McConville v. Milk Wagon Drivers' Union, Local No. 226

THE COURT.

This is an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment of dismissal entered after a motion for nonsuit was granted in an action for damages brought by plaintiff against the Milk Wagon Drivers’ Union, its business agent and its secretary-treasurer, for the alleged illegal suspension of plaintiff from the membership of said union for a period of ninety days for having violated the laws of the union prohibiting its members from soliciting trade from each other’s milk routes.

As pointed out in the ease of

Ott

v.

Tailors’ P. & B. Union,

75 Cal. 308 [7 Am. St. Rep. 156, 17 Pac. 217, 219], the general rule is that in the matter of administering

[698]

disciplinary measures an organization such as the one here involved “acts in a quasi-judicial character and so far as it confines itself to the exercise of the powers vested in it, and in good faith pursues the methods prescribed by its laws, such laws not being in violation of the laws of the land or any inalienable right of the member, its sentence is conclusive, like that of a judicial tribunal

(Commonwealth

v.

Pike Benevolent Soc.,

8 Watts & S. (Pa.) 250;

Burt

v.

Grand Lodge, F. & A. M.,

44 Mich. 208;

Robinson

v.

Yates City Lodge,

86 Ill. 598)”; and it is beyond the power of the courts to interfere with its action “except in the following cases:

‘1.

If the decision arrived at was contrary to natural justice, such as the member complained of, not having an opportunity to explain misconduct; 2. If the rules of the club have not been observed; 3. If the action of the club was malicious, and not