56 A.D. 393 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1900
Lead Opinion
This action was brought against the defendant, as chief engineer or president of-the New York City Division, No. 105, of the Grand International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, a voluntary
As the complaint was dismissed at the close of the plaintiff’s case, . if upon any ground the plaintiff was entitled upon the facts proved to any relief, the dismissal was error; but if upon the facts the plaintiff must fail in obtaining any relief in this action, then the judgment should be affirmed, although the reasons given for the dismissal be not approved.
It seems that the plaintiff had been a member of this association for several years, until December 3, 1898, when he was expelled at a regular meeting of the association. This association was governed .by a constitution and by-laws. By article 5, section 1, of such constitution it is provided: “ Should it become known to any member of this Brotherhood that a member thereof has been guilty of any unbecoming or disgraceful conduct or of drunkenness, or of having in any way violated any law, rule or regulation of the order, it shall be his duty to at once bring charges in writing against such member before the subdivision to which said offending member belongs.” In pursuance' of this provision one M. F. Rhodes, who was a member of the association, presented to it, at a meeting thereof on that day, a charge against the plaintiff in writing. The plaintiff was present at this meeting. This charge was as follows: “ I prefer charges against Bro. Frank Austin of . this division for dishonesty and'conduct unbecoming a member of this Brotherhood. I charge him with taking property that belonged to the Manhattan Railway Company of the City of New York and appropriating it to his own use and selling the same to others, thereby causing a loss to said Railway Co. and bringing disgrace on this Division of Locomotive Engineers.”
This charge would seem to come within the provision of the constitution before cited, and if proved would certainly be “ unbecoming
By section 3 of article 5 of the constitution it is provided that “ should the committee find any evidence against the accused he shall be furnished by the chairman of the committee with a copy of the charges made against him, and notified when to appear for trial, at which trial the said committee shall produce the evidence against him, and the evidence in his defense shall be heard, after which .a vote of the members present shall be taken as to his guilt or innocence, and a majority vote shall be necessary to declare him guilty. If found guilty, the ballot shall be passed and a majority vote' of'all members present shall be sufficient to expel, suspend, reprimand or to censure him.”
It is not disputed but that the rule in regard to voluntary associations of this character is that the constitution and by-laws are the sole rule that governs the relations between the association and its members, and that the courts cannot redress any action of the association in expelling or punishing a member when such action has been taken in accordance with the express provisions of the constitution and by-laws. As was said in White v. Brownell (2 Daly, 359), “ Individuals who form themselves together into a voluntary association for a common object may agree to be governed by such rules as they think proper to adopt, if there is nothing in them in conflict with the law of the land; and those who become members of the body are presumed to know them, to have assented to .them, and they are bound by them.” This case has been cited with approval in many cases and was followed in Lewis v. Wilson (121 N. Y. 284) where the court say: “ But whether the committee should decide rightly or wrongly does not change the attitude of the plaintiff as a member of the association, or qualify his obligation to submit to the decision of the agreed tribunal under pain of suspension. All that he could require was that the investigation should be conducted Iona fide, upon notice to him and an opportunity to be heard, and that the decision made should be within the scope of the jurisdiction conferred on the committee.”
If, therefore; this investigation was ■ conducted Iona fide, with notice to the plaintiff which gave him an opportunity to be' heard,
■ But an examination of section 3 of the constitution,. to which attention has been called, makes it- quite evident that it was not contemplated that these proceedings should be adjourned. The section provides that the committee upon the day fixed for the trial should produce the evidence against the member, and that the evidence in his defense should be heard, after which a vote of the members present should be taken as to his guilt or innocence.- This is the constitution of the association -of which the plaintiff was a member, and by it he was bound; and if the trial was conducted in accordance with the provisions of this constitution and he had proper notice of the charges and an opportunity to be heard, he cannot complain. The plaintiff heard the statement of the ■ members of the- association read accusing him of theft, and without even a denial of the truth of these charges, he simply protested against the proceeding and desired an adjournment. Certainly a refusal of such a request was not such a violation of the plaintiff’s right as-would entitle him to the interference of the court in reversing the action of the association in expelling him. Taking this view of the question, it is not necessary to discuss the grounds upon which the court below placed its decision, as I am satisfied that the plaintiff had a fair trial before the tribunal authorized-by the constitution and by-laws to act; that all the provisions of the constitution were fully complied with, and that the plaintiff was not entitled, upon his own evidence, to any relief.
O’Brien and McLaughlin, JJ., concurred; Van Brunt, P, J., and Hatch, J., concurred in result.
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in the result of this opinion upon the ground that the plaintiff, having submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the association, was bound in the first instance to exhaust his remedies by appeal to the higher constituted authorities before he became entitled to maintain an action for the settlement of his rights. This he did not do, and he has, therefore, ho standing to maintain this action.
Van Brunt, P. J., concurred.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.