Opinion ID: 1330609
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Operative Facts

Text: The City of Fairmont as a municipal corporation operates a hospital known as the Fairmont General Hospital. Prior to the filing of the complaint on September 11, 1978, the hospital had entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, AFL-CIO, and its Local 550. This collective bargaining agreement covered a three-year period from March 2, 1977, to March 2, 1980. The employees included in the bargaining unit were non-professional maintenance employees. Included within this collective bargaining agreement was a provision that: The union agrees that for the duration of this contract it will not attempt to organize, admit to membership or represent any employees not currently included in the above bargaining unit. Sometime in August, 1978, the hospital learned that a number of its nursing staff, as well as certain other technical employees, desired to organize collectively and be represented by Local 1199 of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, which is also a member of the AFL-CIO. There was apparently some confusion on the part of the hospital as to whether Local 1199 of the Hospital and Health Care Employees was in fact representing the nurses or whether it was Local 550 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which had agreed under the collective bargaining agreement not to expand its bargaining unit. Part of this confusion was engendered by the fact that both locals had utilized the same business agent, the defendant Tom Woodruff. Correspondence and telegrams were exchanged between the hospital and Mr. Woodruff, and it was the latter's position that the nurses were being represented by Local 1199 of the Hospital and Health Care Union. Several nurses, together with Mr. Woodruff, made abortive attempts to discuss the union's representation with the hospital administrative staff and to present to the hospital management a petition signed by 156 nurses affirming their desire to have Local 1199 act as their bargaining agent. When the hospital refused to meet with nursing representatives and Mr. Woodruff, it was advised that by vote of 145 to 9 the nurses and other technical employees would on September 11, 1978, refuse to work. The involved employees offered to set up an emergency care committee; however, the hospital management declined this offer and made arrangements to close the hospital facility except for emergency and out-patient services. The work stoppage occurred on September 11, 1978, and was accompanied by informational picketing at the situs of the hospital. The picketing was peaceful and nonobstructive to other hospital employees. The hospital initially sought a temporary injunction but this was declined by the Circuit Court of Marion County. Thereafter, the case proceeded on the question of whether the hospital could collect damages as a result of the work stoppage from the various defendants, who were the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, AFL-CIO; Local 550, Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, AFL-CIO; Local 1199, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees; Tom Woodruff; Buhl Tennant; John Doe; and Jane Doe. The hospital asserted that it had a cause of action for damages based on the fact that the work stoppage constituted a tortious interference with its business relations or was a public nuisance in view of the fact that a public employees' strike is illegal. The trial court declined to give damages, holding as a matter of law that a peaceful strike by employees under the facts of this case did not give rise to a cause of action for damages. It also concluded that from a procedural standpoint the various union defendants could not be sued as entities.