Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/401/576/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 13:40:51+00:00

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Respondent brought this action to enjoin the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (later merged into petitioner) from engaging in group legal activity for the stated purpose of assisting workers in filing damage suits under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA). Respondent charged that the Union had recommended to its Michigan members selected Chicago attorneys whose fees would not exceed 25% of the amount recovered. The Union's answer admitted, inter alia, that it had engaged in the practice of protecting its members against large fees and incompetent counsel and that Union members were reimbursed for transporting injured members to the legal counsel's offices. On the basis of the pleadings and one witness' testimony that a large number of Michigan FELA claimants were represented by the Union's Chicago counsel, the trial court issued an injunction. While that decision was on appeal, this Court decided Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia State Bar, 377 U. S. 1, and the Michigan Supreme Court thereafter remanded the case to the trial court for further consideration. Following respondent's motion for judgment, that court, adopting the decree entered against the Union in Trainmen after this Court's remand, enjoined the Union from "giving or furnishing legal advice to its members or their families"; furnishing attorneys the names of injured members or information relating to their injuries; accepting compensation for the solicitation of legal employment for any lawyer; and from controlling the lawyer's fees. The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed.
Held: The injunction issued against the Union in this case violated its right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to engage in group activity to enable its members to meet the costs of legal representation and otherwise to secure meaningful access to the courts, Trainmen, supra; United Mine Worker v. Illinois State Bar Assn., 389 U. S. 217; NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415. Pp. 401 U. S. 579-586.
383 Mich. 201, 174 N.W.2d 811, reversed.
J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, post, p. 401 U. S. 586. WHITE, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which BLACKMUN, J., joined, post, p. 401 U. S. 600. STEWART, J., took no part in the decision of the case.
legal fees. The Union's answers admitted that it had engaged in the practice of protecting members against large fees and incompetent counsel; that, since 1930, it had recommended, with respect to FELA claims, that injured member employees, and their families, consult attorneys designated by the Union as "Legal Counsel"; that, prior to March, 1959, it had informed the injured members and their families that the legal counsel would not charge in excess of 25% of any recovery; and that Union representatives were reimbursed for transporting injured employees, or their families, to the legal counsel offices.
railroad workers the right to cooperate in helping and advising one another in asserting their rights under the FELA. While not deciding every question that possibly could be raised, our opinion left no doubt that workers have a right under the First Amendment to act collectively to secure good, honest lawyers to assert their claims against railroads.
Acknowledging our decision in Trainmen, the Michigan Supreme Court remanded the instant case to the state trial court with permission for amendment of the complaint "to seek, if it be so advised, relief not inconsistent with the Supreme Court's said opinion." 374 Mich. 152, 155, 132 N.W.2d 78, 79. After remand, the State Bar made a motion for further proceedings. That motion was heard on February 5, 1965, at which time the Bar declined to amend its complaint. For reasons not explained in the record, the case lingered in the trial court until May 24, 1968. On that date, after a motion for judgment by the State Bar and arguments on the motion, the trial court adopted verbatim the injunction entered in the Virginia state courts after our remand in Trainmen.
reading, [Footnote 5] focusing only on the specific literal language of the injunctive provisions challenged in that case, rather than the broad range of union activities held to be protected by the First Amendment. Similarly, the Michigan court erroneously restricted our holding in United Mine Workers v. Illinois State Bar Assn., 389 U. S. 217 (1967), to "the operative portion" of the Illinois decree prohibiting any financial connection between the attorney and the Union. The Michigan Supreme Court failed to follow our decisions in Trainmen, United Mine Workers, and NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415 (1963), upholding the First Amendment principle that groups can unite to assert their legal rights as effectively and economically as practicable. When applied, as it must be, to the Union's activities reflected in the record of this case, the First Amendment forbids the restraints imposed by the injunction here under review for the following, among other reasons.
plain meaning of this particular injunctive provision would emphatically deny the right of the Union to employ counsel to represent its members, a right explicitly upheld in United Mine Workers [Footnote 6] and NAACP v. Button.
"[W]e cannot assume that, in its subsequent enforcement, ambiguities will be resolved in favor of adequate protection of First Amendment rights."
371 U.S. at 371 U. S. 438.
"accepting or receiving compensation of any kind, directly or indirectly, for the solicitation of legal employment for any lawyer, whether by way of salary, commission or otherwise."
the injunction prohibits this practice, it is invalid under Trainmen, United Mine Workers, and NAACP v. Button.
Fourth. Our Brothers HARLAN and WHITE apparently accept the State Bar contention that the provision prohibiting compensation to Union representatives for solicitation refers to compensation paid by the attorney, rather than the Union. And, so interpreted, it supplements the two provisions which prohibit the Union from sharing in legal fees received by the recommended counsel. There is no basis for this restraint. Such activity is not even suggested in the complaint. There is not a line of evidence concerning such practice in the record in this case. If there is any such suggestion, it is in records in other cases involving other parties in other courts, records upon which we believe our Brother HARLAN erroneously seeks to rely. In fact, the explanation for the appearance of the provisions in this decree appears to be the Michigan court's verbatim adoption of a Virginia injunction issued in a different case on different pleadings relating to different facts. Decrees between litigants should not rest on any such unsupportable basis as this.
Our Brother HARLAN appears to concede that the State Bar has neither alleged nor proved that the Union has engaged in the past, is presently engaging, or plans to engage, in the sharing of legal fees. Nonetheless, he suggests that the injunction against such conduct is justified in order to remove any "temptation" for the Union to participate in such activities. We cannot accept this novel concept of equity jurisdiction that would open the courts to claims for injunctions against "temptation," and would deem potential "temptation" to be a sufficient basis for the issuance of an injunction. Indeed, it would appear that jurisdiction over "temptation" has heretofore been reserved to the churches.
An injunction can issue only after the plaintiff has established that the conduct sought to be enjoined is illegal and that the defendant, if not enjoined, will engage in such conduct. In Hitchman Coal & Coke Co. v. Mitchell, 245 U. S. 229, 245 U. S. 262 (1917), this Court struck the portions of a decree enjoining a union from picketing and physical violence because there was no evidence that either of these forms of interference was threatened. [Footnote 8] Likewise in the present case, with respect to the prohibition against sharing legal fees, the State Bar simply has made no showing that such conduct was threatened. Indeed, it has made no showing at all. Therefore, that provision of the decree, to use an often quoted slogan, would appear to be not only unjustified, but also "arbitrary and capricious."
Fifth. Finally, the challenged decree bars the Union from controlling, directly or indirectly, the fees charged by any lawyer. The complaint alleged that the Union sought to protect its members from excessive legal fees by securing an agreement from the counsel it recommends that the fee will not exceed 25% of the recovery, and that the percentage will include all expenses incidental to investigation and litigation. The Union, in its answer, admitted that, prior to 1959, it secured such agreements for the protection of its members.
others the means of enabling their members to meet the costs of legal representation. That was the holding in United Mine Workers, Trainmen, and NAACP v. Button. The injunction in the present case cannot stand in the face of these prior decisions.
On January 1, 1969, after the decree was entered in the court below, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen merged into a newly created union, the United Transportation Union. The successor union is the petitioner in this case.
35 Stat. 65, as amended, 45 U.S.C. §§ 51-60.
"Any person . . . or organization of any kind, either incorporated or unincorporated . . . who shall directly or indirectly . . . solicit any person injured as the result of an accident . . . for the purpose of representing such person in making claim for damages . . . shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. . . ."
"from giving or furnishing legal advice to its members or their families; from informing any lawyer or lawyers that an accident has been suffered by a member or non-member of the said Brotherhood and furnishing the name and address of such injured or deceased person for the purpose of obtaining legal employment for any lawyer; from stating or suggesting that a recommended lawyer will defray expenses of any kind or make advances for any purpose to such injured persons or their families pending settlement of their claim; from controlling, directly or indirectly, the fees charged or to be charged by any lawyer; from accepting or receiving compensation of any kind, directly or indirectly, for the solicitation of legal employment for any lawyer, whether by way of salary, commission or otherwise; from sharing in any manner in the legal fees of any lawyer or countenancing the splitting of or sharing in such fees with any layman or lay agency; and from sharing in any recovery for personal injury or death by gift, assignment or otherwise."
383 Mich. 201, 174 N.W.2d 811.
The decree overturned in United Mine Workers also enjoined the union from: "Giving legal counsel and advice." 389 U.S. at 389 U. S. 218 n. 1. It was conceded in that case that the provision was directed at the Union's employment of an attorney.
Our Brother HARLAN suggests that the injured member should be free to direct the collected information to whatever lawyer he chooses, rather than for the Union to give it to the Union's recommended legal counsel. However, the injunction prohibits the Union from furnishing the information to "any lawyer," apparently including both recommended and nonrecommended counsel alike. The injunction would prohibit the injured member's attorney, regardless of whether or not he was recommended by the Union, from communicating with the Union's representative who investigated the accident, is familiar with the facts, and, other than the injured member himself, is probably the person most qualified to answer the attorney's questions and assist in preparation of the claim. To satisfy the Michigan court's notion that direct communication between the Union and the member's attorney is somehow unlawful, it seems our Brother HARLAN would restrict the Union's efforts, which we expressly approved in Trainmen, of assisting the injured member in preparing his case for trial, to a written accident report filed with the injured member.
Mr. Justice Brandeis dissented on the ground that this principle should have been applied to strike the other provisions of the injunction as well. 245 U.S. at 245 U. S. 263 (Brandeis, J., dissenting).
"from stating or suggesting that a recommended lawyer will defray expenses of any kind or make advances for any purpose to such injured persons or their families pending settlement of their claim."
The only allegation in the complaint possibly relating to this injunctive provision is that the Union representatives informed the injured members that the 25% fee included all expenses. This provision of the injunction, therefore, is invalid for the same reasons that the provision limiting fees is invalid.
The Court's conclusions with respect to the issues presented by the case at bar are, in my view, flawed by the absence of any examination of the relationship between this case and the substantially contemporaneous proceedings in Illinois and Virginia against the same union with respect to the same charges of unprofessional conduct in the Brotherhood's "Legal Aid Department."
"As it presently operates, the legal aid department of the Brotherhood maintains a central office in Cleveland, Ohio, at the national headquarters of the Brotherhood. In that office, it has a staff consisting of a chief clerk, a research analyst, three stenographers and a file clerk. It also has a number of regional investigators. The Cleveland office serves as a clearing house which receives reports from all Brotherhood Lodge of instances in which members have been injured or killed in railroad accidents. It notifies the appropriate regional investigator and regional counsel of all accidents."
"By agreement with the Brotherhood, the attorneys who are designated as regional counsel charge a fee of twenty-five percent of the amount recovered in each case, whether recovery is by settlement or by judgment. Regional counsel have also agreed to and do pay all court costs, investigation costs, costs of doctors' examinations, expert witness fees, transcript costs and the cost of printing briefs on appeal. They also pay the total cost of operating the legal aid department of the union [including the department's ratable share of the expenses of the Brotherhood's conventions]. All expenses of the legal aid department are apportioned among the sixteen regional counsel in the ratio that their respective gross fees bear to the total gross recoveries throughout the country. . . ."
and also to make contact with the injured man, or the relatives of a man who is killed, and make it known that legal advice will be given free of charge by the regional counsel. He also makes known the availability of regional counsel to handle the claim and any ensuing litigation for a total charge of twenty-five percent of the amount recovered by settlement or by litigation. The twenty-five percent includes all expenses of investigation and litigation."
"The lodge member who investigates the occurrence and makes contact with the injured man recommends and urges that regional counsel be consulted and employed. These men carry blank copies of contracts employing the regional counsel's firm as attorneys. The regional investigators employed by the legal aid department also carry these contracts. If a signed contract is not obtained by an investigator in the field, an investigator often brings the interested parties to the office of the regional counsel in Chicago. The injured man may be accompanied by his wife, and if the interested party is a widow, the wife of the investigator also makes the trip. The expenses of these trips are paid immediately by regional counsel. The lodge member who investigates and urges the employment of regional counsel is also compensated by regional counsel at his regular hourly wage rate for time spent in investigating the case and in making the trip to Chicago. These amounts are paid whether or not the regional counsel is retained, and regardless of the ultimate outcome. In addition [the regional counsel in Chicago] testified,"
given a gratuity of $100 or $150."
"We are of the opinion that the Brotherhood may properly maintain a staff to investigate injuries to its members. It may so conduct those investigations that their results are of maximum value to its members in prosecuting their individual claims, and it may make the reports of those investigations available to the injured man or his survivors. Such investigations can be financed directly and without undue burden by the 218,000 members of the Brotherhood."
attorney to his client must remain an individual and a personal one."
"The course thus outlined, if adopted, will make it possible for the Brotherhood to achieve its legitimate objectives without tearing down the standards of the legal profession."
Id. at 397-398, 150 N.E.2d at 167-168. The court gave the Brotherhood over a year, until July 1, 1959, to bring itself into compliance with these standards. Id. at 399, 150 N.E.2d at 168.
"[t]he Brotherhood will finance its Legal Aid Department, and will investigate accidents so that it will be acquainted with the cause of said accidents, and, by so doing, will be able to remedy any violation of the Federal Employers' Liability Act and the Safety Appliance Act. The result of such investigation shall be made available only to the injured person."
the practice of law in the Commonwealth of Virginia."
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Commonwealth ex rel. Virginia State Bar, 207 Va. 182, 184 n. 1, 149 S.E.2d 265, 266-267, n. 1 (1966) (numbers have been inserted for convenient reference). The Brotherhood sought and obtained review by this Court, limiting its attack to the provisions numbered (2), (4), and (9) above. See Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar, 377 U. S. 1, 377 U. S. 4-5 (1964). This was apparently the result of a tactical decision, for it enabled the Brotherhood to argue that it had acquiesced in the restraints imposed on its activities by the Illinois Supreme Court, which that court had held were adequate to protect the ethics of the legal profession and the public interest. [Footnote 2/6] The Brotherhood therefore could take the position that it contested the Virginia decree only because "the [Virginia] Bar sought a more restrictive injunction than the Illinois opinion suggested." Reply Brief 29, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar, No. 34, O.T. 1963.
provisions struck down by this Court, replaced provision (10) with a prohibition on "sharing in any recovery for personal injury or death by gift, assignment or otherwise," altered the wording of the remaining provisions in minor respects, and upheld the modified decree as consistent with this Court's mandate. 207 Va. 182, 149 S.E.2d 265 (1966). The Brotherhood did not seek review of this decision, and it became final in due course.
Given this background, with which counsel below and the trial judge were generally familiar, the proceedings now under review appear in a substantially different posture. The State Bar's complaint charged unlawful solicitation of business. The Brotherhood's answer, after admitting the charges, in some respects, and denying them in others, set up the Illinois Supreme Court opinion as an affirmative defense, noting that the Michigan State Bar had been aware of that proceeding and had assisted in it, although it was not formally a party. The answer observed that the Illinois court had declared certain features of the Brotherhood's activities lawful and other features unlawful, and directed the discontinuance of the latter. The answer then averred that, after the filing of the Michigan complaint. the Brotherhood had brought itself into compliance with the Illinois opinion. The answer quoted the above-mentioned letter from the Brotherhood's president as proof. On this basis, the Brotherhood contended that the conduct complained of either was permissible or had terminated, so that the bill should be dismissed for want of equity and for mootness. App. 15-17.
there in issue. App. 20-24. [Footnote 2/7] However, the reply leaves unclear just what the Bar considered to be involved in the Michigan lawsuit. It described the Michigan Bar's cause of action as both broader and narrower than the Illinois lawsuit. App. 23-24. The next pleading filed, a "Statement of Claim," did little to clarify matters. It referred only to the Brotherhood's scheme of solicitation of legal business, but included allegations that, as part of the scheme, regional counsel made payments to the Brotherhood and to regional investigators and also contributed to the financial support of clients during the pendency of litigation. App. 29.
"[i]n the event there is not a consent decree, defendants have been requested to advise what issue in Michigan is different than in the other states where consent decrees have entered."
App. 30. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the defendants responded to this request in a way designed to limit the issues to solicitation.
"[e]ngaging in any activity, conduct or endeavor condemned by the Supreme Court of Illinois in In re Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen."
"although certain specific activities and conduct as contained in the Illinois decision were not specifically pleaded in the instant suit, nevertheless, by the defendants' answer, they have been indirectly injected into this litigation, and should be covered by the Court's order."
referred to, see supra at 401 U. S. 587-589, were directly related to the solicitation charged in the State Bar's complaint, I consider this decision by the judge to be entirely justifiable.
While it is unfortunate that the record is as stale as it is, there is ample evidence to indicate that the Brotherhood's conduct, at least as of the time the bill of complaint was filed, was of such a character as to call for the decree before us. The Brotherhood, despite its repeated allegations that the objectionable features of this conduct ceased in April, 1959, failed to introduce any proof to that effect during the evidentiary hearing in 1961. In the 1965 and 1968 proceedings on remand from the Michigan Supreme Court, the Brotherhood did not request a reopening of the record, or even assert that there had been any significant change in factual circumstances since the original proceedings. Moreover, Michigan law provides for modification of a continuing injunction upon a proper showing of changed circumstances. See First Protestant Reformed Church v. DeWolf, 358 Mich. 489, 495, 100 N.W.2d 254, 257 (1960) (dictum), citing United States v. Swift Co., 286 U. S. 106, 286 U. S. 114 (1932). With matters in this posture, I am content to pass on the validity of the decree despite the state of the record.
I am unable to distinguish the facts of Mine Workers from those in the case at bar, where a union agreed with attorneys as to the maximum fee to be charged its members in matters of collective interest. Despite the Brotherhood's prior acquiescence in the decrees in Virginia and other States, I find the unforeseeable change in the law wrought by the Mine Workers decision sufficient to justify relieving it from the consequences of taking that position. See Restatement of Judgments § 70 (1942); 1B J. Moore, Federal Practice O.448 (1965). I therefore concur in the Court's vacating this portion of the Michigan decree. In all other respects I think the decree is consistent with our past decisions, and otherwise valid.
"[i]n furtherance of the plan, the defendant Brotherhood has advised and continues to advise, its members and the families of deceased members with respect to the legal aspects of their claims."
"[t]elling any person or his representatives that said person has a cause of action, the amount he is entitled to recover, where suit should be filed, or doing any other act or thing which constitutes the practice of law within the State of Michigan."
emphatically deny the right of the Union to employ counsel to represent its members." Ante at 401 U. S. 581. In any event, if there is any ambiguity in the decree, the appropriate course is to clarify it, not to strike it down.
The second provision of the decree, prohibiting the Brotherhood from furnishing attorneys with information about accidents and the names and addresses of injured workers, orders it to refrain from conduct that it averred but did not prove had been terminated. Nothing in our prior decisions approves the solicitation of business by lawyers except insofar as the solicitation may be correlative to the rights of the clients. See Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar, 377 U.S. at 388 U. S. 8. There is no reason in terms of First Amendment interests why the Brotherhood should not be obliged to give the results of its investigations to the injured person to take to whatever lawyer he chooses, rather than for the Brotherhood to give it to the lawyer it prefers. The provision is plainly appropriate as a means of ensuring that the injured workman has a truly free choice. In effect, this provision of the decree is designed to fend against "ambulance chasing," an activity that I can hardly suppose the Court thinks is protected by the First Amendment.
"stating or suggesting that a recommended lawyer will defray expenses of any kind or make advances for any purpose to such injured persons or their families pending settlement of their claim."
in an effort to secure professional employment. At the same time, there is no contention made that the representation thus proscribed is inaccurate, and misapprehension on this score may well be the determinative factor in an injured man's decision not to seek legal advice in connection with his claim. On balance, I conclude that the equities do not call for relieving petitioner of its considered decision to acquiesce in this portion of the Virginia decree and the corresponding portions of consent decrees entered in other States.
For these reasons I would sustain the judgment of the Michigan Supreme Court, with the exception already noted for the prohibition on controlling the fees charged by any lawyer. However, it is appropriate for me to make a few general remarks in closing. I share my Brothers' concern with the problems of providing meaningful access to competent legal advice for persons in the middle and lower economic strata of our society. This is a matter of public concern deserving our best efforts at resolution, a task that the organized bar may be thought to have been too slow in recognizing. Nor do I condone, any more than my Brethren, the nefarious practices that called forth the Brotherhood's plan before us today.
Assn., 389 U. S. 217 (1967), I accept their conclusion. I would not, however, extend those cases further than is required by their logic. Accordingly, with the one exception noted, I would affirm the judgment below.
The Chicago Regional Counsel had jurisdiction over the lower peninsula of Michigan, where this lawsuit was brought. App. 14.
State ex rel. Beck v. Lush, 170 Neb. 376, 103 N.W.2d 136 (1960).
Hulse v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 340 S.W.2d 404 (Mo.1960).
Initially it appeared that a consent decree might be entered in the Michigan proceeding, but this possibility never eventuated. App. 30-31.
See the testimony of petitioner's president during pretrial proceedings in the Virginia case that, "[i]f we thought for a moment" that a consent decree along the lines of the Illinois opinion would be acceptable, "we would make it effective tomorrow." App. 91, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar, 377 U. S. 1 (1964).
"Certain other provisions of the decree enjoin the Brotherhood from sharing counsel fees with lawyers whom it recommended and from countenancing the sharing of fees by its regional investigators. The Brotherhood denies that it has engaged in such practices since 1959, in compliance with a decree of the Supreme Court of Illinois. See In re Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 13 Ill.2d 391, 150 N.E.2d 163. Since the Brotherhood is not objecting to the other provisions of the decree except insofar as they might later be construed as barring the Brotherhood from helping injured workers or their families by recommending that they not settle without a lawyer and by recommending certain lawyers selected by the Brotherhood, it is only to that extent that we pass upon the validity of the other provisions."
377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 5 n. 9.
The reply also referred in passing to actions in courts of other States where the Brotherhood has been condemned for engaging in "the same or similar practices as those at issue in this cause." App. 24.
"cannot be required to confine its road block to the narrow lane the transgressor has traveled; it must be allowed effectively to close all roads to the prohibited goal, so that its order may not be bypassed with impunity."
FTC v. Ruberoid Co., 343 U. S. 470, 343 U. S. 473 (1952) (footnote omitted). See, e.g., Local 167 v. United States, 291 U. S. 293 (1934); Ethyl Gasoline Corp. v. United States, 309 U. S. 436 (1940); United States v. National Lead Co., 332 U. S. 319 (1947).
MR. JUSTICE WHITE, with whom MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
The first provision in the decree prohibiting the union from giving or furnishing legal advice to its members or their families is overbroad in light of United Mine Workers v. Illinois Bar Assn., 389 U. S. 217 (1967), and should be narrowed to prohibit only legal advice by nonlawyers. Also, I agree with the Court that the portion of the decree forbidding the setting of fees by union lawyer agreement cannot stand. Otherwise, however, I do not read the decree as being inconsistent with our prior cases, and I would not now extend them to set aside this decree in its entirety.

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