W. B. Conkey Co. v. Russell

111 F. 417, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 4972
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana
DecidedOctober 19, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 111 F. 417 (W. B. Conkey Co. v. Russell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
W. B. Conkey Co. v. Russell, 111 F. 417, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 4972 (circtdin 1901).

Opinion

BAKER, District Judge

(orally). I am ready to dispose of this matter now. I feel that I am as sufficiently advised as I would be by giving the matter further reflection. I desire to commence by saying that there is a vast deal of evidence that has been introduced that is totally immaterial to the matter that the court has in hand for decision. The court is not concerned with the organization of the labor union. It is immaterial to the court what the people may think about it,—whether it is right or wrong. That is not in the case. Men have a right to organize into unions if they choose to do so. Nor is it a matter of any moment as to whether or not the original controversy that ivas started a long time ago between the Chicago Typographical Union and the Conkey Company was founded in justice or injustice. That is of no consequence. The court cannot try that, and the court does not know enough about it to form any judgment about it one way or the other. It is immaterial to the court whether or not Mr. Conkey was arbitrary and niggardly in his dealings with his employes. That is not before the court. The court has nothing to do with it. It is not a matter of any concern to the court.' The court has nothing to do with the question as to whether or not Mr. Alting, who appears by the evidence to be the head and front of the original trouble resulting in the strike, was insolent and lazy and incompetent, and unfit to be employed in anv decent establishment. That is immaterial. He was discharged,—whether rightly or wrongly discharged is imma[418]*418terial to this case. The court cannot try that question. Bui there was started a strike; and parties have a right to quit, leave their work, if they choose to "do so, just as an employer has the right to lock up his establishment and refuse to give labor to men then in his employ. The court has nothing to do with that. I make these observations for the purpose of stripping this case of matters that are extraneous; that are totally foreign to the question that is on trial here. The merits of the controversy between the Conkey establishment and its emploj^és, the merits of the controversy between the Typographical Union of Chicago and Mr. Conkey, the question as to whether or not the 20,000 men who are said to have voted against Mr. Bryan because a history of his life prepared by somebody was printed at the Conkey establishment,—all that is matter that is foreign to any issue that we have here.

Now, what have we to deal with in this case? We have in this case, simply this,—nothing more; We have a petition and information, as it is styled, containing a large number of charges, that sets out that on a certain day (the 24th day of August) the circuit court of the United States for the district of Indiana issued a temporary restraining order enjoining and restraining all of the defendants named in that bill from doing certain specified acts. They were enjoined from interfering with the prosecution by the Conkey «Company of its legitimate and lawful business. They were forbidden to trespass upon its premises. They were forbidden to interfere with people who were either in the employ of the Conkey Company, ■or others who might engage in their employment. They were prohibited from committing acts of violence, of intimidation, or of interference with them. That was the nature and scope, in a few words, of the original writ of injunction. The original writ of injunction, in addition to specifying the parties defendant in that bill, also contained statements that all other persons, either as agents, servants, employes, or attorneys, should be restrained, and also every person, under the phrase “and any and all persons aiding and abetting said defendants,” is enjoined and restrained from conspiring with, aiding, and abetting the men who were named in the bill, and who are charged with committing acts of violence and wrong against the business of the Conkey Company. Such, in a few words, was the general scope of the restraining order.

Now we come to the information or petition that was filed on which Mr. Bessette has been on trial. That, starts out by referring to the original bill, and stating in general terms the character and scope of that bill, the purpose for which it was filed, and by reference to the original bill on the files of the court it makes that original bill a part of the information, for greater certainty. It then proceeds to set out in general terms the character of the restraining order that was issued, and the persons against whom it was issued. It then proceeds to allege that Mr. Bessette, among others "who are named, who are not parties to the original bill, has conspired, confederated, and combined with the parties, or some of them, who were specifically enjoined by name, for the purpose of violating that injunction; and then it alleges that, having joined that conspiracy, confederation, and combina[419]*419tion of men who were directly enjoined, he aided and assisted in defeating and disregarding the authority and lawful order of the court in its execution. It then goes on and specifies a large number of instances. It does not confine itself to the general character of them, but it specifies a large number of particular instances of intimidation, of violence, of outrage, of insult, and of the oppression that was practiced by men who were enjoined, and by Mr. Bessette and others who united themselves to this combination. Now, on that the question has been made as to whether or not Mr. Bessette, not having been made a party to the original bill, and it being shown that his citizenship was in the state oí Illinois,—the same state of which the corporation plaintiff in the original bill was a citizen,—this court can take jurisdiction of him for the purpose of punishing him' as a co-conspirator and aider and abettor of the men who were enjoined by name, .in trampling under foot the order of the court. The court; has read the cases that were cited by counsel yesterday, which struck the court, if they were to be carried to the extent that counsel asserted, as being revolutionary of all the learning that the court had ever acquired on the subject of the meaning, effect, and scope of an injunction. And the court was, by the oily and persuasive tongue of counsel in reading particular sentences, somewhat impressed with the fact that it might be that nobody could be punished for a violation of an injunction except the men who were named as defendants in the bill in which the injunction was issued, and against whom, by name, a restraining order had been granted. But on reading the cases the court finds that its comprehension of what the law was on that subject was not at fault.

The English case that is referred to (Seaward v. Paterson [1897] 1 Ch. 545) was a case in which a landlord had leased a large room in a very large building. The building was occupied by a large number of tenants of the landlord, and in the lease to a man by the name of Paterson, which was a lease for the purposes of a private club, there was a covenant providing that the lessee should not use or occupy the demised premises in any such way as created noise or a nuisance, or to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment by other parties of the rooms that they had rented. Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Alger v. Peters
88 So. 2d 903 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1956)
Teele Soap Mfg. Co. v. Pine Tree Products Co.
8 F. Supp. 546 (D. New Hampshire, 1934)
Alemite Mfg. Corporation v. Staff
42 F.2d 832 (Second Circuit, 1930)
Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Co. v. Lawrey
202 F. 263 (W.D. Washington, 1913)
Employers' Teaming Co. v. Teamsters' Joint Council
141 F. 679 (U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illnois, 1905)
Bessette v. W. B. Conket Co.
133 F. 165 (Seventh Circuit, 1904)
Ex parte Richards
117 F. 658 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of West Virginia, 1902)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
111 F. 417, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 4972, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/w-b-conkey-co-v-russell-circtdin-1901.