Taylor & Boggis Foundry Co. v. International Molders Union of North America

20 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 161
CourtCuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
DecidedJune 22, 1917
StatusPublished

This text of 20 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 161 (Taylor & Boggis Foundry Co. v. International Molders Union of North America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor & Boggis Foundry Co. v. International Molders Union of North America, 20 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 161 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1917).

Opinion

Morgan, J.

This is an action by the Taylor & Boggis Foundry Company, a corporation, plaintiff, against a long list of individual defendants and five of' such individuals as representatives of a Class composed of the membership of Locals 27, 218 and 430 of the International Molders Union of North America, and said International Molders Union itself. The locals and international union are incorporated associations. The plaintiff originally attempted to make the associations parties as corporate or giiczsi-corporate entities; but, on motion made and granted to quash service on such associations, plaintiff amended its petition to state a cause of action against the membership thereof as a class, and the original title of the case is misleading in naming said unions and locals as distinct entities. For the sake of convenience, however, I may refer to the defendant class as the union or unions.

The plaintiff is engaged in the foundry business, and operates two plants in the city of Cleveland several miles apart, known as No. 1 and 2 respectively..

On or about • August 21, 1916, it was employing at No. 1 plant about 52 molders and coremakers in the foundry department, and at No. 2 plant about 137 molders and córemakers in the foundry department. Besides such employees, plaintiff had a force of men engaged in other kinds of work at both plants.

' The membership of said union is composed only of journeymen molders and coremakers, that is, men who are supposed to have served not less than four years as apprentices..

[163]*163On or about August 21, 1916, the said union called a strike at plaintiff’s plants, and all the plaintiff’s molders and core-makers went out. It was not shown that they all went out' as strikers, but at least substantially all stopped work, and a large percentage of them either had been members or did then join the union, some of such. going back to work later when the plaintiff started its works.

Said plants had been operating as “open” shops. The plaintiff did not attempt to operate the molding departments of either of its plants between August 30, 1916, and October 18, 1916.

Immediately after the calling of the strike the unions placed pickets at each plant, and'a series of negotiations was had between plaintiff’s officers and the officers of said unions, continuing until October 18, 1916, when all negotiations were broken off — for what reason is not shown. The plaintiff then started to operate the- molding department of its No. 2 plant. The molding department of its No. 1 plant has not been operating since the strike was called.

The strike is being conducted by the unions through the agency of the third vice-president of the National Union, the defendant, Lawrence O’Keefe (who resides in Cincinnati, but has spent nearly all his time in Cleveland since the calling of the strike), a so-called conference board, composed of about thirty delegates from the three locals, and a strike committee, comnosed of thirty delegates from the three locals. The membership of the strike committee and of the conference board is practically the same. The individual members of the conference board and strike committee most active in the management of the strike for the union have been the defendant Fred L. Baumgartner (who is also financial secretary to each of the three locals), Richard Kennedy (who has been acting as a business agent for the three locals), William Brown, assistant business agent, and John Langley,.who has been primarily in charge of the pickets at plaintiff’s plant.

The petition sets forth the .extent of plaintiff’s business, and in short alleges that the defendants and the membership of said [164]*164unions have' conspired to injure said business, first, by the calling of said strike, and -secondly, pursuing and threatening to continue :to pursue a course of conduct, set forth more or less in detail, designed to and having the effect of intimidating plaintiff’s employees (principally the molders and coremakers), who went back to work October 18, 1916, or who have, as new men, sought employment with plaintiff.

The prayer of the petition is for a permanent injunction against the various practices complained of, running against the individual defendants, and also the whole membership of said local unions, if not the International Union generally.

The only answer filed was 'by the defendants 0 ’Keefe, Baumgartner and Kennedy, for themselves as individuals and also as representing the class- composed of the membership of said unions, and set forth more or less of a short history of the said ¡International Molders Union and the relations that plaintiff has had therewith. It admits the calling of the strike by said- unions, and further details facts pleaded in justification for the calling of said strike, and generally denies the facts, with some exceptions, and responsibility for all acts of violence and intimidation.

Plaintiff’s reply to said answer is, in substance, a general denial.

At the commencement of the hearing plaintiff gave notice that it would not offer evidence to prove the allegations of its petition as to an unlawful conspiracy on the part of the defendants, or the class, in the calling of said strike, but would rest its case on evidence of acts and threats, showing violence to and intimidation of its employees and agents, resulting in irreparable -damage to its business, and proving, as claimed by plaintiff, a common and unlawful design on the part of the defendants ¡actually concerned, as well as the whole class, to injure it in its business.

This announcement, as was agreed by both sides, took out of the ease any burden either side might have been under to prove the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the action of said unions in the calling of said strike,

[165]*165In support of fits charge of a conspiracy to injure it by the defendants and the class, plaintiff called over one hundred witnesses, a number being put on the stand again and again, to testify to various threats and acts of violence.

Passing for the moment the question of responsibility of either the individual defendants or the class, it must be admitted that plaintiff’s case did tend to show the following occurrences that happened between October 18, 1916, to time of trial.

1. That the automobiles in • which plaintiff transported its employee molders and coremakers back and forth to work most of the time since October 18, 1916, were generally followed by automobiles more or less filled with union men, who, after the cars got beyond the range of police guard generally maintained around the plant since October 18, 1916, would call out in a threatening manner to plaintiff’s employees and use abusive and obscene language to them, accompanied with many threats.

2. That when the plaintiff’s machines would seek to run away from the union machines, taking advantage of congestions of traffic, etc., there would result chases dangerous to the life and limb of those in both cars and to the public generally. The company would have in use something like five or more ears; and there would usually be a similar number of union cars, at least in the afternoon when the men left for home.

3. That a number of collisions between plaintiff’s automobiles and the union’s machines was shown to have occurred, some of these collisions appeared to have been deliberately caused by the union drivers.

4.

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Bluebook (online)
20 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-boggis-foundry-co-v-international-molders-union-of-north-america-ohctcomplcuyaho-1917.