Court Opinion

ID: 9650639
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:47:37.559683+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:21:24.203141
License: Public Domain

MAJOR, Circuit Judge,
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I concur in the opinion, except as to Par. 1 of the order which, in my judgment, should be modified. It is to be noted that ■the language of this paragraph is identical with that stricken down by the Supreme Court in the Express Publishing Company case. If there be any plausibility in the reasoning of the majority, it is in the distinction sought to be made between the facts of that case and the instant one. The principle is not distinguishable.
The fallacy of the majority holding is best exemplified by appraising the result which follows approval of the paragraph in dispute. It undoubtedly means that respondent is enjoined from the commission of every conceivable act violative of Section 7. Thus, the entire category of unfair labor practices, not only those specifically enumerated in' Section 8 but all others as well, is included. The language of the Supreme Court immediately following that quoted by the majority is more pertinent to the instant situation. The court said (312 U.S. at page 435, 61 S.Ct. at page 699, 85 L.Ed. 930): “But the mere fact that a court has found that a defendant has committed an act in violation of a statute does not justify an injunction broadly to obey the statute and thus subject .the defendant to contempt proceedings if he shall at any time in the future commit some new violation unlike and unrelated to that with which he was originally charged. This Court will strike from an injunction decree restraints upon the commission of unlawful acts which are thus dissociated from those which a defendant has committed.”
The fact that respondent was found guilty of interference, intimidation and coercion is no answer to this broad pronouncement where, as in the instant situation, the interference charged and found was as stated in the Board’s brief, “a course of conduct to sway the result of a Board directed election.” Notwithstanding the specific nature of the interference in issue, respondent is to be enjoined from every act which may constitute an interference, restraint or coercion, no matter how different in character it may be. As was said by the court in the Express case (312 U.S. at page 436, 61 S.Ct. at page 700, 85 L.Ed. 930) : “The breadth of the order, like the injunction of a court, must depend upon the circumstances of each case, the purpose being to prevent violations, the threat of which in the future is indicated because of their similarity or relation to those unlawful acts which the Board has found to have been committed by the employer in the past.”
If I correctly grasp the import of the disputed paragraph, respondent henceforth *863will operate under the peril of this injunctive edict. Thus any future labor dispute will be tried by this court under a citation for contempt rather than by hearing before the Labor Board. I do not think the Act contemplates such an incongruous result.