Court Opinion

ID: 9599194
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:15:53.495023+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:12.202448
License: Public Domain

SHENK, J.
The appeals in these cases are by the defendants from preliminary injunction orders. The plaintiffs commenced the actions for injunctive relief against the same *414defendants to restrain picketing after the plaintiffs’ refusal to sign a tendered labor agreement on behalf of wrestlers performing in television events. Essentially similar circumstances are involved in each case. The hearing on the application for a preliminary injunction disclosed the following alleged and averred salient facts:
The plaintiffs are promoters of professional wrestling matches in Los Angeles County. They book the contestants and pay them for their activity as wrestlers. The wrestling events have been televised since April, 1950, through the offices of a telecasting corporation which pays a compensation directly to the participants for television rights. The licensing and regulation of wrestling contests are under the jurisdiction of the State Athletic Commission.
The defendant American Sportsmen Television Equity Society, Inc., herein called Television Equity or the society, is a corporation organized in this state with its principal place of business in Los Angeles County. The individual defendants, at least one of whom is a wrestler, are officers and directors of the corporation. Television Equity is not affiliated with a labor organization although an unsuccessful attempt was made to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor. The society has filed with the United States Department of Labor copies of its constitution, by-laws, and certain reports and affidavits required by the Labor-Management Relations Act, 1947. These documents are not included in the record. The society has been certificated by the National Labor Relations Board as having complied with the requirements. Forms of application for membership in Television Equity and of a labor agreement, designated as a “Code of Fair Play,” are in the record. To the plaintiffs ’ knowledge none of the booked wrestlers is a member of the organizaiton.
In September and October of 1950 the defendants asked the plaintiffs to sign the labor agreement which would require them to book only wrestlers who are or would become members of Television Equity. The plaintiffs refused the request on the ground that the society was not a bona fide labor organization. Thereupon the defendants placed or threatened to place pickets at the entrances to the arenas. The plaintiffs filed their complaints and obtained an order to show cause. The hearing was had on the verified complaints and on affidavits filed by the defendants. The appeals present for review the propriety of the action of the court pursuant to its dis*415(-.retionary power in ordering the preliminary injunction pending a hearing on the merits.
The matter of state jurisdiction is argued. Since the question of the defendants’ claimed organizational and picketing rights concerns wrestlers whose contests are televised, it is assumed that the events are in interstate commerce. This involvement is also implied in the certification by the National Labor Relations Board of the society’s compliance with requirements for the filing of reports and affidavits under the federal labor relations law. But there has not been any determination by that board of the wrestlers’ employment relation status.
Section 2 (3) of the National Labor Relations Act (July 5, 1935, 49 Stats. 449, 450, ch. 372, 29 U.S.C.A. § 152(3)), as amended by the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (61 Stats. 137) expressly excludes from coverage as an employee “any individual having the status of an independent contractor.” The plaintiffs contend that the wrestlers are independent contractors and therefore not covered by the federal law. On the other hand the defendants seek a judicial determination that the wrestlers are “employees” because they receive from the plaintiffs some instruction relating to the kind of holds and maneuvers to be used to give color to the contest.
The evidence in the record is neither clear nor conclusive that the wrestlers are employees and not independent contractors. Nor do the facts necessarily support a conclusive determination that the wrestlers have no employment relation with the plaintiffs. (Cf. National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, 322 U.S. 111 [64 S.Ct. 851, 88 L.Ed. 1170].) On the present showing the trial court was justified in coming to the tentative conclusion that the relationship falls into that characterized in the Hearst case as “entrepreneurial enterprise,” rather than into employment subject to the protections of the federal act. The present record suggests no obstruction to the free flow of commerce which would be served by employment coverage under the federal labor law. Contrary to the considerations involved in the Hearst case, the economic factors of the relation between the plaintiffs or the television corporation and the wrestlers do not bear more closely on employment than they do on independent contractual relationships. The factual problem involved because of exclusion of independent contractors from the federal act is not necessarily finally re*416solved by the issuance of the preliminary injunction. The question of the existence of the employment relationship is one which it is assumed will be determined on the trial of the action.
Assuming in accordance with the presently implied conclusion of the trial court that the wrestlersa are independent contractors, the defendants nevertheless contend that Television Equity has the right to exercise power as a labor organization and to publicize the labor interest by picketing the arenas. They rely on Bakery & P. Drivers & H., I.B.T. v. Wohl, 315 U.S. 769 [62 S.Ct. 816, 86 L.Ed. 1178] ; Riviello v. Journeyman Barbers etc. Union, 88 Cal.App.2d 499 [199 P.2d 400] ; (cf. Bautista v. Jones, 25 Cal.2d 746 [155 P.2d 343]), and similar eases.
The plaintiffs do not question the general principles involved in the cases relied upon but contend that the defendant corporation is not a bona fide labor organization, that it does not have trade union status, that there is no legitimate labor interest involved, and that a color of labor interest has been assumed for the purpose of competing with the plaintiffs for control of the television rights of wrestlers in the Los Angeles area.
The principles relied on do not preclude careful scrutiny into the bona fides of the organization and its asserted right of representation. In fact the issues tendered would seem to require the court on the trial to investigate all of the surrounding circumstances. If the jurisdictional issue is resolved by a determination that the wrestlers are independent contractors, judicial investigation of the bona fides of the defendant as a labor organization can take place only in the state forum.
The attempt to qualify as a labor organization under the federal act does not settle the question here. (See International Brotherhood, C.W. & H. Union v. Hanke, 339 U.S. 470 [70 S.Ct. 773, 94 L.Ed. 995, 13 A.L.R.2d 631] ; Building Service Emp. Intl. Union v. Gazzam, 339 U.S. 532 [70 S.Ct. 784, 94 L.Ed. 1045] ; Bautista v. Jones, supra, 25 Cal.2d 746.) As clearly pointed out-in those cases, the issues are not so much matters of constitutional right as they are problems presented to the state in the application of state policy in an endeavor to maintain peaceful labor-management equilibrium.
No simple test may be applied to determine the questions of the labor interest or of labor representation. As stated in National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publico*417tions, supra, 322 U.S. at p. 134, the wide variations in the forms of employee self-organization and the complexities of modern industrial organization make difficult the use of inflexible rules as the test.
It is contended that independent contractors in certain circumstances may not assert a right to remain unorganized. The.plaintiffs urge that the wrestlers have that right. They state that any competitive interest is for control between equal industrial combatants or lies solely within the ranks of the wrestlers on the question whether or not to unionize; that consequently no legitimate labor interest has been shown, and therefore no reasonable relation to collective bargaining has been offered by Television Equity on behalf of the wrestlers.
It appears from the defendants ’ affidavits that the purpose of Television Equity is to engage in collective bargaining concerning wages and other conditions of employment of various sports artists who engage or may be employed to appear in television programs; to advance the welfare of sports artists who appear in television programs of any nature, and to preserve their rights of self-organization and their rights to bargain collectively including rights to engage in concerted activity for that purpose.
Television Equity became an unincorporated association early in 1949 and was organized as a corporation in August, 1950. Its constitution and by-laws were filed with the Labor Department in September, 1949, and it was certificated on October 16, 1950, as having complied with report and affidavit filing requirements of the federal law. The membership application form designates Television Equity as the bargaining representative whether the purpose of bargaining relates to conditions in televised events or otherwise; but the averred corporate objectives and the contract offered to the plaintiffs concern the conditions relating to sports artists appearing in televised events. It is averred that the membership of the corporation at the time of hearing consisted of forty wrestlers working in the Los Angeles area. There is no statement as to whether the members appear in television programs.
The record justifies the inference that labor status of Television Equity has been sought to facilitate its membership organization work in the Los Angeles area by the exercise of the coercive measures. The reasonable inferences *418from the facts support a conclusion that the defendants have not yet established the labor interest and the competition with organized labor which might secure Television Equity’s position to demand recognition as the appropriate bargaining agent for televised wrestlers in the plaintiffs’ arenas. The facts so far presented indicate a serious doubt as to the existence of the elements which would support the defendants’ claim of bona fide collective bargaining agency on behalf of the wrestlers booked by the plaintiffs in televised events.  Concerted activity for an objective which is not reasonably related to any legitimate interest of organized labor may be enjoined. (Building Service Emp. Intl. Union v. Gazzam, supra, 339 U.S. 532.)  The doubt thus created supports a conclusion of the desirability to retain the status quo of the parties pending a hearing on the merits. The trial court has so concluded by the issuance of the preliminary injunction orders. It did not abuse its discretion in making that determination, nor in concluding that as between the parties the plaintiffs were more likely to be injured by a denial of the requested temporary relief than that the defendants were likely to sustain injury by the granting of the preliminary injunction. (Riviello v. Journeymen Barbers etc. Union, supra, 88 Cal.App.2d 499, 510.)
The orders are affirmed.
Edmonds, J., Schauer, J., and Spence, J., concurred.
Gibson, C. J., concurred in the judgment.