Hughes v. American Trust Co.

DOOLING, J.,

pro

tem.

This is an action by plaintiffs and respondents as officers of Local Union No. 22 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America to recover certain money and bonds deposited with defendant American Trust Company prior to September 2, 1921. Appellant Spencer claims an interest in such property and from a judgment in favor of plaintiffs and respondents Spencer takes this appeal.

Prior to September 2, 1921, appellant was a member of Local Union No. 22 which, according to his own testimony, had at that time a membership of 1,097 in good standing. Local Union No. 22 was organized in San Francisco in 1882 as a subordinate union of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. Prior to September 2, 1921, demand had been made upon Local Union No. 22 by the president of the United Brotherhood to sever its affiliation with an organization known as the Rank and File Federation of Workers, the principles of which were deemed by the officers of the United Brotherhood to be subversive of the principles of their organization. On September 2, 1921, the members of Local Union No. 22 assembled in regular meeting voted down a motion to comply with this request of the president of their parent body. Thereupon, one W. A. Cole, a member of the general executive board of the United Brotherhood who was present at the meeting with authority to act for the president, declared Local Union No. 22 suspended. On September 6, 1921, a meeting

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of members of Local Union No. 22 who had agreed to remain loyal to the United Brotherhood and comply with the president’s request, met and voted to reorganize the union and elect as the officers of the reorganized union the same officers who had been in office at the time Local Union No. 22 wag suspended. Thereafter, written charges were prepared and served upon the president and secretary of the union and upon one E. E. Wattles, together with a notice of trial to be held before the general executive board of the United Brotherhood at its head office in Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 20, 1921. In the notice the union was directed to appear and show cause why it should not be expelled from the brotherhood. At the trial which followed, the union made no appearance and an order was made, after a hearing, expelling it from the brotherhood. Shortly thereafter a new charter was issued by the brotherhood to the reorganized union designating it as Local No. 22, and ever since that time the association represented by respondents in this action has functioned, and been recognized by the United Brotherhood, as Local Union No. 22. At the time the new charter was presented to the reorganized union in October, 1921, it had 801 members, of whom all but twenty had been members of Local Union No. 22 at the time of its suspension. Appellant Spencer never attempted thereafter to affiliate with the United Brotherhood or the reorganized Local Union No. 22, nor did he nor anyone, either as an individual member or purporting to represent the union, take an appeal from the order of expulsion to the general convention of the United Brotherhood, as provided by its constitution and laws. Appellant Spencer testified “that after the suspension of the said Local Union No. 22 as aforesaid, and at the time the said charges and notice of hearing were served as aforesaid, the said E. E. Wattles was president of an organization called Carpenters’ Union, Local No. 22, which was not chartered by any labor organization, but was simply certain fellows together that thought they were still members of Local No.