United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co.

259 U.S. 344, 42 S. Ct. 570, 66 L. Ed. 975, 1922 U.S. LEXIS 2490, 27 A.L.R. 762
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedJune 5, 1922
Docket31
StatusPublished
Cited by469 cases

This text of 259 U.S. 344 (United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co., 259 U.S. 344, 42 S. Ct. 570, 66 L. Ed. 975, 1922 U.S. LEXIS 2490, 27 A.L.R. 762 (1922).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Taft,

after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

There are five principal questions pressed by the pláintiffs in error here, the defendants below. The first is that there was a misjoinder of parties plaintiff. The second is that the United Mine Workers of America, District No. 21, United Mine Workers of America, and the local unions made defendants, are unincorporated associations and not. subject to suit and therefore should have been dismissed from the case on motions seasonably made. The third is that thére is no evidence to show any agency by the *382 United Mine Workers of America, in the conspiracy charged or in the actual destruction of the property, and no liability therefor. The fourth is that there is no evidence to show that the conspiracy alleged against District No. 21 and the other defendants, was a conspiracy to restrain or monopolize interstate commerce. The fifth is that the court erred in a supplemental charge to the jury, which so stated the court’s view of the evidence as to amount to a mandatory direction coercing the jury into finding the verdict which was recorded.

First. It does not'seem to us that there was a misjoinder of parties under the procedure as authorized in Arkansas.' In that State the law provides that when causes of action of a like nature, or relative to the same question, are pending before any of'its circuit or chancery courts, the court ‘may make such orders and rules regulating proceedings therein as may be conformable to the usages of courts for avoiding unnecessary costs ór delay in the administration of justice, and may consolidate said causes when it appears reasonable to do so. In Southern Anthracite Coal Co. v. Bowen, 93 Ark. 140, the court consolidated, over objection by defendant, two suits by two workmen who had been injured in the same accident, and the Supreme Court approved of this action. In Fidelity-Phenix Fire Insurance Co. v. Friedman, 117 Ark. 71, it was held that actions by an injured person and by a mortgagee against eight insurance companies on eight different fire insurance policies could be consolidated against the objection by defendants, and they were tried together. Of course, the application of this rule of the Arkansas courts under the Federal Conformity Act, will be qualified to prevent injury to any substantial right secured by federal law in the. trial. It is a case for the exercise of reasonable discretion by the trial court. We cannot say that that discretion-was abused in this case. All the companies for which the plaintiffs herein are receivers, were united tqgether in interest *383 and were largely under the control of one of the companies. The active manager of all of them for years was Franklin Bache. He was the first receiver, and as such the plaintiff. There was no need for a division in the verdict of damages found, because the union of interest between the plaintiffs involved no difficulty in the distribution among them of the amount found. The judgment is res judicata as to all the plaintiffs, and we can find no substantial reason for disturbing it on this ground. No difficulty presented itself with respect to the challenge of jurors by either side, and so far as appears there was no embarrassment to the defendants growing out of tfie union of the plaintiffs. On the contrary, an examination of the evidence shows that all the witnesses for the defendants treated the" plaintiffs as a unit. They were'so regarded in business and in the neighborhood where the mines were.

Second. Were the unincorporated associations, the International Union, District No. 21, and the local unions suable in their names? The United- Mine Workers of America is a national organization. Indeed, because it embraces Canada it. is' called the International Union. Under its constitution, it is intended to be the union of all workmen employed in and around coal mines, coal washers and coke ovens on the American continent.. Its declared purpose is to increase wages and improve conditions of employment of its members by legislation, conciliation, joint agreements and strikes. It demands not more than eight hours a day of labor. The union is composed of workmen eligible to membership and is divided into districts, sub-districts and local unions. The ultimate authority is a general convention to which delegates selected by the members in their local organizations are elected. The body governing the union in the interval between conventions is the International Board consisting of the principal officers, the president, vice-president- and secretary-treasurer, together with a member from *384 each district. The president has much power. He can remove or suspend International officers, appoints the national organizers and subordinates, and is to interpret authoritatively the constitution, subject to reversal by the International Board. When the Board is not in session, the individual members are to do what he directs them to do. He may dispense with initiation fees for admission of new locals and members. The machinery of the organization is directed largely toward propaganda, conciliation of labor disputes, the making of scale agreements with operators, the discipline of officers, members, districts and locals, and toward strikes and the maintenance of funds for that purpose. It is admirably framed for unit action under the direction of the National officers. It has a weekly journal, whose editor is appointed, by the president, which publishes all official orders and circulars, and all the union news. Each local union is required to be a subscriber, and its official notices are to be brought by the secretary to the attention of the members. The initiation fees and dues collected from each member are divided between the national treasury, the district treasury and that of the local., Should a local dissolve, the money is to be transmitted to the National treasury.

The rules as to strikes are important here. Section 27 of Article IX of the constitution is as follows:

“ The Board shall have power between conventions, by a two-thirds vote, to recommend the-calling of a general strike, but under no circumstances shall it call such a strike until approved by a referendum vote of the members.”

Under Article XVI, no district is permitted to engage in a strike involving all or a major portion of its members without sanction of the International Convention or Board.

Section 2 of that article provides that districts may order local strikes within their respective districts “on *385 their own responsibility, but where local strikes are to be financed by the International Union, they must be sanctioned by the International Executive Board.”

Section 3 provides that in unorganized fields the Convention or Board must sanction strikes and no financial aid is to be given until after the strike has lasted four weeks, unless otherwise decided by the Board. The Board is to prescribe conditions in which strikes are to be financed by the International Union and the amount of strike relief to be furnished the striking members. In such cases, the president appoints a financial agent to assume responsibility for money to be expended from the International funds, and he only can make binding contracts.

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Bluebook (online)
259 U.S. 344, 42 S. Ct. 570, 66 L. Ed. 975, 1922 U.S. LEXIS 2490, 27 A.L.R. 762, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-mine-workers-v-coronado-coal-co-scotus-1922.