Opinion ID: 379094
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Inspection Claim

Text: 2 Appellants sought to inspect SISA financial records to investigate suspected double payments to union officials. Their initial request did not specify the dates of the documents they sought, but a subsequent request and motion, directed to the court, stated that appellants sought financial records dating from 1970. The district court denied this request and ordered inspection only of financial records dating from January 1, 1975 to the date of trial, December 5, 1977. 3 The inspection order was justified. All that is required is that appellants show just cause for the inspection, which need be only a suspicion that would put a reasonable union member to further inquiry. Fruit and Vegetable Packers and Warehousemen Local 760 v. Morley, 378 F.2d 738, 744 (9th Cir. 1967). Wrongdoing need not be shown by a preponderance of the evidence, and the possibility of double-dipping found by the district court constitutes just cause. That finding is not clearly erroneous, and the order of inspection from 1975 to the date of trial was justified. 1 4 However, the district court refused to order inspection of pre-1975 documents on the ground that the pre-trial order had limited inspection to documents dating from January 1, 1975. This was error. The pre-trial order related only to discovery, and the documents were sought pursuant to that order for the purpose of demonstrating that just cause existed for a broader order of inspection under § 431(c). To limit relief under § 431(c) to already discovered documents erodes the remedial purposes of the statute, which operates as a check on union wrongdoing. Since appellants have demonstrated just cause for inspection by their showing of possible double payments, they were entitled to inspect SISA's financial records from 1970.