Court Opinion

ID: 9424458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:11:40.656744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:50.396846
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
dissenting.
Section 102 of the Landrum-Griffin Act, 73 Stat. 523, 29 U. S. C. § 412, gives a member of a union the right *248of civil redress in a federal district court against his union for infringement of his rights secured by the Act1 at the same time § 103, 29 U. S. C. § 413, reserves to members any remedies they may have “under any State or Federal law or before any court or other tribunal, or under the constitution and bylaws” of their unions. Moreover, § 101 (a)(5), 29 U. S. C. §411 (a)(5),2 provides that, except for nonpayment of dues, no member of a labor organization may be expelled or disciplined until there has been notice and a fair hearing.
The latter right is not exclusive, for as noted the Act gives members remedies for infringement of rights under the Act or under the constitution and bylaws of the union.
In the present case respondent went to one Wise, in charge of referral of men to jobs through the union hiring hall, and during the discussion which followed there was an altercation in which respondent hit Wise. For that assault respondent was fined in a criminal court. Thereupon Wise filed charges against respondent for violations *249of one provision of the union’s bylaws3 and one provision of the union’s constitution.4
At a hearing before a committee of the local lodge which Hardeman attended it was determined that respondent was “guilty as charged.” That determination was approved by the membership of the local which voted to suspend him from membership “indefinitely.”
Respondent appealed to the International Union, petitioner here. Acting through its president and its international executive council it denied the appeal.
Thereafter respondent sued International for consequential and punitive damages. The case was tried by *250a jury which returned a verdict of $152,150 and the Court of Appeals affirmed. 420 F. 2d 485.
There was evidence that there was a grudge between Wise and respondent, out of which the fist fight occurred. And there was evidence that the force or violence was an attempt to coerce Wise “to prevent him from properly discharging the duties of his office” within a rational meaning of the bylaws of the union.5 And the District Court so charged the jury. But, as the District Court ruled, there was no evidence that respondent endeavored “to create dissension among the members” or to work against the “interest and harmony” of the union within the meaning of Art. XIII of the constitution.6
I agree that a court does not sit in review of a union as it does of an administrative agency. But by reason of §101 (a) (5) judicial oversight is much more than procedural; it provides in subsection (C) for “a full and fair hearing.” Even if every conceivable procedural guarantee is provided, a hearing is not “fair” when all substantive rights are stripped away to reach a preordained result. If there is to be a “fair hearing” there must, I submit, be some evidence directed to the charges to support the conclusion.
Membership in a union may be the key to livelihood itself.7 Without membership, the member may be cast into the outer darkness, so far as employment is concerned. Just as this Court concluded Congress did not authorize exclusive bargaining agents to make invidious discriminations, Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 323 U. S. 192, it is unthinkable to me that Congress in designing § 101 (a) (5) gave unions the authority to expel *251members for such reasons as they chose. For courts to lend their hand to such oppressive practices is to put the judicial imprimatur on the union’s utter disregard of due process to reach its own ends.
In Boilermakers v. Braswell, arising out of the same incident, the Court of Appeals followed that reasoning. 388 F. 2d 193, 199. It said:
“[T]he act charged to Braswell was a blow struck in anger, and nothing more. However reprehensible this act may be, it did not constitute a violation of the provisions in the charges. Article XIII, Section 1 of the constitution on its face is directed at threats to the union as an organization and to the effective carrying out of the union’s aims. Braswell’s fist was not such a threat.”
As stated by a student in this area: “[H]ow can there be a ‘full and fair hearing’ when it results in a verdict which mocks the evidence?” 8 Of course, the reviewing court does not give a hearing de novo; nor does it review the merits of the dispute. But it does sit to check intemperate use of union power; and if it is to discharge its duties, it must conclude that there is some evidence to sustain the charge. This is the view of the Second, Third, and Fifth Circuits, Vars v. Boilermakers, 320 F. 2d 576; Kelsey v. Philadelphia Local No. 8, 419 F. 2d 491; Boilermakers v. Braswell, 388 F. 2d 193, and I would adopt it as the controlling legal principle.
Violation of Art. XIII of the constitution carries with it automatic expulsion. Violation of the bylaws would carry punishment “as warranted by the offense,” which, I assume, would justify expulsion. For respondent to use force against Wise who was in charge of referral of men to jobs through the union hiring hall *252may well have been an attempt “to prevent him from properly discharging the duties of his office” within the meaning of Art. XII. But how an isolated fist fight could “create dissension” among union members or work against the union's interests in the other ways described in Art. XIII remains a mystery.
The finding of the union was the general one “guilty as charged.” Under which provision — constitution or bylaw — it suspended him indefinitely is not made clear. Perhaps it was under only one or perhaps under both provisions.
In that posture the case is in the category of Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359, where a conviction might have been valid under one charge but would have been invalid under the other; but the verdict being a general one, it was impossible to tell under which he was convicted. It is as much a denial of due process to sustain a conviction merely because a verdict of guilty might have been rendered on a valid ground as it is to send an accused to prison following conviction of a charge on which he was never tried. Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U. S. 196, 201. It was in that tradition that the District Court charged the jury: 9
“Now, that is all they charged him with were those two sections and there is nothing in this record that would justify a finding of guilty under those sections. All of it is about the fight.
*253“I am telling you, as a matter of law, that under the proof, the finding which resulted in his being expelled, cannot legally stand and therefore he was wrongfully expelled.” (Emphasis added.)
Since the finding of “guilty as charged” had that infirmity, it could not stand; and the jury was justified in assessing damages for an unlawful expulsion.10

 Section 102 provides:
“Any person whose rights secured by the provisions of this title have been infringed by any violation of this title may bring a civil action in a district court of the United States for such relief (including injunctions) as may be appropriate. Any such action against a labor organization shall be brought in the district court of the United States for the district where the alleged violation occurred, or where the principal office of such labor organization is located.” (Emphasis added.)

 Section 101 (a)(5) provides:
“No member of any labor organization may be fined, suspended, expelled, or otherwise disciplined except for nonpayment of dues by such organization or by any officer thereof unless such member has been (A) served with written specific charges; (B) given a reasonable time to prepare his defense; (C) afforded a full and fair hearing.”

 Article XII of the bylaws provides:
“In addition to the offenses and penalties set out in the applicable provisions of the International and Subordinate Lodge Constitution, the following offenses and penalties shall be observed in this Subordinate Lodge, and any member who violates same shall, if found guilty after proper hearing as provided herein, be punished as warranted by the offense.
“(1) It shall be a violation of these By-Laws for any member through the use of force or violence or the threat of the use of force or violence to restrain, coerce or intimidate, or attempt to restrain, coerce or intimidate any official of this International Brotherhood or Subordinate Lodge to prevent or attempt to prevent him from properly discharging the duties of his office.”

 Article XIII, § 1, of the constitution provides:
“Any member who endeavors to create dissension among the members; or who works against the interest and harmony of the International Brotherhood or of any District or Subordinate Lodge; who advocates or encourages a division of the funds, or the dissolution of any District or Subordinate Lodge, or the separation of any District or Subordinate Lodge from the International Brotherhood; who supports or becomes a member of any dual or subversive organization which shall be hostile to the International Brotherhood or to any of its Subordinate Lodges, or which is antagonistic to the principles and purposes of the International Brotherhood, shall upon conviction thereof be punished by expulsion from the International Brotherhood.”

 See n. 3, supra.

 See n. 4, supra.

 Hardeman testified at trial that following the loss of his union card he was unable to work in the boilermaker’s trade beyond one job lasting five days.

 Christensen, Union Discipline Under Federal Law: Institutional Dilemmas in an Industrial Democracy, 43 N. Y. U. L. Rev. 227, 251.

 The Court of Appeals affirmed- summarily on the basis of Boilermakers v. Braswell, 388 F. 2d 193, a case arising out of the same factual situation, as Braswell also assaulted Wise at the time respondent assaulted him. In Braswell, the Court of Appeals found that the blow was “struck in anger, and nothing more.” Hence it held that Braswell’s fist was not used as an effort to create dissension among members within the meaning of Art. XIII of the constitution. By its summary affirmance in the present case it presumably reached the same conclusion in the present case.

 It is urged that since respondent’s complaint arose out of his effort to obtain employment, his relief may be sought only from the National Labor Relations Board. See San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U. S. 236; Local 100, Journeymen v. Borden, 373 U. S. 690; Local 207 v. Perko, 373 U. S. 701. The argument is that the expulsion of respondent was “arguably” an unfair labor practice and that exclusive jurisdiction therefore was with the Board. But Garmon prevents conflicts between federal and state policy. If there is a conflict in the present case, it is between two federal agencies; and Congress has declared in § 102 of the Landrum-Griffln Act that the federal courts, not the Board, are to have the primary role.