Title: TM HEAD v. Local Union No. 83, Journeymen Barbers

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

77 So. 2d 363 (1955)
T. M. HEAD (Tom Head Barber Shop),
v.
LOCAL UNION NO. 83, JOURNEYMEN BARBERS et al.
6 Div. 767.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
January 13, 1955.
*364 Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville, Jas. A. Simpson and Chas. B. Robinson, Birmingham, for appellant.
J. L. Busby and Earl McBee, Birmingham, for appellees.
MERRILL, Justice.
Appeal from an interlocutory decree overruling demurrer to the bill of complaint. Complainants are Local Union No. 83, Journeymen Barbers, Hairdressers, Cosmetologists and Proprietors' International Union of America, and Journeymen Barbers, Hairdressers, Cosmetologists and Proprietors' International Union of America. Respondent and appellant is T. M. Head, who does business as "Tom Head Barber Shop" and who, it is alleged, "habitually works with the tools of the trade in his said barber shop."
The purpose of the bill is to prevent appellant from retaining and displaying the Union Shop Card which is the property of the International Union and was placed in the custody or possession of appellant under an agreement executed on October 14, 1952, which is Exhibit C to the bill and the pertinent part of which is as follows:
*365 The union shop card is made an exhibit but it is specifically averred that the following provision appears on the reverse side of the card:
It is also averred in the bill that:
Complainants also allege that:
In addition to the prayer for process and general relief, the prayer of the bill is as follows:
Respondent demurred to the bill as a whole; to the aspect which seeks to have the Respondent restrained from displaying the union shop card, and to the aspect which seeks to have the respondent comply with the requirement of union membership or in the alternative surrender said union shop card to complainants. The demurrer was overruled and appellant appealed.
The matter presented here is similar to that considered in 1951 in Foutts v. Journeymen Barbers, Hairdressers & Cosmetologists' International Union of America, Local No. 105, 155 Ohio St. 573, 99 N.E.2d 782, 785, the only material difference being that there the proprietor barber sought to enjoin the union from removing the union shop card. In that case the court said:
In the case of Rainwater v. Trimble, 207 Ga. 306, 61 S.E.2d 420, 421, cited in the Foutts case, the court said:
We concur with the statements we have quoted from the Ohio and Georgia cases respecting the right of removal of the union shop card in this case. We also note that in each of these cases the union membership offered the proprietor was limited or inferior, while here the appellant was "entitled to equal rights of membership, including the right to vote and hold office."
Appellant, in his very ingenious brief, contends that the principles of the Foutts case and the Rainwater case do not apply because the agreement between appellant and the union is unlawful in that it is in conflict with Code of 1940, Title 26, § 391 (Pocket Part), which reads, in part, as follows:
That section applies to an employee, not to an employer, as is appellant Head and it cannot render the agreement here unlawful.
It is also contended that the contract is in violation of Article 4, §§ 375(1) to 375(6), Title 26 (Pocket Part), denominated "Right to Work". Section 375(7), Title 26 states:
Therefore, if the agreement was lawful, and we so hold, the "Right to Work" statute has no application by its very terms. However, we would not be understood as holding that it would apply to the instant case even in the absence of Section 375(7), supra.
The decree of the lower court overruling the demurrer is affirmed.
Affirmed.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and STAKELY, JJ., concur.