Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/315/521/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-07-21 09:05:41
Document Index: 130193872

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 6', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 6']

UNITED STATES V. TEAMSTERS LOCAL 807, 315 U. S. 521 - Volume 315 - 1942 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 315 > UNITED STATES V. TEAMSTERS LOCAL 807, 315 U. S. 521 (1942) > Full Text
This case comes here on cross-petitions for certiorari to review a judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals reversing the conviction of Local 807 and 26 individuals on charges of conspiracy to violate § 2(a), (b) and (c) of the Anti-Racketeering Act of June 18, 1934. [Footnote 1] The
"obtains or attempts to obtain, by the use of or attempt to use or threat to use force, violence, or coercion . . . the payment of wages by a bona fide employer to a bona fide employee. [Footnote 2]"
Confronted with these various interpretations, we turn for guidance to the legislative history of the statute. Pursuant to a Senate Resolution of May 8, 1933, [Footnote 3] a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce which became known as the Copeland Committee undertook an investigation of "rackets" and "racketeering" in the United States. After conducting hearings in several large cities, the committee introduced 13 bills, of which S. 2248 was one. [Footnote 4] As introduced, as reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee, [Footnote 5] and as passed without debate by the Senate, [Footnote 6] S. 2248 embodied very general prohibitions
against violence or coercion in connection with interstate commerce, and contained no specific mention of wages or labor. After the bill had passed the Senate, however, representatives of the American Federation of Labor expressed fear that the bill in its then form might result in serious injury to labor, [Footnote 7] and the measure was redrafted by officials of the Department of Justice after conferences with the President of the Federation. In the course of this revision, the bill assumed substantially the form in which it was eventually enacted. In particular, the exception concerning "the payment of wages by a bona fide employer to a bona fide employee" was added, and a proviso preserving "the rights of bona fide labor organizations" was incorporated in what became § 6 of the Act as finally passed. [Footnote 8] In its favorable reports on this revised bill, [Footnote 9] the House Committee on the Judiciary set forth without comment a letter from the Attorney General to the Committee, dated May 18, 1934. In this letter, the Attorney General informed the Committee that the draft of the substitute bill had been "definitely approved" by the President of the American Federation of Labor and his counsel. The letter continued:
The substitute was agreed to by both the House and Senate without debate when assurances were given that the approval of organized labor had been obtained. [Footnote 10] Thereafter, while the bill awaited the signature of the President, Senator Copeland submitted a report [Footnote 11] in which he referred to S. 2248 as one of eleven bills which had been enacted "to close gaps in existing Federal laws and to render more difficult the activities of predatory criminal gangs of the Kelly and Dillinger types."
This account of the legislative proceedings obviously does not provide specific definition of "wages," "bona fide employer," or "bona fide employee," as those terms are used in § 2(a). But it does contain clear declarations by the head of the Department which drafted the section and by the sponsor of the bill in Congress first, that the elimination of terroristic activities by professional gangsters was the aim of the statute, and second, that no interference with traditional labor union activities was intended.
(1) We hold that the exemption is not restricted to a defendant who has attained the status of an employee prior to the time at which he obtains or attempts or conspires to obtain the money. In the first place, we agree with the observation of the Court below that "practically always the crux of a labor dispute is who shall get the job and what the terms shall be. . . ." To exclude this entire class of disputes from the protection of the exception would be unjustifiably to thwart the purpose of Congress as we understand it. In the second place, the structure and language of § 2(a) itself is persuasive against so narrow an interpretation. It does not except "a bona fide employee who obtains or attempts to obtain the payment of wages from a bona fide employer." Rather, it excepts "any person who . . . obtains or attempts to obtain . . . the payment of wages from a bona fide employer to a bona fide employee." Certainly, an outsider who "attempts" unsuccessfully by violent means to achieve the status of an employee and to secure wages for services falls within the exception. And where, as here, the offense charged is conspiracy to violate the section, the defendants are entitled to immunity if their objective is to become bona fide employees and to obtain wages in that capacity, even though they may fail of their purpose.
(3) There remains to be considered the difficult issue which divided the court below. The whole court agreed that the payment of money to one who refuses to perform the services is not "the payment of wages by a bona fide employer to a bona fide employee" within the meaning of § 2(a); it also agreed that payments to one who has been permitted actually to perform the services do fall within the exception. But it divided over the question whether the payment of money to one whose sincere offer to work is rejected constitutes the payment of "wages" to a "bona fide employee." Since the offense charged here is conspiracy, these questions must be put somewhat differently. Thus, there is no conspiracy to violate the Act if the purpose of the defendants is actually to perform the services in return for the money, but there is a punishable conspiracy if their plan is to obtain money without doing the work. The doubtful case arises where the defendants agree to tender their services in good faith to an employer and to work if he accepts their offer, but agree further that the protection of their trade union interests requires that he should pay an amount equivalent to the prevailing union wage even if he rejects their proffered services.
We think that such an agreement is covered by the exception. The term "wages," "bona fide employee," and "bona fide employer" are susceptible of more than one meaning, and the background and legislative history of this Act require that they be broadly defined. We have expressed our belief that Congress intended to leave unaffected the ordinary activities of labor unions. The proviso in § 6 safeguarding "the rights of bona fide labor organizations in lawfully carrying out the legitimate objects thereof," although obscure indeed, strengthens us somewhat in that opinion. [Footnote 12] The test must therefore be whether the particular activity was among or is akin to labor union activities with which Congress must be taken to have been familiar when this measure was enacted. Accepting payments even where services are refused is such an activity. The Circuit Court has referred to the "standby" orchestra device, by which a union local requires that its members be substituted for visiting musicians, or, if the producer or conductor insists upon using his own musicians, that the members of the local be paid the sums which they would have earned had they performed. That similar devices are employed in other trades is well known. It is admitted here that the standby musician has a "job" even though he renders no actual service. There can be no question that he demands the payment of money regardless of the management's willingness to accept his labor. If, as it is agreed, the musician would escape punishment under this Act even though he obtained his "standby job" by force or threats, it is certainly difficult to see how a teamster could be punished for engaging in the same practice. It is not our province either to approve or disapprove such tactics. But we do believe that they are not "the activities of
"I charge you that, in order that the defendants herein may be convicted under any one of the four counts of the Anti-Racketeering indictment, you must find a conspiracy under such counts, and that, in order to sustain the charge of conspiracy under any one of the counts under the Anti-Racketeering indictment, the proof must show not only that individual defendants obtained money without rendering adequate service, but that it was the aim and object of the conspiracy that . . . [they] [Footnote 13] should obtain money without rendering adequate service therefor. "
"Provided, That no court of the United States shall construe or apply any of the provisions of this Act in such manner as to impair, diminish, or in any manner affect the rights of bona fide labor organizations in lawfully carrying out the legitimate objects thereof, as such rights are expressed in existing statutes of the United States."
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