Taggart v. Weinacker's, Inc.

397 U.S. 223, 90 S. Ct. 876, 25 L. Ed. 2d 240, 1970 U.S. LEXIS 82

Opinions

Per Curiam.

The complaint in this case was filed January 21, 1965, and the state court issued a temporary injunction on January 22, 1965. After hearing, the state court on April 1, 1965, denied petitioners’ motion to dissolve the temporary injunction and continued it in effect. On April 9, 1965, an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Alabama. Over three years later, on September 19, 1968, that court entered a judgment of affirmance. The petition for certiorari was filed here on March 28, 1969, and granted on October 13, 1969. 396 U. S. 813.

At the time the appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Alabama, respondent operated a retail grocery and drug business on the premises that petitioners picketed. Late in 1966, while the appeal was pending in the Supreme Court of Alabama, respondent ceased to operate the grocery and drug business, leasing part of the space to Delchamps, Inc., for a retail grocery store, and part to Walgreen’s, Inc., for a retail drug store. Respondent continues to own the land and the building at the site and maintains an office in the building. The injunction enjoins petitioners from “trespassing upon the property of the complainant and from further interfering with the complainant’s property and right of ingress and egress to the complainant’s property and place of business, until the further orders of this Court.”

While the changed circumstances do not necessarily make the controversy moot, they are such that, if known at the time the petition for a writ of certiorari was acted upon, we would not have granted it. For such small embers of controversy that may remain do not present the threat of grave state-federal conflict that we need sit to resolve.

In this connection one other circumstance should be noted. The Alabama Supreme Court found that this picketing “obstructed customers using the entrances to the store.” Petitioners complain (a) that no evidentiary hearing to resolve that factual question was ever held; (b) that it rests solely on conclusory affidavits; (c) that that is a fundamentally infirm procedure for handling facts in the area of the First Amendment; and (d) that if there were obstruction the remedy is enjoining the obstruction, not picketing generally. Yet this phase of the case is overshadowed by the special facts of the case as they were finally clarified on oral argument. The picketing started on the public sidewalks around respondent’s premises which are removed from respondent’s store by a parking lot; but it soon was transferred to a sidewalk owned and maintained by respondent, a sidewalk from 4 feet to 5.5 feet wide and adjacent to the door of the store where the picketing took place. Even if under Food Employees v. Logan Valley Plaza, 391 U. S. 308, the union had a First Amendment right to picket on the property involved in this case, a matter that we need not decide, in final analysis we would come down to whether, in light of the physical circumstances of this narrow sidewalk at the store entrance, the following ruling in Logan Valley, 391 U. S., at 320-321, is applicable:

“[T]he exercise of First Amendment rights may be regulated where such exercise will unduly interfere with the normal use of the public property by other members of the public with an equal right of access to it.”

While the finding of obstruction was based on affidavits filed by respondent, petitioners, though they had the right under Alabama procedure to do so, Ala. Code, Tit. 7, § 1055 (1958), filed no counter-affidavits prior to issuance of the temporary injunction.¹ Nor did they, as was their right under Tit. 7, § 1061, of the Alabama Code, submit any such affidavits on the hearing to dissolve the injunction.² They did, however, deny in their motion to dissolve that they were “obstructing customers from leaving or entering” respondent's place of business. But the only evidence before the Alabama courts on the issue of obstruction was in respondent’s affidavits. That issue was critical, in light of the physical circumstances concerning the narrow sidewalk in front of the door where the picketing took place. Petitioners, however, chose to rest on jurisdictional grounds.

In light of the obscure record, the physical circumstances of this narrow sidewalk, and the finding of the Alabama courts on obstruction of customers, coupled with the fact that only a bare remnant of the original controversy remains, we conclude that the writ should be dismissed as improvidently granted.

Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Harlan would hold under San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U. S. 236, that the State’s jurisdiction, in the case is pre-empted by the National Labor Relations Board’s primary jurisdiction over labor disputes. [For separate memorandum of Me. Justice Harlan, see post, p. 229.]

1 Section 1055 provides:

“Upon the hearing of the application for injunction, the sworn answer of the defendant may be considered as well as the bill, and both sides may introduce affidavits of themselves or other witnesses; and upon consideration, the judge must determine whether the injunction be granted or refused.”

2 Section 1061 provides:

"Upon the hearing of motion to dissolve an injunction, the court may consider the sworn bill and answer, whether the answer contains denials of the allegations of the bill or independent defensive matter, and also such affidavits as any party may introduce.”