Opinion ID: 309634
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Initial Validity of the Trusteeship

Text: 18 Our discussion in Part II illustrates that there was in fact no reason to permit the International to impose a trusteeship on the Local. This issue of the initial validity of the trusteeship is important in this case because the Local is asking that its vote to disaffiliate from the International be held valid and that the International be assessed damages for the harm done the Local as a consequence of the trusteeship. If the trusteeship was unlawfully imposed, it could have no effect upon the validity of the disaffiliation election. The Local should also be permitted to recover whatever monetary damages it suffered due to the wrongful imposition of the trusteeship. 19 Most obviously, the imposition of the trusteeship would be invalid if at the time of the imposition there was no rational basis for the International's belief that democratic procedures were in jeopardy. Under the circumstances as they appeared at the time, the International's assertion that democratic procedures in the Local were endangered appears more as an afterthought justifying abrupt and arbitrary action taken. While the letter informing the supervisory personnel of their ineligibility to vote might have led the International to conclude that some of its members might eventually be expelled from the Local without any valid justification derived from NLRB action, yet the letter clearly invited response from the supervisors affected. The implicit promise of further consideration by the Local hardly provided a legal justification for the precipitate takeover by the International through the frequently abused device of a trusteeship. The purported apprehensions of the International have been shown to be legally incorrect; on this ground alone the establishment of a trusteeship by the International would have been invalid, but to our mind an even stronger reason exists for invalidating the trusteeship.