whether the record exposes a violation of the PRA, the NRA, or the Code. If so, (b) whether this court may take [501]*501cognizance thereof and grant appropriate relief, and, (c) whether the plaintiff may invoke the provisions of the Federal legislation without joining as parties any of the government’s enforcing officers, and despite the non-filing of the Code with the Secretary of the State of New York as provided by section 2 of chapter 781 of the Laws of New York of 1933.

First. The opposing papers excoriate the litigious record of Local 306 and Empire and villify their captains.

It is most unfortunate for the projectionists that contentions within their organizations have weakened their prestige, depreciated their vitality, deplenished their treasuries, lessened their bargaining power and alienated public confidence. Unluckily, too, that workers should imitate those whose oppressive and ruthless methods gave birth to labor unions. Some of the leaders in the fight against industrial tyranny themselves became tyrants; despoilers, instead of promoters, of the true principles of unionism.

And it is distressing that the members were not earlier adequately aroused to their own necessities and to the realization that laceration, if not complete demolition would be wrought by a continuance of such tactics. Time and time again the courts have been resorted to for the application of the fumigation process — a process which should have been self-applied. Injunction after injunction has issued to force open the windows of Local 306 so that the stench might escape and the fresh air enter.

But those presently intrusted with the management of Local 306 proclaim the termination of the baneful, if not criminal, activities of the Kaplan regime, and announce the pursuit henceforth of lawful and ethical policies.

Regarding this element of the case, I conclude that if Local 306 is right in the present controversy, the fact that it has been adjudged wrong in others should not wtirk a forfeiture of the enforcement and protection of the right.

Second. Does the record exhibit a conspiracy which calls for a temporary injunction?

The general policy of the law respecting the internal affairs of labor unions is that of non-interference.

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Bluebook (online)
150 Misc. 497, 269 N.Y.S. 849, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sherman-v-abeles-nysupct-1934.