Court Opinion

ID: 9421632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:59:08.323216+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:31.475469
License: Public Domain

*647Me. Chief Justice Warren,
with whom
Mr. Justice Douglas joins, dissenting.
The issue in this case is whether the Taft-Hartley Act has pre-empted a State’s power to assess compensatory and punitive damages against a union for denying a worker access to a plant during an economic strike — conduct that the Federal Act subjects to correction as an unfair labor practice under §8 (b)(1)(A). If Congress had specifically provided that the States were without power to award damages under such circumstances, or if it had expressly sanctioned such redress in the state courts, our course of action would be clear. Because Congress did not in specific words make its will manifest, International Union v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 336 U. S. 245, 252, we must be guided by what is consistent with the scheme of regulation that Congress has established.
It is clear from the legislative history of the Taft-Hartley Act that in subjecting certain conduct to regulation as an unfair labor practice Congress had no intention of impairing a State’s traditional powers to punish or in some instances prevent that same conduct when it was offensive to what a leading case termed “such traditionally local matters as public safety and order and the use of streets and highways.” Allen-Bradley Local v. Wisconsin Board, 315 U. S. 740, 749. Both proponents and critics of the measure conceded that certain unfair labor practices would include acts “constituting violation of the law of the State,” 1 “illegal under State law,” 2 “punishable under State and local police law,” 3 or acts of such nature that “the main remedy for such conditions is prosecution under State law and better local law enforce*648ment.”4 It was this role of state law that the lawmakers referred to when they conceded that there would be “two remedies”5 for a violent unfair labor practice. For example, when Senator Taft was explaining to the Senate the import of the § 8 (b) (1) (A) unfair labor practice, he responded in this manner to a suggestion that it would “result in duplication of some of the State laws”:
“I may say further that one of the arguments has suggested that in case this provision covered violence it duplicated State law. I wish to point out that the provisions agreed to by the committee covering unfair labor practices on the part of labor unions also might duplicate to some extent that State law. Secondary boycotts, jurisdictional strikes, and so forth, may involve some violation of State law respecting violence which may he criminal, and so to some extent the measure may be duplicating the remedy existing under State law. But that, in my opinion, is no valid argument.” 6 (Emphasis added.)
This frequent reference to a State’s continuing power to prescribe criminal punishments for conduct defined as an unfair labor practice by the Federal Act is in sharp contrast to the absence of any reference to a State’s power to award damages for that conduct.
In the absence of a reliable indication of congressional intent, the Court should be guided by principles that lead to a result consistent with the legislative will. It is clear that the States may not take action that fetters the exercise of rights protected by the Federal Act, Hill v. Florida, 325 U. S. 538, or constitutes a counterpart to its regulatory scheme, International Union of United Automobile *649Workers v. O’Brien, 339 U. S. 454, or duplicates its remedies, Garner v. Teamsters Union, 346 U. S. 485. The Court must determine whether the state law “stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.” Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U. S. 52, 67. If the state action would frustrate the policies expressed or- implied in the Federal Act, then it must fall. The state action here — a judgment requiring a certified bargaining representative to pay punitive and compensatory damages to a non-striker who lost wages when striking union members denied him access to the plant — must be tested against that standard.
Petitioners do not deny the State’s power to award damages against individuals or against a union for physical injuries inflicted in the course of conduct regulated under the Federal Act.7 The majority’s illustration involving facts of that sort is therefore beside the point. But the power to award damages for personal injuries does not necessarily imply a like power for other forms of monetary loss. The unprovoked infliction of personal injuries during a period of labor unrest is neither to be expected nor to be justified, but economic loss inevitably attends work stoppages. Furthermore, damages for personal injuries may be assessed without regard to the merits of the labor controversy, but in order to determine the cause and fix the responsibility for economic loss a court must consider the whole background and status of the dispute. As a consequence, precedents or examples involving personal injuries are inapposite when the problem is whether a state court may award damages for *650economic loss sustained from conduct regulated by the Federal Act.
The majority assumes for the purpose of argument that the Board had authority to compensate for the loss of wages involved here. If so, then the remedy the state court has afforded duplicates the remedy provided in the Federal Act and is subject to the objections voiced in my dissent in International Association of Machinists v. Gonzales, ante, p. 617, decided this day. But I find it unnecessary to rely upon any particular construction of the Board's remedial authority under § 10 (c) of the Act. In my view, this is a case in which the State is without power to assess damages whether or not like relief is available under the Federal Act. Even if we assume that the Board had no authority to award respondent back pay in the circumstances of this case, the existence of such a gap in the remedial scheme of federal legislation is no license for the States to fashion correctives. Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board, 353 U. S. 1. The Federal Act represents an attempt to balance the competing interests of employee, union and management. By providing additional remedies the States may upset that balance as effectively as by frustrating or duplicating existing ones.
State-court damage awards such as those in the instant case should be reversed because of the impact they will have on the purposes and objectives of the Federal Act. The first objection is the want of uniformity this introduces into labor regulation. Unquestionably the Federal Act sought to create a uniform scheme of national labor regulation. By approving a state-court damage award for conduct regulated by the Taft-Hartley Act, the majority assures that the consequences of violating the Federal Act will vary from State to State with the availability and constituent elements of a given right of action *651and the procedures and rules of evidence essential to its vindication. The matter of punitive damages is an example, though by no means the only one. Several States have outlawed or severely restricted such recoveries.8 Those States where the recovery is still available entertain wide differences of opinion on the end sought to be served by the exaction and the conditions and terms on which it is to be imposed.9
The multitude of tribunals that take part in imposing damages also has an unfavorable effect upon the uniformity the Act sought to achieve. Especially is this so when the plaintiff is seeking punitive or other damages for which the measure of recovery is vague or nonexistent. Differing attitudes toward labor organizations will inevitably be given expression in verdicts returned by jurors in various localities. The provincialism this will engender in labor regulation is in direct opposition to the care Congress took in providing a single body of nationwide jurisdiction to administer its code of labor regulation. Because of these inescapable differences in the content and application of the various state laws, the majority’s decision assures that the consequences of engaging in an unfair labor practice will vary from State to State. That is inconsistent with a basic purpose of the Federal Act.
*652The scant attention the majority pays to the large proportion of punitive damages in plaintiff’s judgment10 cannot disguise the serious problem posed by that recovery.11 The element of deterrence inherent in the imposition or availability of punitive damages for conduct that is an unfair labor practice ordinarily makes such a recovery repugnant to the Federal Act. The prospect of such liability on the part of a union for the action of its members in the course of concerted activities will inevitably influence the conduct of labor disputes. There is a very real prospect of staggering punitive damages accumulated through successive actions by parties injured by members who have succumbed to the emotion that frequently accompanies concerted activities during labor unrest. This threat could render even those activities protected by the Federal Act too risky to undertake. Must we assume that the employer who resorts to a lockout is also subject to a succession of punitive recoveries at the hands of his employees? By its deterrent effect the imposition or availability of punitive damages serves a regulatory purpose paralleling that of the Federal Act. It is precisely such an influence on the sensitive area of labor *653relations that the pre-emption doctrines are designed to avoid.
There are other vices in the punitive recovery. A principal purpose of the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts is to promote industrial peace.12 Consistent with that aim Congress created tribunals, procedures and remedies calculated to bring labor disputes to a speedy conclusion. Because the availability of a state damage action discourages resort to the curative features of the pertinent federal labor law, it conflicts with the aims of that legislation. In a case such as the present one, for example, the plaintiff is unlikely to seek a cease-and-desist order, which would quickly terminate the § 8 (b) (1) (A) unfair labor practice, if he is assured compensatory damages and has the prospect of a lucrative punitive recovery as well.
In Alabama, as in many other jurisdictions, the theory of punitive damages is at variance with the curative aims of the Federal Act. The jury in this case was instructed that if it found that the defendant was “actuated by ill-will” it might award “smart money” (punitive damages) “for the purpose of making the defendant smart . . . .” 13 The parties to labor controversies have enough devices for making one another “smart” without this Court putting its stamp of approval upon another. I can conceive of nothing more disruptive of congenial labor relations than arming employee, union and management with the potential for “smarting” one another with exemplary damages. Even without the punitive element, a damage action has an unfavorable effect on the climate of labor relations. Each new step in the proceedings rekindles the animosity. Until final judgment the action is a constant source of friction between the parties. In the present case, for example, it has been *654nearly six years since the complaint was filed. The numerous other actions awaiting outcome of this case portend more years of bitterness before the courts can conclude what a Board cease-and-desist order might have settled in a week. As the dissent warned in United Constr. Workers v. Laburnum Constr. Corp., 347 U. S. 656, 671, a state-court damage action for conduct that constitutes an unfair labor practice “drags on and on in the courts, keeping old wounds open, and robbing the administrative remedy of the healing effects it was intended to have.”
The majority places its principal reliance upon United Constr. Workers v. Laburnum Constr. Corp., supra. I joined in that decision, but my understanding of the case differs from that of the majority here. That case was an action by an employer against a stranger union for damages for interference with contractual relations. While engaged in construction work on certain mining properties the plaintiff employer had used AFL laborers pursuant to its collective bargaining contract. A field representative of the United Construction Workers, an affiliate of the United Mine Workers, informed plaintiff’s foreman that he was working in “Mine Workers territory,” and demanded that his union be recognized as the sole bargaining agent for the employees. Otherwise, he threatened, the United Construction Workers would “close down” all of the work. At the time of this ultimatum not a single worker in Laburnum’s employ belonged to the stranger union. Plaintiff refused. A few days later the union representative appeared at the job site with a “rough, boisterous crowd” variously estimated from 40 to 150 men. Some were drunk. Some carried guns and knives. Plaintiff’s employees were informed that they would have to join the United Construction Workers or “we will kick you out of here.” A few workers yielded to the mob. Those who refused were *655subjected to a course of threats and intimidation until they were afraid to proceed with their work. As a consequence, the employer was compelled to discontinue his work on the contract and it was lost. The employer sued the United Construction Workers for the profits lost by this interference, recovering compensatory and punitive damages.14 This Court affirmed.
There are at least three crucial differences between this case and Laburnum. First, in this case the plaintiff is seeking damages for an interference with his right to work during a strike. Since the right to refrain from concerted activities is protected by § 7 of the Act, a § 8 (b)(1)(A) unfair labor practice is inherent in the wrong of which plaintiff complains, and the Federal Act offers machinery to correct it. The § 8 (b)(1) (A) unfair labor practice in Laburnum, on the other hand, was involved only fortuitously. Damages were awarded for interference with the contractual relationship between the employer and the parties for whom the construction work was being performed. The means defendants chose to effect that interference happened to constitute an unfair labor practice, but the same tort might have been committed by a variety of means in no way offensive to the Federal Act. Laburnum simply holds that a tortfeasor should not be allowed to immunize himself from liability for a wrong having no relation to federal law simply because the means he adopts to effect the wrong transgress a comprehensive code of federal regulation. The availability of state-court damage relief may discourage the employer from invoking the remedies of the Federal Act on behalf of his employees.15 *656But that effect may be tolerated since the employer's interest is at most derivative, and there will be nothing to dissuade the employees, who are more directly concerned, from using the federal machinery to correct the interference with their protected activity.
Second, the defendant in this case is the certified bargaining agent of employees at the plant where plaintiff is employed, and the wrong involved was committed in the course of picketing incident to an economic strike to enforce wage demands. Thus, the controversy grows out of what might be called an ordinary labor dispute. Continued relations may be expected between the parties to this litigation. The defendant in Laburnum, on the other hand, was a total stranger to the employer’s collective bargaining contract, and could claim the membership of not a single worker. There was no prospect of a continuing relationship between the parties to the suit, and no need for concern over the climate of labor relations that an action might impair. The defendant was attempting to coerce Laburnum’s employees, either by direct threats or employer pressures, to join its ranks. Such predatory forays are disfavored when undertaken by peaceful picketing, and even more so when unions engage in the crude violence used in Laburnum.
Finally, the effect of punitive damages in cases such as the present one is entirely different from that which results from the recovery sanctioned in Laburnum. Since the wrong in Laburnum was committed against an employer, the damages exacted there were probably the extent of the defendant’s liability for that particular conduct. Where it is employees who have been wronged, however, there may be dozens of actions for the same conduct, each with its own demand for punitive damages. In the instant case, for example, Russell is only one of thirty employees who have filed suits against the union for the same conduct, all of them claiming sub*657stantial punitive damages.16 Whatever the law in other States, Alabama seems to hold to the view that evidence of a previous punitive recovery is inadmissible as a defense in a subsequent action claiming punitive damages for the *658same conduct.17 Thus, the defendant union may be held for a whole series of punitive as well as compensatory recoveries. The damages claimed in the pending actions total $1,500,000, and to the prospect of liability for a fraction of that amount may be added the certainty of large legal expenses entailed in defending the suits. By reason of vicarious liability for its members’ ill-advised conduct on the picket lines, the union is to be subjected to a series of judgments that may and probably will reduce it to bankruptcy, or at the very least deprive it of the means necessary to perform its role as bargaining agent of the employees it represents. To approve that risk is to exact a result Laburnum does not require.
*659From the foregoing I conclude that the Laburnum case, to which the majority attributes such extravagant proportions, is not controlling here. In my judgment, the effect of allowing the state courts to award compensation and fix penalties for this and similar conduct will upset the pattern of rights and remedies established by Congress and will frustrate the very policies the Federal Act seeks to implement. The prospect of that result impels me to dissent.

 93 Cong. Rec. 4024.

 S. Rep. No. 105 on S. 1126, Supp. Views, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 50.

 93 Cong. Rec. 4019.

 93 Cong. Rec. 4432.

 E. g., 93 Cong. Rec. 4024.

 93 Cong. Rec. 4437.

 See Hall v. Walters, 226 S. C. 430, 85 S. E. 2d 729, cert, denied, 349 U. S. 953; McDaniel v. Textile Workers, 36 Tenn. App. 236, 254 S. W. 2d 1.

 Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Washington allow no such recovery. Indiana forbids it when the conduct is also punishable criminally. Connecticut limits the recovery to the expenses of litigation. McCormick, Damages, § 78. Note, 70 Harv. L. Rev. 517.

 Some States regard the damages as extra compensation for injured feelings. In most jurisdictions the recovery is calculated to punish and deter rather than compensate, though some States permit the jury to consider the plaintiff's costs of litigation. In most state courts a principal must answer if the wrongful conduct was within the general scope of the agent’s authority. This list of differences is not exhaustive. McCormick, §§ 78-85. Note, 70 Harv. L. Rev. 517.

 Plaintiff’s wages were approximately $100 per week and he was out of work five weeks. Therefore, about $9,500 of his $10,000 verdict represents punitive damages and damages for “mental pain and anguish.”

 Republic Steel Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 311 U. S. 7, is not authority for the majority’s holding on punitive damages. That case held that the Board overstepped the remedial authority conferred by § 10 (c) of the Wagner Act when it required an employer to reimburse the Work Projects Administration for wages paid wrongfully discharged employees subsequently employed on WPA projects. The Court said this payment was in the nature of a penalty and concluded that the Act conferred no authority on the Board to exact such a penalty. There was no question of pre-emption and no discussion directed at whether an award of punitive damages by a State would be consistent with the Federal Act.

 29 U. S. C. §§ 141, 151.

 R. 632.

 194 Va. 872, 75 S. E. 2d 694.

 It is clear that the employer in Laburnum could have invoked the investigative and preventive machinery of the Board. An unfair labor practice charge may be filed by “any person.” 29 CFR, 1955 Cum. Supp., § 102.9. Local Union No. 25 v. New York, New Haven & H. R. Co., 350 17. S. 155, 160.

 Petitioner has supplied the Court with the following list of those cases. All are held in abeyance pending decision of the instant case. Unless otherwise noted each action is in the Circuit Court of Morgan County, Alabama. The amount shown is the total damages asked, which is composed of a relatively insubstantial loss-of-wages claim and a balance of punitive damages. Petitioners’ Appendices, pp. 7a-9a.
1. Burl McLemore v. United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, AFL-CIO, et al., #6150, $50,000. Verdict and judgment of $8,000. New trial granted because of improper argument of plaintiff’s counsel. 264 Ala. 538, 88 So. 2d 170.
2. James W. Thompson v. Same, #6151, $50,000. Appeal from $10,000 verdict and judgment pending in Supreme Court of Alabama.
3. N. A. Palmer v. Same, #6152, $50,000. Appeal from $18,450 verdict and judgment pending in Supreme Court of Alabama.
4. Lloyd E. McAbee v. Same, #6153, $50,000.
5. Tommie F. Breeding v. Same, #6154, $50,000.
6. David G. Puckett v. Same, #6155, $50,000.
7. Comer T. Junkins v. Same, #6156, $50,000.
8. Joseph E. Richardson v. Same, #6157, $50,000.
9. Cois E. Woodard v. Same, #6158, $50,000.
10. Millard E. Green v. Same, #6159, $50,000.
11. James C. Hughes v. Same, #6160, $50,000.
12. James C. Dillehay v. Same, #6161, $50,000. ‘
13. James T. Kirby v. Same, #6162, $50,000.
14. Cloyce Frost v. Same, #6163, $50,000.
15. E. L. Thompson, Jr. v. Same, #6164, $50,000.
16. J. A. Glasscock, Jr. v. Same, #6165, $50,000.
17. Hoyt T. Penn v. Same, #6166, $50,000.
18. Spencer Weinman v. Same, #6167, $50,000.
19. Joseph J. Hightower v. Same, #6168, $50,000.
20. A. A. Kilpatrick v. Same, #6169, $50,000.
21. Charles E. Kirk v. Same, #6170, $50,000.
22. Richard W. Penn v. Same, #6171, $50,000.
23. Robert C. Russell v. Same, #6172, $50,000.
*65824. T. H. Abercrombie v. Same, #6173, $50,000.
25. James H. Tanner v. Same, #6174, $50,000.
26. Charles E. Carroll v. Same, #6175, $50,000.
27. Ordell T. Garvey v. Same, #6176, $50,000.
28. A. B. Barran v. Same, #6177, $50,000.
29. Russell L. Woodard v. Same, #6178, $50,000.

 Alabama Power Co. v. Goodwin, 210 Ala. 657, 99 So. 158. That was an action by a passenger against a streetcar company for injuries sustained in a collision. As a defense to a count for punitive damages, the defendant sought to show that punitive damages had already been awarded against it in another suit growing out of the same collision. The court held that the evidence was properly excluded, for “in its civil aspects the single act or omission forms as many distinct and unrelated wrongs as there are individuals injured by it.” 210 Ala., at 658-659, 99 So., at 160. While conceding the logical relevancy of a previous recovery, the court felt that the rule of exclusion was the better rule since it would prevent the introduction of such collateral issues as whether and to what extent punitive damages had been included in a previous verdict. This rule of exclusion was applied in Southern R. Co. v. Sherrill, 232 Ala. 184, 167 So. 731. Cf. McCormick, Damages, § 82, and 2 Sutherland, Damages (4th ed. 1916), §402, discussing the majority rule that evidence of prior criminal punishment is inadmissible in an action for punitive damages for the same misfeasance.