Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/320/320mass467.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 10:39:27+00:00

Document:
SAINT LUKE'S HOSPITAL vs. LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION & others.
A suit in equity brought by an employer under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231A, inserted by St. 1945, c. 582, Section 1, for a declaratory decree determining the jurisdiction of the labor relations commission to entertain a certain certification proceeding under c. 150A might be maintained where, although the suit was commenced while the certification proceeding was pending before the commission, the commission, by consenting to the suit being heard upon the pleadings and a statement of agreed facts, submitted the question of jurisdiction to the court.
Neither a hospital conducted as a nonprofit organization and public charity, nor its nonprofessional employees doing manual labor in its maintenance and operation were engaged in "industry and trade," and they were not within the scope of the State labor relations act, G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 150A.
BILL IN EQUITY, filed in the Superior Court on February 6, 1946.
The case was reserved and reported by Swift, J.
J. W. Cussen, (C. J. Dunn with him,) for the plaintiff.
L. E. Crowley, for the defendants.
J. F. Dunn, Jr., by leave of court, submitted a brief as amicus curiae.
RONAN, J. A trade union, known as the Laundry Workers, Dry Cleaners and Miscellaneous Workers of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, filed a petition under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 150A, inserted by St. 1938, c. 345, Section 2, as amended, with the labor relations commission seeking certification as the collective bargaining agency of certain nonprofessional employees of Saint Luke's Hospital. A hearing was held on this petition, at which the hospital was represented and moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that the commission had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition. Before the commission had made any decision on this motion, the hospital filed the present proceedings in the Superior Court against the commission and the union for a declaratory decree in accordance with G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231A, inserted by St. 1945, c. 582, Section 1, adjudging that the commission had no jurisdiction to hear the petition for certification. A preliminary injunction was issued restraining the commission from taking any further action in the certification proceedings. The commission appealed from the interlocutory decree granting the injunction. The case was then heard upon the pleadings and a statement of agreed facts, and the judge, without making any decision, reserved and reported the case.
the hospital. Treatment and care of recipients of city welfare are paid for by New Bedford at a rate less than the regular charge. The Federal government pays for services provided for Federal patients.
The union sought certification as the bargaining agent of one hundred twenty-five employees, including laundry workers, maids, porters, machinists, yard help, watchmen, storemen, waitresses, page girls, kitchen and cafeteria help, and orderlies.
Corp. 303 U.S. 41. Scripps Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. California Employment Commission, 24 Cal. (2d) 669. Idaho Mutual Benefit Association, Inc. v. Robison, 65 Idaho, 793. Craig v. Kansas State Labor Commissioner, 154 Kans. 691. Universal Realty Corp. Inc. v. Felser, 179 Md. 635. Johnson v. Pratt, 200 S. C. 315. Provo City v. Claudin, 91 Utah, 60. Knestis v. Unemployment Compensation & Placement Division, 16 Wash. (2d) 577.
the commission. Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad v. County Commissioners of Franklin, 10 Cush. 12. Connecticut River Railroad v. County Commissioners of Franklin, 127 Mass. 50. Chandler v. Railroad Commissioners, 141 Mass. 208. Hathaway Bakeries, Inc. v. Labor Relations Commission, 316 Mass. 136. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. New York, 276 N. Y. 198. Bank of Yorktown v. Boland, 280 N. Y. 673. Bee Hive Mining Co. v. Industrial Commission, 144 Va. 240. Long Flame Coal Co. v. State Compensation Commissioner, 111 W. Va. 409.
We now pass to the only question of substantive law presented by the record and consider whether the hospital comes within the sweep of the State labor relations act. The policy of that act, as already intimated, is the promotion of peace and the prevention of strikes in order that there may be no obstructions to the free flow of industry and trade. Various sections of the act establish the means that are to be utilized to accomplish this general purpose. The act, however, does not include all employees working in this Commonwealth, apart from those covered by acts of Congress, any more than does the national labor relations act, U.S.C. (1940 ed.) Title 29, Section 151, et seq., include any except those engaged in pursuits where a strike would affect interstate commerce. Alabama State Federation of Labor v. McAdory, 325 U.S. 450, 464. Our act impliedly excludes from the commission jurisdiction over matters not affecting industry and trade. Indeed, Section 5 (c) of our act, under which the application for certification was filed by the union, provides that "Whenever a question affecting industry and trade arises concerning the representation of employees, the commission may investigate such controversy and certify to the parties, in writing, the name or names of the representatives who have been designated or selected." To come within the ambit of the authority of the commission the selection of a bargaining representative must be connected with and related to industry and trade.
for its support and maintenance upon the fees of patients and gifts and donations and cares for recipients of public welfare sent to it by the city at reduced rates and is conducted in the interests of the general public and strictly as a nonprofit organization, is a public charity. McDonald v. Massachusetts General Hospital, 120 Mass. 432. New England Sanitarium v. Stoneham, 205 Mass. 335, 342. Roosen v. Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 235 Mass. 66. Such a hospital is not conducting a business or commercial enterprise. It is not engaged in industry and trade. Northwestern Hospital of Minneapolis v. Public Building Service Employes' Union Local No. 113, 208 Minn. 389. Western Pennsylvania Hospital v. Lichliter, 340 Penn. St. 382. The agreed facts show that the sole activity of the plaintiff is the maintenance of its hospital, and the services of its non-professional employees, for whom the union seeks certification as their bargaining agency, are directed to the maintenance of the hospital itself. We need not consider what the relationship of the hospital to industry and trade would be if it were engaged in commercial undertakings, as the care and letting of realty or the conduct of a mercantile establishment, for the benefit of the hospital and employed persons in such undertakings. Holder v. Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 211 Mass. 370. McKay v. Morgan Memorial Cooperative Industries & Stores, Inc. 272 Mass. 121.
as a whole, and the question is not whether a hospital is expressly exempted but whether a hospital comes within the sweep of the chapter in the light of its declared underlying and predominant aim and object. Universal Machine Co. v. Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, 301 Mass. 40. Commissioner of Corporations & Taxation v. Baker, 303 Mass. 606. Hinckley v. Retirement Board of Gloucester, 316 Mass. 496. In passing it might be noted that the express exemption of the Commonwealth and cities and towns might have been inserted to free them from being affected by the chapter because of such operations, commercial in character, as the distribution and sale of water, electricity and gas. An interruption of these services might substantially affect industry and trade.
wages in such volume as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for such goods in industry or trade." Section 1. A strike would not affect industry or trade in any of the four ways mentioned in Section 1, which defines the policy of the act. The policy limits the scope of the act and clearly shows that a hospital which is organized and conducted as a public charitable institution is not covered by the act. This conclusion is in accord with Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn v. Doe, 252 App. Div. (N. Y.) 581, Western Pennsylvania Hospital v. Lichliter, 340 Penn. St. 382, and Salvation Army Case, 349 Penn. St. 105. See Pagel v. Trinity Hospital Association, 72 N. D. 262. Compare Northwestern Hospital of Minneapolis v. Public Building Service Employes' Union Local No. 113, 208 Minn. 389, where the statute appears much broader than our own; Wisconsin Employment Relations Board v. Evangelical Deaconess Society of Wisconsin, 242 Wis. 78, where the application of the statute did not appear to be limited to trade; Jordan v. Tashiro, 278 U.S. 123; American Medical Association v. United States, 317 U.S. 519; National Labor Relations Board v. Central Dispensary & Emergency Hospital, 145 Fed. (2d) 852, where the sale of hospital facilities and services to individuals as a business was considered and discussed.
It follows that the interlocutory decree granting the injunction must be affirmed, and that a final decree must be entered adjudging that the hospital and its nonprofessional employees engaged in duties necessary for the maintenance and operation of the hospital are not within the provisions of the State labor relations act.

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