Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/383/715/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 15:48:29+00:00

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A federal court can hear all of a plaintiff's claims if they are based on both federal and state law, and they normally would be heard in the same proceeding.
Gibbs brought a claim against UMW under Tennessee and federal laws, based on allegations of a conspiracy. UMW members had used force in preventing the opening of a mine, although UMW did not order or approve of these activities, and it was not even aware of them. The company that operated the mine was a subsidiary of a company that had fired 100 miners who were members of UMW, and they saw the opening of the new mine as a breach of their contract with the parent company. Gibbs had a contract for coal haulage with the company that operated the mine, so he argued that UMW had interfered with this contract and with his contract with the subsidiary for worker supervision.
Although the court dismissed the claim based on federal law, it sustained the damages award based on state law.
When the relationship between a federal claim and a state claim comprises a single case, a federal court may hear both of them under its pendent jurisdiction powers, although it is not required to hear both of them. A decision to exercise pendent jurisdiction should be reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard, which is not met in this case because the state law damages award was not affected by the success of the federal law claims. In this situation, the plaintiff would be expected to try all of these related claims in the same proceeding, and the fact that the claim was heard in federal court does not mean that the award of damages based on state law is invalid.
This case concerns pendent jurisdiction, which allows the combination of state claims with federal claims in federal court to support judicial economy. Ancillary jurisdiction is a similar concept applied to adding parties rather than claims.
A coal company closed a mine in Tennessee and laid off miners belonging to one of petitioner's local unions. Thereafter, the company, through a subsidiary, attempted to open a new mine nearby with members of a rival union. Respondent was hired as mine superintendent and given a contract to truck coal to the nearest rail loading point. On August 15 and 16, 1960, armed members of petitioner's local forcibly prevented the opening of the mine, threatened respondent, and assaulted an organizer for the rival union. Petitioner's area representative was away at a union board meeting when he learned of the violence. He returned late on August 16 with instructions to establish a limited picket line, prevent further violence, and to see that neighboring mines were not struck. There was no further violence at the mine site; a picket line was maintained for nine months, and no further effort was made to open the mine. Respondent lost his job as superintendent, never performed his haulage contract, and allegedly lost other trucking contracts and mine leases because of a concerted union plan against him. Suing only the international union, he sought recovery under § 303 of the Labor Management Relations Act and the common law of Tennessee. Jurisdiction was premised on allegations of secondary boycotts under § 303, and the state law claim, for which jurisdiction was based on the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction, asserted an unlawful conspiracy and boycott to interfere with respondent's contracts of employment and haulage. The jury found that petitioner had violated both § 303 and state law, and respondent was awarded actual and punitive damages. On motion, the trial court set aside the damages award with respect to the haulage contract on the ground that damage was not proved. It also held that union pressure on respondent's employer to discharge him would constitute only a primary dispute with the employer, not cognizable under § 303. Interference with employment was cognizable as a state claim, and a remitted award was sustained thereon. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
1. The District Court properly entertained jurisdiction of the claim based on state law. Pp. 383 U. S. 721-729.
(a) The state law claim, based in part on violence and intimidation, was not preempted by § 303. P. 383 U. S. 721.
(b) Pendent jurisdiction, in the sense of judicial power, exists whenever there is a substantial federal claim and the relationship between it and the asserted state claims permits the conclusion that the entire action before the court comprises one "case." P. 383 U. S. 725.
(c) Pendent jurisdiction is a doctrine of discretion, justified by judicial economy, convenience and fairness to litigants. P. 383 U. S. 726.
(d) The District Court did not exceed its discretion in exercising jurisdiction over the state law claim. Pp. 383 U. S. 727-729.
2. State law remedies against violence and threats of violence arising in labor disputes have been sustained against the challenge of preemption by federal labor legislation, but the scope of such remedies is confined to the direct consequences of such conduct. Pp. 383 U. S. 729-731.
3. Although petitioner concedes that violence which would justify application of such limited state tort law occurred during the first two days of the strike, it appeared that neither the pleadings, arguments of counsel, nor the instructions to the jury adequately defined the area within which damages could be awarded under state law, where the tort claimed, essentially a "conspiracy" to interfere with respondent's contractual relations, was not itself so limited. Pp. 383 U. S. 732-735.
4. Since petitioner was not clearly proved to have participated in or authorized the two days' violence, nor to have ratified it or built its picketing campaign upon the fear of the violence engendered, the special proof requirements of § 6 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act were not satisfied, and petitioner cannot be held liable to respondent under state law. Pp. 383 U. S. 735-742.
(a) While the Labor Management Relations Act expressly provides that, for purposes of that Act, including § 303, the union's responsibility for acts of its members and officers is to be measured by ordinary agency standards, rather than § 6's more stringent standard of "clear proof," it does not displace § 6 for other purposes, and § 6 plainly applies to federal court hearings of state tort claims arising out of labor disputes. Pp. 383 U. S. 736-737.
(b) The "clear proof" language of § 6 is similar to "clear, unequivocal, and convincing proof," used elsewhere. Although, under this standard, the plaintiff in a civil suit does not have to satisfy the criminal standard of reasonable doubt, he is required to persuade by a substantial margin, and to come forward with more than a bare preponderance of the evidence. P. 383 U. S. 737.
(c) Respondent did not present clear proof that petitioner authorized or participated in the violence, or that it ratified the violence which had occurred, and, accordingly, cannot recover from petitioner. Pp. 383 U. S. 738-742.
Tennessee. The case grew out of the rivalry between the United Mine Workers and the Southern Labor Union over representation of workers in the southern Appalachian coal fields. Tennessee Consolidated Coal Company, not a party here, laid off 100 miners of the UMW's Local 5881 when it closed one of its mines in southern Tennessee during the spring of 1960. Late that summer, Grundy Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated, hired respondent as mine superintendent to attempt to open a new mine on Consolidated's property at nearby Gray's Creek through use of members of the Southern Labor Union. As part of the arrangement, Grundy also gave respondent a contract to haul the mine's coal to the nearest railroad loading point.
"an unlawful conspiracy and an unlawful boycott aimed at him and [Grundy] to maliciously, wantonly and willfully interfere with his contract of employment and with his contract of haulage. [Footnote 5]"
employment relationship was cognizable as a state claim, however, and a remitted award was sustained on the state law claim. [Footnote 6] 220 F.Supp. 871. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed. 343 F.2d 609. We granted certiorari. 382 U.S. 809. We reverse.
A threshold question is whether the District Court properly entertained jurisdiction of the claim based on Tennessee law. There was no need to decide a like question in Teamsters Union v. Morton, 377 U. S. 252, since the pertinent state claim there was based on peaceful secondary activities, and we held that state law based on such activities had been preempted by § 303. But here, respondent's claim is based in part on proofs of violence and intimidation.
"[W]e have allowed the States to grant compensation for the consequences, as defined by the traditional law of torts, of conduct marked by violence and imminent threats to the public order. United Automobile Workers v. Russell, 356 U. S. 634; United Construction Workers v. Laburnum Corp., 347 U. S. 656. . . . State jurisdiction has prevailed in these situations because the compelling state interest, in the scheme of our federalism, in the maintenance of domestic peace is not overridden in the absence of clearly expressed congressional direction."
San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U. S. 236, 359 U. S. 247.
"a case where two distinct grounds in support of a single cause of action are alleged, one only of which presents a federal question, and a case where two separate and distinct causes of action are alleged, one only of which is federal in character. In the former, where the federal question averred is not plainly wanting in substance, the federal court, even though the federal ground be not established, may nevertheless retain and dispose of the case upon the nonfederal ground; in the latter, it may not do so upon the nonfederal cause of action."
289 U.S. at 289 U. S. 246. The question is into which category the present action fell.
Hurn was decided in 1933, before the unification of law and equity by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. At the time, the meaning of "cause of action" was a subject of serious dispute; [Footnote 7] the phrase might "mean one thing for one purpose and something different for another."
"Upon principle, it is perfectly plain that the respondent [a seaman suing for an injury sustained while working aboard ship] suffered but one actionable wrong, and was entitled to but one recovery, whether his injury was due to one or the other of several distinct acts of alleged negligence, or to a combination of some or all of them. In either view, there would be but a single wrongful invasion of a single primary right of the plaintiff, namely, the right of bodily safety, whether the acts constituting such invasion were one or many, simple or complex."
"A cause of action does not consist of facts, but of the unlawful violation of a right which the facts show. The number and variety of the facts alleged do not establish more than one cause of action so long as their result, whether they be considered severally or in combination, is the violation of but one right by a single legal wrong. The mere multiplication of grounds of negligence alleged as causing the same injury does not result in multiplying the causes of action."
and not the end. They do not constitute the cause of action, but they show its existence by making the wrong appear."
Id. at 271 U. S. 321. Had the Court found a jurisdictional bar to reaching the state claim in Hurn, we assume that the doctrine of res judicata would not have been applicable in any subsequent state suit. But the citation of Baltimore S.S. Co. shows that the Court found that the weighty policies of judicial economy and fairness to parties reflected in res judicata doctrine were, in themselves, strong counsel for the adoption of a rule which would permit federal courts to dispose of the state as well as the federal claims.
left for resolution to state tribunals. There may, on the other hand, be situations in which the state claim is so closely tied to questions of federal policy that the argument for exercise of pendent jurisdiction is particularly strong. In the present case, for example, the allowable scope of the state claim implicates the federal doctrine of preemption; while this interrelationship does not create statutory federal question jurisdiction, Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Mottley, 211 U. S. 149, its existence is relevant to the exercise of discretion. Finally, there may be reasons independent of jurisdictional considerations, such a the likelihood of jury confusion in treating divergent legal theories of relief, that would justify separating state and federal claims for trial, Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 42(b). If so, jurisdiction should ordinarily be refused.
The question of power will ordinarily be resolved on the pleadings. But the issue whether pendent jurisdiction has been properly assumed is one which remains open throughout the litigation. Pretrial procedures, or even the trial itself, may reveal a substantial hegemony of state law claims, or likelihood of jury confusion, which could not have been anticipated at the pleading stage. Although it will, of course, be appropriate to take account in this circumstance of the already completed course of the litigation, dismissal of the state claim might even then be merited. For example, it may appear that the plaintiff was well aware of the nature of his proofs and the relative importance of his claims; recognition of a federal court's wide latitude to decide ancillary questions of state law does not imply that it must tolerate a litigant's effort to impose upon it what is in effect only a state law case. Once it appears that a state claim constitutes the real body of a case, to which the federal claim is only an appendage, the state claim may fairly be dismissed.
We are not prepared to say that, in the present case, the District Court exceeded its discretion in proceeding to judgment on the state claim. We may assume for purposes of decision that the District Court was correct in its holding that the claim of pressure on Grundy to terminate the employment contract was outside the purview of § 303. Even so, the § 303 claims based on secondary pressures on Grundy relative to the haulage contract and on other coal operators generally were substantial. Although § 303 limited recovery to compensatory damages based on secondary pressures, Teamsters Union v. Morton, supra, and state law allowed both compensatory and punitive damages, and allowed such damages as to both secondary and primary activity, the state and federal claims arose from the same nucleus of operative fact and reflected alternative remedies. Indeed, the verdict sheet sent in to the jury authorized only one award of damages, so that recovery could not be given separately on the federal and state claims.
contract proved as to liability, and held it failed only for lack of proof of damages. Although there was some risk of confusing the jury in joining the state and federal claims, especially since, as will be developed, differing standards of proof of UMW involvement applied -- the possibility of confusion could be lessened by employing a special verdict form, as the District Court did. Moreover, the question whether the permissible scope of the state claim was limited by the doctrine of preemption afforded a special reason for the exercise of pendent jurisdiction; the federal courts are particularly appropriate bodies for the application of preemption principles. We thus conclude that, although it may be that the District Court might, in its sound discretion, have dismissed the state claim, the circumstances show no error in refusing to do so.
This Court has consistently recognized the right of States to deal with violence and threats of violence appearing in labor disputes, sustaining a variety of remedial measures against the contention that state law was preempted by the passage of federal labor legislation. Allen-Bradley Local v. Wisconsin Board, 315 U. S. 740; United Construction Workers v. Laburnum Construction Corp., 347 U. S. 656; United Automobile Workers v. Wisconsin Board, 351 U. S. 266; Youngdahl v. Rainfair, Inc., 355 U. S. 131; United Automobile Workers v. Russell, 356 U. S. 634. Petitioner concedes the principle, but argues that the permissible scope of state remedies in this area is strictly confined to the direct consequences of such conduct, and does not include consequences resulting from associated peaceful picketing or other union activity. We agree.
"the States to grant compensation for the consequences, as defined by the traditional law of torts, of conduct marked by violence and imminent threats to the public order,"
"damages were restricted to the 'damages directly and proximately caused by wrongful conduct chargeable to the defendants . . . ' as defined by the traditional law of torts. . . . Thus, there is nothing in the measure of damages to indicate that state power was exerted to compensate for anything more than the direct consequences of the violent conduct."
of the National Labor Relations Board insofar as it enjoined peaceful picketing. . . ."
"whether a state can choose to authorize its courts to enjoin acts of picketing in themselves peaceful when they are enmeshed with contemporaneously violent conduct which is concededly outlawed,"
"acts which, in isolation, are peaceful may be part of a coercive thrust when entangled with acts of violence. The picketing in this case was set in a background of violence. In such a setting, it could justifiably be concluded that the momentum of fear generated by past violence would survive even though future picketing might be wholly peaceful."
might support the conclusion that all damages resulting from the picketing were proximately caused by its violent component or by the fear which that violence engendered. [Footnote 18] Where the consequences of peaceful and violent conduct are separable, however, it is clear that recovery may be had only for the latter.
beyond the limits to be observed in showing direct union involvement in violence.
"an unlawful conspiracy and an unlawful boycott . . . to maliciously, wantonly and willfully interfere with his contract of employment and with his contract of haulage."
"an agreement between two or more . . . to do an unlawful thing, or to do a lawful thing by unlawful means. . . . It is not essential to the existence of a conspiracy that the agreement between the conspirators be formally made between the parties at any one time, if, for example, two persons agreed to pursue an unlawful purpose or pursue a lawful purpose by unlawful means, then later a third person with knowledge of the existence of the conspiracy assents to it either impliedly or expressly and participates in it, then all three are conspirators in the same conspiracy. . . . [A]ll that is required is that each party to the conspiracy know of the existence of the conspiracy and that each agrees to assist in some manner in the furtherance of the unlawful purpose . . . or any unlawful means of accomplishing an unlawful purpose."
"[n]o award of damages can be made . . . on the basis of losses sustained . . . as a result of lawful activity upon the part of the defendant or its agents."
Such instructions do not focus the jury's attention upon violence or threats of violence as the essential predicate of any recovery it might award.
Petitioner vigorously contends that § 6 applied to the state claims in this case; that, on this record, it cannot be charged with having participated in or authorized the violence of August 15-16, and that its acts, once it learned of the violence, fell short of what would be necessary to show either ratification of the violence or any intent to build its picketing campaign upon the fears the violence engendered. We agree.
"whether § 6 should be called a rule of evidence or one that changes the substantive law of agency . . . , its purpose and effect was to relieve organizations . . . and members of those organizations from liability for damages or imputation of guilt for lawless acts done in labor disputes by some individual officers or members of the organization without clear proof that the organization or member charged with responsibility for the offense actually participated, gave prior authorization, or ratified such acts after actual knowledge of their perpetration."
undertake these tasks during the course of a lawful strike. National labor policy requires that national unions be encouraged to exercise a restraining influence on explosive strike situations, and, when they seek to do so, they should not, for these activities, be made to risk liability for such harm as may already have been done. The fact that ripples of the earlier violence may still be felt should not be permitted, and, under § 6, is not permitted, to impose such liability. Because the dispute which sparked the violence will often continue, the union will feel a responsibility to take up the dispute, as well as to curb its excesses. There can be no rigid requirement that a union affirmatively disavow such unlawful acts as may previously have occurred. Cf. ILGWU v. Labor Board, 237 F.2d 545. What is required is proof either that the union approved the violence which occurred or that it participated actively or by knowing tolerance in further acts which were, in themselves, actionable under state law or intentionally drew upon the previous violence for their force.
"I want you to keep your damn hands off of that Gray's Creek area over there, and tell that Southern Labor Union that we don't intend for you to work that mine."
go on . . . Paul was trying to bring this other union in there, and [Gilbert said] he ain't going to get by with it." A third witness reported remarks of a similar tenor. Respondent testified that fear for his own safety caused him not to visit his mine leases after the events of August 15 and 16. His foreman testified to minor acts of violence at the mine site, never connected to any person or persons.
"the impression that the threat of violence remained throughout the succeeding days and months. The night and day picketing that followed its spectacular beginning was but a guaranty and warning that like treatment would be accorded further attempts to open the Gray's Creek area. The aura of violence remained to enhance the effectiveness of the picketing. Certainly there is a threat of violence when the man who has just knocked me down my front steps continues to stand guard at my front door."
343 F.2d at 616. An "impression" is too ephemeral a product to be the result of "clear proof." As we have said, the mere fact of continued picketing at the mine site is not properly relied upon to show ratification. But even accepting the passage as a holding that "clear proof" of UMW involvement is present, we do not so read the record.
that jobs they believed had been promised to them were being given to others behind their backs. In considering the vicarious liability of the international union, accommodation must be made for that fact. The record here clearly bears the construction that the international union exerted pressure to assure that respondent would lose his present jobs and obtain no more. But the record fails to rebut petitioner's contention that it had been unwilling to see its ends accomplished through violence, and indeed had sought to control the excesses which had occurred. Since the record establishes only peaceful activities in this regard on the part of petitioner, respondent was limited to his § 303 remedy. Teamsters Union v. Morton, supra. Although our result would undoubtedly be firmer if the petitioner had assured respondent that, having assumed control of the strike, it would prevent further violence, in the circumstances of this case, the crucial fact of petitioner's participation in or ratification of the violence that occurred was not proved to the degree of certainty required by § 6.
29 U.S.C. § 187 (1964 ed.).
"(4)(i) to engage in, or to induce or encourage any individual employed by any person engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce to engage in, a strike or a refusal in the course of his employment to use, manufacture, process, transport, or otherwise, handle or work on any goods, articles, materials, or commodities or to perform any services; or (ii) to threaten, coerce, or restrain any person engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce, where in either case an object thereof is --"
"(B) forcing or requiring any person to cease using, selling, handling, transporting, or otherwise dealing in the products of any other producer, processor, or manufacturer, or to cease doing business with any other person, or forcing or requiring any other employer to recognize or bargain with a labor organization as the representative of his employees unless such labor organization has been certified as the representative of such employees under the provisions of section 159 of this title: Provided, That nothing contained in this clause (B) shall be construed to make unlawful, where not otherwise unlawful, any primary strike or primary picketing. . . ."
These events were also the subject of two proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board. In one, the Board found that Consolidated had unlawfully assisted the Southern Labor Union in violation of § 8(a)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 49 Stat. 452, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(2) (1964 ed.), Tennessee Consolidated Coal Co., 131 NLRB 536, enforcement denied sub nom. Labor Board v. Tennessee Consolidated Coal Co., 307 F.2d 374 (C.A. 6th Cir.1962). In the other, it found that Local 5881 had engaged in coercive picketing in violation of § 8(b)(1)(A), 61 Stat. 141, 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(1)(A) (1964 ed.), Local 5881, UMWA, 130 NLRB 1181. The International itself was not charged in this proceeding, and the Board's consideration focused entirely on the events of August 16.
The only testimony suggesting that Gilbert might have been at the mine site on August 15-16 was Gibbs' statement that "Well, everything happened so fast there, I'm thinking that I seen Mr. Gilbert drive up there, but where he went, I don't know." Whether such testimony could ever be sufficient to establish presence, we need not decide, since respondent effectively conceded in the Sixth Circuit and here that Gilbert was in Middlesboro when the violence occurred.
Immediately after the Board's order in the proceedings against it, note 2 supra, Consolidated reopened the mine it had closed during the spring of 1960, and hired the men of Local 5881. Later, and while this litigation was awaiting trial, that mine was closed as the result of an accident. At this point, the fall of 1962, the Gray's Creek mine was opened using members of Local 5881.
See Dukes v. Brotherhood of Painters, Local No. 47, 191 Tenn. 495, 235 S.W.2d 7 (1950); Brumley v. Chattanooga Speedway Motordrome Co., 138 Tenn. 534, 198 S.W. 775 (1917); Dale v. Temple Co., 186 Tenn. 69, 208 S.W.2d 344 (1948).
The questions had been submitted to the jury on a special verdict form. The suggested remittitur from $60,000 to $30,000 for damages on the employment contract and from $100,000 to $45,000 punitive damages was accepted by respondent. In view of our disposition, we do not reach petitioner's contentions that the verdict must be set aside in toto for prejudicial summation by respondent's counsel, or because the actual damages awarded substantially exceeded the proof, and the punitive damage award may have rested in part on the award of actual damages for interference with the haulage contract, which was vacated as unproved.
See Clark on Code Pleading 75 et seq. (1928); Clark, The Code Cause of Action, 33 Yale L.J. 817 (1924); McCaskill, Actions and Causes of Actions, 34 Yale L.J. 614 (1925); McCaskill, One Form of Civil Action, But What Procedure, for the Federal Courts, 30 Ill.L.Rev. 415 (1935); Gavit, A "Pragmatic Definition" of the "Cause of Action"? 82 U.Pa.L.Rev. 129 (1933); Clark, The Cause of Action, id. at 354 (1934); Gavit, The Cause of Action -- a Reply, id. at 695 (1934).
See also American Fire & Cas. Co. v. Finn, 341 U. S. 6, 341 U. S. 12; Musher Foundation, Inc. v. Alba Trading Co., 127 F.2d 9, 12 (C.A.2d Cir.1942) (dissenting opinion of Clark, J.).
Shulman & Jaegerman, Some Jurisdictional Limitations on Federal Procedure, 45 Yale L.J. 393, 397-410 (1936); Wechsler, Federal Jurisdiction and the Revision of the Judicial Code, 13 Law & Contemp.Prob. 216, 232 (1948); Barron & Holtzoff, Federal Practice and Procedure § 23 (1965 Supp.).
See, e.g., Fed.Rules Civ.Proc. 2, 18-20, 42.
E.g., Musher Foundation v. Alba Trading Co., supra; Note, The Evolution and Scope of the Doctrine of Pendent Jurisdiction in the Federal Courts, 62 Col.L.Rev. 1018, 1029-1030 (1962).
The question whether joined state and federal claims constitute one "case" for jurisdictional purposes is to be distinguished from the often equally difficult inquiry whether any "case" at all is presented, Gully v. First National Bank, 299 U. S. 109, although the issue whether a claim for relief qualifies as a case "arising under . . . the Laws of the United States" and the issue whether federal and state claims constitute one "case" for pendent jurisdiction purposes may often appear together, see Dann v. Studebaker-Packard Corp., 288 F.2d 201, 211-215 (C.A. 6th Cir.1961); Borak v. J. I. Case Co., 317 F.2d 838, 847-848 (C.A. 7th Cir.1963), aff'd on other grounds, 377 U. S. 377 U.S. 426.
Cf. Armstrong Co. v. Nu-Enamel Corp., 305 U. S. 315, 305 U. S. 325. Note, Problems of Parallel State and Federal Remedies, 71 Harv.L.Rev. 513, 514 (1958). While it is commonplace that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not expand the jurisdiction of federal courts, they do embody "the whole tendency of our decisions . . . to require a plaintiff to try his . . . whole case at one time," Baltimore S.S. Co. v. Phillips, supra, and, to that extent, emphasize the basis of pendent jurisdiction.
Massachusetts Universalist Convention v. Hildreth & Rogers Co., 183 F.2d 497 (C.A. 1st Cir.1950); Moynahan v. Pari-Mutuel Employees Guild, 317 F.2d 209, 211-212 (C.A. 9th Cir.1963); op. cit. supra, notes 9 and | 9 and S. 715fn11|>11.
"the limitations [on pendent. jurisdiction] are, in the wise discretion of the courts, to be fixed in individual cases by the exercise of that statesmanship which is required of any arbiter of the relations of states to nation in a federal system."
"[f]ederal courts should not be overeager to hold on to the determination of issues that might be more appropriately left to settlement in state court litigation,"
at 433. See also Wechsler, supra, note 9 at 232-233; Note, 74 Harv.L.Rev. 1660, 1661 (1961); Note, supra, note 11 at 1013-1044.
Note, supra, note 11 at 1025-1026; Wham-O-Mfg. Co. v. Paradise Mfg. Co., 327 F.2d 748, 752-754 (C.A. 9th Cir.1964).
In Teamsters Union v. Morton, supra, a similar analysis was applied to permit recovery under § 303 of damages suffered during a strike characterized by proscribed secondary activity only to the extent that the damages claimed were the proximate result of such activity; damages for associated primary strike activity could not be recovered.
It would, of course, be relevant if the Board had already intervened and, as here, note 2 supra, issued an order which permitted the continuance of peaceful picketing activity.
On the flexibility of "conspiracy" as a tort, see Original Ballet Ruse, Ltd. v. Ballet Theatre, Inc., 133 F.2d 187, 189 (C.A.2d Cir.1943); Riley v. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 195 F.2d 812 (C.A. 6th Cir.1952); Charlesworth, Conspiracy as a Ground of Liability in Tort, 36 L.Q.Rev. 38 (1920); Burdick, Conspiracy as a Crime, and as a Tort, 7 Col.L.Rev. 229 (1907); Burdick, The Tort of Conspiracy, 8 Col.L.Rev. 117 (1908). The anti-labor uses of the doctrine are well illustrated in Sayre, Labor and the Courts, 39 Yale L.J. 682, 684-687 (1930). Similar dangers are presented by the tort of malicious interference with contract, id. at 691-695, a doctrine equally young which, in its origins, required a showing of interference by force, threats, or fraud, but does so no more, Sayre, Inducing Breach of Contract, 36 Harv.L.Rev. 663 (1923); Comment, 56 Nw.U.L.Rev. 391 (1961).
". . . and here is the conspiracy. Mr. Pass [an official of petitioner's] testified, we want that contract all over this nation. That contract or better. I don't guess at that, there is his testimony. There is no deviation from that contract, Mr. Turnblazer so says, unless it is approved in Washington. They impose a nationwide contract all over this nation, all over. I don't care whether it is in Canada or West Virginia or California or Tennessee."
47 Stat. 71, 29 U.S.C. § 106 (1964 ed.).
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, § 2(13), 61 Stat. 139, 29 U.S.C. § 152(13) (1964 ed.); Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, §§ 301(e), 303(b), 61 Stat. 157, 159, 29 U.S.C. §§ 185(e), 187(b) (1964 ed.).
See, e.g., S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 21.
The fullest statement of the basis for § 6 appears in S.Rep. No. 163, 72d Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 121.
The present § 303 was introduced on the floor of the Senate by Senator Taft, in response to a more severe proposal which would have permitted injunctive relief as well as damages against secondary activity. 93 Cong.Rec. 4769-4770, 4833-4847, 4858-4875 (1947). The tenor of the opposition may be seen in those pages, and also at 93 Cong.Rec. 4765-4766 (remarks of Senator Thomas); 93 Cong.Rec. 6451-6452 (remarks of Senator Morse); 93 Cong.Rec. 6520-6521 (remarks of Senator Pepper).
The argument might be made that, if there were "clear proof" that the local union was responsible, the responsibility of the international union vis-a-vis its local would be governed by a less demanding standard than that applicable for determining the responsibility of a labor organization or its officers on the basis of the acts of "individual officers, members, or agents" of the organization. Since the local was not a party here, we have no occasion to assess this issue. Liability of the international union is premised on the acts of Gilbert and the UMW's other agents, or not at all.
"if the plaintiff carries the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence, however slight that preponderance might be, he has done all that is required of him and is entitled to a verdict."
"Before the defendant may be held responsible for the acts of its agents in entering into a conspiracy during the course of a labor dispute, there must be clear proof that the particular conspiracy charged or the act generally of that nature had been expressly authorized or necessarily followed from a granted authority by the defendant, or that such conspiracy was subsequently ratified by the defendant after actual knowledge thereof."
The phrase "clear proof," referred to just this once, was never explained. The possibility is strong that the jury either did not understand the phrase or completely overlooked it in the context of the lengthy charge given. No challenge is directly made to the charge, however, and it does not appear whether an objection was entered. Accordingly, we do not rest judgment on this point.
". . . I explained to them that the labor board was there investigating, and that certainly any mass picketing would only cause them a great deal of trouble, and instructed them that they should limit the number of their pickets, and under no circumstances have any violence or any threats of violence to any person coming into or near that area."
About six days after the violence, an earth-moving equipment salesman driving by the entrance to the mine site stopped to ask how he might get to another mine. Gilbert was present among the picketers, and gave him instructions. Gilbert told the salesman that he "couldn't get through" the road chosen, and should approach by another route; he said the salesman should tell any union men he met that he had spoken to Gilbert. A sinister cast can be put on this incident, but it shows clearly only that Gilbert was in control of the strike, and that operations unrelated to Gray's Creek were not being interfered with. It is significant that the salesman did not claim to have been stopped by force or threatened in any way; it appears he did no more than seek directions, and received no more in return.
I agree with and join in Part I of the Court's opinion relating to pendent jurisdiction. As to Part II, I refrain from joining the Court's speculations about the uses to which it may put the preemption doctrine in similar future cases. The holding in Part III that the Norris-LaGuardia Act requires reversal here seems to me correct, but my interpretation of the statute is different, and somewhat narrower, than that of the Court.
authorization of . . . [the unlawful acts], or of ratification of such acts after actual knowledge thereof. [Footnote 2/1]"
In the present case, apart from a few quite ambiguous episodes, there was nothing to bring the violence home to the union except, as the Sixth Circuit stressed (see p. 383 U. S. 741, ante), that the union continued, through its picketing, the threat that the earlier violence would be renewed, and did not repudiate the violence or promise to oppose its renewal. Whatever arguments could be made for imposing liability in such a situation, I think it approximates what the statute was designed to forbid. On this basis, I concur in the reversal.
Norris-LaGuardia Act, § 6, 47 Stat. 71, 28 U.S.C. § 106 (1964 ed.). The section is quoted in full at p. 383 U. S. 735, ante.
"'Authoriziation' has been found as a fact where the unlawful acts 'have been on such a large scale, and, in point of time and place so connected with the admitted conduct of the strike, that it is impossible on the record here to view them in any other light than as done in furtherance of a common purpose and as part of a common plan;' where the union has failed to discipline the wrongdoer; where the union has granted strike benefits."
(Footnotes omitted.) See also id., at 220-221, n. 42; United Brotherhood of Carpenters v. United States, 330 U. S. 395, 330 U. S. 418-419, and n. 2 (Frankfurther, J., dissenting).

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