Ramos v. United Slate, Tile & Composition Roofers, Damp & Waterproof Workers Association

GOODELL, J. On February 13, 1951, a verified complaint was filed wherein plaintiffs sought an injunction to prevent picketing. An order to show cause was immediately issued and served, setting the hearing for February 16th and on that day the matter was heard and continued to the 19th and then to the 21st. On the 20th an amended complaint was filed but no new order to show cause was obtained. On the 21st an order was made that a preliminary injunction should issue. This appeal followed.

Appellants state their contention as follows: “The only question presented for decision is whether the filing [32]of the first amended complaint substantially differing from the original complaint upon which the order to show cause was based, did not vacate the order to show cause and divest the trial court of its jurisdiction to proceed thereon.”

Appellants do not attempt to point out wherein the two complaints substantially differ, nor do respondents attempt to show that they do not so differ. Moreover, appellants cite no authority in support of their position but concede that their “extensive search of the California authorities fails to reveal any case directly in point.” And although the appeal is from an order granting an injunction, appellants have not seen fit to bring up as part of the record the injunction itself.

In 1951 a project was under way in San Mateo County for the construction of a group of approximately 500 homes. Sterling Home Builders Company was the general contractor, and plaintiffs, who are licensed roofing contractors, had the subcontract for the roofing work. Plaintiffs employ only union labor and had an agreement with Wood, Composition and Asbestos Shinglers’ Union, Local No. 3111, an American Federation of Labor local, that the members of 3111 would be employed on the roofing work. No dispute existed between plaintiffs cmd Local 3111.

Defendant United Slate, Tile and Composition Roofers, Damp and Waterproof Workers' Association, Local No. 40 is also an American Federation of Labor union, and between the two locals a jurisdictional dispute existed over the roofing work on this project.

On October 1, 1949, these two locals agreed, with American Federation of Labor approval, to submit their jurisdictional disputes to The National Joint Board for Settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes. For some time defendants had maintained that plaintiffs’ employees should be members of Local 40, the latter claiming sole jurisdiction in this field of construction.