Court Opinion

ID: 9695838
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:30:10.63852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:16.863930
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice
(dissenting).
I must dissent. The majority summarily disposes of this appeal involving serious constitutional questions about appellants’ right to peaceful picket by erroneously relying on one case and one statute — neither of which is applicable to this appeal. The majority, moreover, ignores Rule 1531(c) of the Pa.R.Civ.P., 12 P.S. Appendix, which states: “Any party may move at any time to dissolve an injunction.” The appellants properly moved in the lower court to dissolve an existing injunction against peaceful picketing and properly filed an appeal to this Court when their motion was denied. A complete discussion is necessary to properly understand the grievous error of the majority.
This is an appeal from a decree entered by the trial court on September 11, 1973, refusing appellants’ motion to modify or dissolve a preliminary injunction. The appellants are: (1) Building and Construction Trades Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity, (2) Thomas Magrann, Business Manager of the Council, (3) Local 30, United Slate, Tile and Composition Roofers, Damp and Waterproof Workers Association, and (4) Stephen Traitz, Business Manager of Local 30. The appellee is the Alternóse Construction Company.
This litigation began in June of 1972, when a preliminary injunction issued prohibiting the appellants from engaging in certain activity including peaceful picketing within one mile of any of the appellee’s construction sites. The trial court issued the injunction after con-*530eluding that the prohibition against peaceful picketing was justified because the appellants’ picketing had been enmeshed with acts of violence which occurred during approximately a four-month period prior to the issuance of the preliminary injunction. Appellants appealed to this Court which ordered a modification because the distance of one mile effectively eliminated appellants’ First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble in southeastern Pennsylvania. Altemose Constr. Co. v. Building & Trades Council, 449 Pa. 194, 296 A.2d 504 (1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 932, 93 S.Ct. 1901, 36 L.Ed.2d 392 (1973). Following the appeal in this Court, the trial court modified the restriction of the preliminary injunction by reducing the one mile distance to a distance of 200 yards.
In March of 1973, after the preliminary injunction had been in effect for about nine months, the appellants moved to modify or dissolve the injunction. A hearing was then held and on September 11, 1973, the trial court entered a decree refusing to modify or dissolve the injunction. This appeal followed.
The appellee has moved to quash this appeal contending that the September 11, 1973 decree is not appealable because decrees refusing to modify or dissolve prelimb nary injunctions are always interlocutory if a final hearing on the issuance of the preliminary injunction has not been held in the trial court. I do not agree.
Appellants, in moving for a modification or dissolution of the injunction, did not seek to relitigate their original claim challenging the legality of the issuance of the injunction in June of 1972. They did not contest the trial court’s original findings of fact concerning the events that occurred during the four-month period prior to the issuance of the injunction. They did not question the trial court’s original conclusions of law that appellants’ conduct prior to the issuance of the injunction justified *531the injunctive relief including the restriction placed on peaceful picketing.
Instead, the appellants’ motion raised a new claim. They alleged that their conduct, during the nine-month period after the injunction went into effect, was in compliance with the injunction, and that compliance warranted new and different legal conclusions which required a modification or dissolution of the injunction. See Milk Wagon Drivers Union of Chicago, Local 753 v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U.S. 287, 61 S.Ct. 552, 85 L.Ed. 836 (1941); Wilkes Sportswear v. Ladies’ G.W.U., 380 Pa. 164, 110 A.2d 418 (1955); Ladner v. Siegal (No. 4), 298 Pa. 487, 148 A. 699 (1930); Pa.E.Civ.P. 1531(c). Under those circumstances, there was no necessity for a final hearing on appellants’ original claim. There is no rule of law requiring a party to litigate an original claim if that party is willing to accept an adverse judicial determination already made on that particular claim. When the appellants did not succeed either in the trial court or on appeal, in their challenge to the original issuance of the preliminary injunction, they could have requested a final hearing. Their failure to do so precludes this Court at this time from reviewing their original claim, but cannot preclude appellate review of a decree denying relief on their new claim of changed circumstances.
A preliminary injunction is “preliminary” only in the sense that the party enjoined must be given another opportunity, upon request, to challenge the issuance of the injunction at a final hearing. A party enjoined after only a preliminary hearing may well decide, however, for a variety of reasons not to request a final hearing. The overwhelming persuasiveness of a judicial opinion, or the advice of counsel that further challenge would be futile, or the desire to conserve money and time are examples of factors which might well influence an enjoined party to forego the right to a final hearing. It would be unreasonable to insist that an enjoined party proceed to a final *532hearing on the original claim when the party desires to accept the adverse judicial determination made at the preliminary hearing. It would also be unreasonable to hold that a party who does not exercise one’s right to a final hearing on the original claim is therefore barred from raising a new claim based on alleged changed circumstances occurring at any time after the issuance of the original injunction.
The appellants cannot be indefinitely bound by an injunction which infringes on their constitutional rights to peaceful picketing. In the previous appeal to this Court, three members said that the 200-yard picketing restriction was unconstitutional. Altemose Const. Co. v. Building & Const. Trades Council, 449 Pa. 194, 196, 296 A.2d 504, 506 (1972) (Opinion in Support of Modification of Decree with Rejection of all Distance Restrictions and Reverse of Contempt Judgments). Three members said that the 200-yard restriction was constitutional because of a “momentum of fear generated by past violence.” Id. at 208, 296 A.2d at 512 (Opinion in Support of Affirmance of Decree at No. 31 with Modification and of Reversal of Judgments of Contempt at No. 40). Surely, the 200-yard restriction must fall if and when the appellants are able to show changed circumstances. In Wilkes Sportswear v. International Ladies' G.W.U., 380 Pa. 164, 170, 110 A.2d 418, 421 (1955), we said:
“In Milk Wagon Drivers Union of Chicago, Local 753, v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U.S. 287, 298, 61 S.Ct. 552, 557, 85 L.Ed. 836 the court said: ‘The injunction which we sustain is “permanent” only for the temporary period for which it may last. It is justified only by the violence that induced it and only so long as it counteracts a continuing intimidation. Familiar equity procedure assures opportunity for modifying or vacating an injunction when its continuance is no longer warranted.’ In Ladner v. Siegal (No. 4), 298 Pa. 487, 496, 148 A. 699, 702, 68 A.L.R. 1172, it was *533said: ‘ “The court which rendered a decree for an injunction may * * * open, vacate or modify the same where the circumstances and situation of the parties are shown to have so changed as to make it just and equitable to do so” ’. And again, 298 Pa. at page 500, 148 A. at page 703: ‘A decree protecting a property right is given subject to the rules governing modification, suspension, or dissolution of an injunction. The decree is an ambulatory one and marches along with time affected by the nature of the proceeding.’ ”
(Emphasis added.)
In Pappas v. Local Joint Executive Board, 374 Pa. 34, 37, 96 A.2d 915, 917 (1953), we said:
“Defendant is entitled to a dissolution of the injunction. In Tamagno v. Waiters and Waitresses Union, Local No. 301, recently decided, 373 Pa. 457, 96 A.2d 145, we held, under the circumstances there present, that the court erred in not dissolving an injunction which had been entered two years before. We pointed out, citing Ladner v. Siegel (No. 4), 298 Pa. 487, 500, 148 A. 699, 703, 68 A.L.R. 1172, and Milk Wagon Drivers Union of Chicago, Local 753, v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U.S. 287, 298, 61 S.Ct. 552, 85 L.Ed. 836, that an injunctive decree does not give to the complaining party a perpetual or vested right therein, that such a decree is an ambulatory one which is affected by the march of time and the nature of the proceeding, and that an injunction against picketing because of its being attended by violence is justified solely by reason of that fact and only so long as it counteracts a continuing intimidation. The controlling question is whether there is any reasonable ground to believe that the illegal practices which led to the original entry of the injunction will be repeated if the injunction be dissolved. In the present instance there would not seem to be any basis whatever for such apprehension. The *534parties have agreed, and the court below found, that from the time the final decree was entered in 1944 until the present neither the defendant nor any of its affiliated unions have engaged in any disorder, acts of violence, or threats thereof, have attempted to coerce plaintiffs into requiring their employes to become members of a union, have made any demands upon plaintiffs as to conditions of employment or to represent their employes, or have presented any contract for a collective bargaining agreement with respect to such conditions or representation.”
(Emphasis added.)
Appellate review must be permitted when the party enjoined claims that changed circumstances require the dissolution or modification of an injunction, and a decree is entered denying relief. Such a decree effectively puts the party out of court on the new and present claim and is therefor appealable. See Goldman v. McShain, 432 Pa. 61, 247 A.2d 455 (1968); Posternack v. American Casualty Company of Reading, 421 Pa. 21, 218 A.2d 350 (1966).
We should therefore deny the appellee’s motion to quash this appeal. On the present record, however, we are unable to consider the merits of the trial court’s decree refusing to modify or dissolve the injunction. That decree was not accompanied by an adjudication containing a statement of the issues, findings of fact, a discussion of the questions of law, conclusions of law, or a decree nisi. See Pa.R.Civ.P. 1517. See also Pa.R.Civ.P. 1516, 1518-1519. The matter should therefore be remanded for compliance with the Rules of Civil Procedure. Meaningful appellate review will then be possible.
The decree below should be vacated, and the record remanded with instructions that the trial court prepare an adjudication in conformity with Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure 1516-1517. The parties then, if they so choose, may proceed in conformity with rules 1518-1519. *535See Community Sports, Inc. v. Oakland Oaks, 429 Pa. 412, 240 A.2d 491 (1968).
EAGEN and ROBERTS, JJ., join in this dissenting opinion.