Court Opinion

ID: 9419679
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:51:01.692503+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:19.946861
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Murphy,
dissenting.
My disagreement with the Court rests not so much with the legal principles announced as with the application of those principles to the facts of the case.
If the union in this instance had acted alone in its self-interest, resulting in a restraint of interstate trade, the Sherman Act concededly would be inapplicable. But if the union had aided and abetted manufacturers or traders in violating the Act, the union’s statutory immunity would disappear. I cannot agree, however, that the circumstances of this case demand the invocation of the latter rule.
The union here has not in any true sense “aided” or “abetted” a primary violation of the Act by the employers. In the words of the union, it has been “the dynamic force which has driven the employer-group to enter into agreements” whereby trade has been affected. The fact that the union has expressed its self-interest with the aid of others rather than solely by its own activities should not be decisive of statutory liability. What is legal if done alone should not become illegal if done with the assistance of others and with the same purpose in mind. Otherwise a premium of unlawfulness is placed on collective bargaining.
Had the employers embarked upon a course of unreasonable trade restraints and had they sought to immunize themselves from the Sherman Act by using the union as a shield for their nefarious practices, we would have quite a different case. The union then could not be said to be acting in its self-interest in combining with the employers to carry out trade restraints primarily for the employers’ interests, even though incidental benefits might accrue to the union. Under such conditions the union fairly could *821be said to be aiding and abetting a violation of the Act and its immunity would be lost. The facts of this case, however, do not allow such conclusions to be drawn.
I would therefore affirm the judgment of the court below.