INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT-PROCURING DISCHARGE-DAMAGES-Ruddy v. United Association of Journeymen Plumbers, etc., Local No. 24, Supreme Court of New Jersey, 75 Atlantic Reporter, page 742.-In the district court of Newark, Antony S. Ruddy was allowed damages against the organization named for procuring his discharge from employment, whereupon the latter appealed. The appeal resulted in the judgment of the court below being affirmed in February, 1910. The facts appear in the opinion, which was delivered by Judge Reed, and is as follows: This case was tried before a district court without a jury. The court has sent up the stenographer's notes taken on the trial, with a general finding in favor of the plaintiff. The question is whether the trial court could find in any rational view of the evidence a situation which would support this finding. Mr. Ruddy, the plaintiff, was a plumber, and was employed as such by one William Jacobi, who discharged Mr. Ruddy. Afterwards Mr. Ruddy was employed by F. J. Sturm, and was also discharged by him. The plaintiff claims that he was discharged in both instances because one William Ryan, the business agent of Local Union No. 24 of the United Association Journeymen Plumbers, Gas Fitters, Steam Fitters, and Steam Fitters Helpers of the United States and Canada, acting for that association, caused Ruddy's employers to discharge him. There is testimony to show that Ruddy while working for Mr. Jacobi was approached by Ryan, who was admittedly the agent of the association, and that Ryan asked Ruddy to join Local No. 24. Ruddy told Ryan that he already belonged to one local union, and did not see why he should make any change. Ryan then saw Jacobi and told him that he would have to discharge nonunion men. Jacobi then discharged Ruddy, and Ryan sent Jacobi union men to take Ruddy's place, Ryan said to Jacobi: "We have union men, and you should have union men, and Mr. Ruddy is not a union man, and to harmonize matters you ought to employ union men." Again, when Ruddy was afterwards working for Sturm, Ryan went to see Sturm, and told him that he had a nonunion man working for him. Sturm told Ryan that the man belonged to Local No. 5, and Ryan replied that there were objections; that the other men would not work with Local No. 5. Mr. Sturm took Ruddy off the job on which he was then working, and put him at some jobbing work elsewhere. Ryan came to see Mr. Sturm again, and said that he, Sturm, would have to lay off that man; that he was not a union man; that is, he did not belong to their local. Sturm said to him: "This job is so near completed I would like to have him finish this job." Ryan replied: "I will get you a good Sturm promised to discharge Ruddy the next day, when he had finished the job, and he did discharge him. I think that from the testimony the court could draw the inference. that there was a threat in two instances-that unless Ruddy was discharged the members of Local No. 24 would in a body leave the services of these two employers. The threat did not consist of a statement merely that members of Local No. 24 would not work with nonunion men, but it was a distinct warning that Ruddy must be discharged or, if he was not discharged, the employers would be left without the metas if exerunr ther fontana mony that Ruddy was pursued zon one encu determination to fore him ur: Tepesin VILLON Iz. but that by this pursuit it was be 11 sum im a ne nende T earning the wages of a meetuks the he ammedes or DIE SPILLU ' tut m tion. The court colit craw the ineens zon the SATIMOLY LE there was a genert, arreemein the 191 11 FILLOI TerraS IT THE business agent, the Walking gejerice of the memmes of the unjon. that a nonunion mal vs VOTE UL TIP same job that the other members would out that WTE IT og there was put in the hands off the genera merely to call out the L MAILDERS DEL express purpose of rompeling the DVLA From the testimony in eoLL DE IDA was exercise in the presenT PUSH AND PAS plaintiff. These englutivos peNĘ JEST ULETA it was justies in factur & judgment in hard of the pranishë LABOR OLGANIZATIONALUNDAS Arrrr?-- LALLITYKissam T. Triad Stove Printing Company is broad. Mie a al v. Same, Court of Apple off She Fon page 214-The white winds were brough holder and the semod krempart des of the company and eemalt enemenpere podido to promote the wring aside of a contract between the defensant parim for the excludive employment of uziva workmen in the serenito name same cent of the company. Lower ccore has sustained the most of the parim to so contract, and this judgment væs affirmed on bral appeal to the court of appeals, as appears from the following alon from the opinion of Judge Werber, who spoke for the After indicating who were the parlen painel! Julge Werner said: In all other reperts the action are identical, and they are based upon voluminous complaints which charge the defendants with conspiring and conlelenting to compel the defendant. United States Printing Company to enter into an agreement with the several labor unions named as defendants to the effect that from and after January 1, 1904, the said printing company would employ none but members of the several stereotypers unions therein referred to, and would discharge all employees in its stereotypers" department who should refuse to avail themselves of the opport mity to become members of said unions. The various arts and procedings by which this agreement was brought about are set forth in great detail, with appropriate allegations of their illegality, and these are supplemented by the assertion that the agreement is void becau-e induced by coercion. The complaints are further amplified by allegations that the agreement, thus unlawfully entered into with reference to the stereotypers' department of the United States Printing Company, is to be followed by similar agreements designed to control the action of that corpora 62717°-No. 90 — 10—————28 tion in the conduct of all its other departments; that the effect of such action will be to cause the discharge of the plaintiffs and many others similarly situated and to prevent them from obtaining employment elsewhere; that owing to the peculiar and far-reaching methods employed by the labor unions referred to, and the fact that they are unincorporated bodies or associations composed of many hundreds of members, the plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at law, and will have no remedy at all unless the agreement between the United States Printing Company and these unions is declared void and the defendants are restrained and enjoined from carrying out its provisions. A preliminary injunction was issued, the specific provisions of which need not be recited, and that was subsequently modified in certain particulars. Thus the record stood when the case was brought to trial. Much evidence was introduced, and some of it bears most cogently upon questions which lie at the very foundations of the relations between employer and employee, not merely as individuals, but as organized bodies, whose purpose it is to induce or exact rights and privileges which must interfere, more or less, with individual freedom of action. If these questions were open for consideration by this court, they would be interesting and perplexing, for they involve legal and sociological problems of the highest importance. But they are not open to us. The unanimous affirmance by the appellate division (see 128 App. Div. 889, 112 N. Y. Supp. 1134, and 128 App. Div. 890, 112 N. Y. Supp. 1137) of the judgment entered at special term limits our investigation to the correctness of the legal conclusions upon the facts found by the trial court. We are bound to assume that the facts found are supported by the evidence, and if the legal conclusions are sustained by these findings the judgment must be affirmed. The learned trial court found that the execution of the agreement between the United States Printing Company and the several labor unions resulted in great financial benefit to the former and disposed of the differences between the parties; that the agreement was not entered into for the purpose of gratifying malice against the nonunion employees of the printing company, or of inflicting injury upon them; that it was not the object of the defendants to compel the plaintiffs to join the unions; that no pressure so imperative, as to amount to compulsion, was exerted upon the printing company with regard to the discharge of the plaintiffs from their employment; and that there was no conspiracy to compel the plaintiffs to join the unions or solely to injure them in their employment. Upon these findings of fact the learned trial court based the legal conclusions that the agreement was in all respects lawful, that it was not entered into under duress, that no unlawful act has been committed by the defendants, and that the complaint should be dismissed. These conclusions are in accordance with the decisions of this court arising out of similar or analogous conditions (National Protective Association v. Cumming, 170 N. Y. 315, 63 N. E. 369; Jacobs v. Cohen, 183 N. Y. 207, 76 N. E. 5; People v. Marcus, 185 N. Y. 257, 77 N. E. 1073), and the judgments in both actions must therefore be affirmed, with costs. Alabama, fatal accidents and fatal accident rate in coal mines of.. Alberta, summary of workmen's compensation act.. Page." 452,651, 657, 660 723 Area of coal fields, estimated available supply of coal, employees, and production in 1908... 445,446 Australia. (See South Australia and Western Australia.) Austria: Employers' liability and workmen's compensation insurance, cost of. Employers' liability and workmen's compensation insurance, cost of. Fatal accidents and fatal accident rate in coal mines of. Cagers in coal mines, fatal accidents to.. 543,544, 623, 625, 628, 632, 635, 638, 641 Canada, employers' liability and workmen's compensation insurance, cost of. Carpenters in coal mines, fatal accidents to.. 815-818 727 623, 625, 627, 628, 632, 635, 638, 641 Causes of fatal accidents in coal mining. (See Accidents, fatal, and fatal accident rate in coal mines.) 632,635 442 Check weighmen in coal mines, fatal accidents to. Coal, average daily production per man.. Coal, estimated available supply of, employees, and production in 1908, and area of coal fields.... 445. 446 Coal miners in West Virginia, insurance of, against accidental death, extent of.. 576,577 Coal mines, fatal accidents and fatal accident rate in. (See Accidents, fatal, and fatal accident rate Coal mines, transportation in......... 499 Coal mining: Comparative fatality rates in, based on number of employees and on production.. Coal mining in Illinois, descriptive analysis of fatal accidents in. (See Accidents, fatal, in coal mining Coal produced, tons of, by States and Provinces. 665-670 452, 652, 658, 160 593-595, 623, 625, 628, 632, 635, 638, 641 719-748 Colorado, fatal accidents and fatal accident rate in coal mines of.. Cost of employers' liability and workmen's compensation insurance. 749-831 Death, accidental, extent of insurance of coal miners in West Virginia against.. 604, 632, 635, 638, 641 Accidents in coal mines. 446-452 Comparative, in coal mining, based on number of employees and on production. 439, 440 Decisions of courts affecting labor: Blacklisting; conspiracy; evidence. Contracts of employment; interference; procuring discharge; damages.. 855-857 864,865 857-859 interference with relation; enticement; construction of statute 832,833 actions for injuries causing death; rights of alien beneficiaries. 833.834 835 fellow-servant law; common carriers; constitutionality of statute.. 836.857 fellow-servants; association theory.. 859-861 inspection of factories; violations of statutes; defenses; construction 837-848 railroad companies; hazards; construction of statute; constitutionality; classification..... 848-852 832-834 861-863 Labor organizations -- closed-shop agreements; legality.. 865.866 interference with contract of employment; procuring discharge; damages.. 864.865 854 Employers' liability and workmen's compensation insurance, cost of.... Payment of wages; semimonthly pay day for railroad employees; constitutionality of statute.. 854, 855 760-765 Disasters, mine, principal, in North America.. 728 551, 552, 598, 623, 625, 627, 628, (32, 635, 638, 640, 641 Drivers in coal mines, fatal accidents to.. 522-527, 395, 506, 623, 625, 627, 628, 632, 634, 635, 637, 638, 640, 641, 643 Employees and production of coal in 1908, estimated available supply of coal, and area of coal fields, 445, 446 |