294 Mass. 315 | Mass. | 1936
This bill of complaint, by amendment now entitled Alfred A. Beauregard & others vs. Roy M. Dailey & others, is brought by "owners of fleets of commercial trucks operating in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and in adjacent States,” to obtain injunctive relief against the defendant truck drivers’ union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America Local 404, a voluntary unincorporated association located in Springfield, Massachusetts (hereinafter called the union) and against John F. Gatelee, alleged to be president of the Springfield Central Labor Union.
In substance the plaintiffs allege in said bill of complaint that on October 22, 1933, various members of the defendant union, employed by the plaintiffs, left their respective places of employment and went out on a strike because the employers refused to enter into an agreement whereby the employers should hire only union men; that on October 23, 1933, representatives of the plaintiffs and the defendant union, and a member of the "N. R. A. State board of conciliation” entered into an agreement for arbitration and the strike was declared off; that on October 26 and 27, 1933, the representatives of the plaintiffs met with the defendant Gatelee and the other representatives of the defendant union, in Boston, before the board of conciliation as provided in the agreement for arbitration; that at this meeting
The bill further alleges, in substance, that on October 29, 1933, the defendant union, at a meeting held in Springfield, voted that the members leave their respective places with the plaintiffs and go out on strike, and that they went out on strike forthwith without notice to the plaintiffs; that they went out on strike for the purpose of enforcing acceptance by the plaintiffs of the provisions of section 6, above quoted, or of the substitute section, above quoted; and that a duly authorized representative of the defendant union so
To determine the questions argued by the parties it is necessary to examine somewhat closely the various precedent steps which were taken in the Superior Court, and which are shown by a copy of docket entries annexed to the printed record. These entries disclose that on October 30, 1933, the bill of complaint was entered in the court, and that on the same day an order of notice to show cause, returnable November 2, 1933, and a subpoena, returnable December 4, 1933, issued and were served on certain of the defendants on October 30 and November 1, 1933. They were never served on certain other of the named defendants. On November 1, 1933, the case was removed to the United States District Court, on the ground that the bill showed a Federal question under the National Recovery Act, and it was remanded to the Superior Court for Hamp-den County on December 8, 1933. On November 1 and 2, 1933, three papers were filed in behalf of the defendants. These papers, each entitled “Appearance,” stated that the appearance was “special”; two of them added that the sole purpose of the appearance was to attack the restraining order and to oppose the temporary injunction; while the third paper recited a specific denial of the court's jurisdiction. On November 2, 1933, a temporary injunction issued and also an interlocutory decree requiring that pleadings be completed by November 6, and that the suit proceed before a master, Edward Hutchings, under the usual rule of reference.
On November 20, 1933, the defendants served, except Gatelee, appeared specially for the sole purpose of answering the bill of complaint, “not waiving exceptions heretofore taken to orders of the court shortening defendants’ time for answer and expressly relying thereon; and protesting against being required to answer plaintiffs’ bill of complaint” at that time. By their answer the defendants alleged, among other things, that the Motor Truck Association of Western Massachusetts, one of the named plaintiffs, was without legal entity and as such could not be made a party to the suit; and that for the same reason the union could not be made a party defendant. The answer denied that the strike was for an unlawful purpose, objected that some named defendants had not been served, and objected that the allegations of the bill relating to wrongful acts on the part of the defendants were too general. On November 21, 1933, the defendants appeared “specially for the sole purpose” of appealing “from the Interlocutory Decree en
On November 23, 1933, on motion of the master the order of reference to the master was confirmed and hearings were ordered to begin on or before December 11, 1933. On December 11, 1933, the judge granted a motion by the master that the time for beginning hearings be extended to December 18, 1933. On December 15, 1933, the defendants appeared “specially and for the sole purpose” of moving “that the time for commencing the hearings before the master be extended to and including January 8, 1934.” The motion was denied, and the defendants then filed a paper entitled “Defendants’ Objections and Protest against Proceeding to Hearing before Master.” The grounds of objection were (1) that “the time for them [the defendants] to appear and answer and otherwise plead to the Bill of Complaint has not yet expired,” since the subpoena “commanded defendants to appear on the first Monday of December 1933 [December 4, 1933] . . . the return day of said subpoena which . . . entitles the defendant to appear and answer or otherwise plead to • the plaintiffs’ Bill of Complaint at any time within twenty-one (21) days after said first Monday of December, which time [December 26, 1933] has not yet expired”; (2) that “included in the answers which under objection and subject to exceptions the defendants have already filed there are matters in the nature of demurrer and pleas in bar which have not been heard and disposed of and which should be heard and ruled upon and disposed of by the court before hearings are held by the master”; (3) that the “Defendants object to Edward Hutchings, Esquire as master” on the ground that he was “disqualified . . . and not ... a free and impartial judge” to hear the case, since at that time he was the attorney of record for one of the plaintiffs, namely, the Consolidated Motor Lines Incorporated, and was defending said plaintiff in actions of tort brought against it by third persons; and (4) that “the National Labor Board has taken jurisdiction of the controversy.” These objections
The case was heard by the master on December 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28 and 29, 1933, and on January 2, 1934. At these hearings the defendants appeared specially to cross-examine witnesses. On March 5, 1934, the master filed his report with the defendants’ objections appended. The report exonerated the defendant Gatelee and thereafter he made no further appearance in the case. The defendants’ objections, among others, were as follows: (1) because the master was “disqualified . . . and . . . not a free and impartial judge of the defendants, their evidence and their cause,” since the report showed that “the relation of attorney and client does and has obtained between said master and the plaintiff, Consolidated Motor Lines Incorporated” at the time of the hearings; (2) because, over the “objection and protest of these defendants . . . [the master] heard the case ex parte and without jurisdiction over the persons of these defendants; in that, the hearings were held before the expiration of the time limited, by the subpoena issued . . . and served on these defendants, for them to ‘ cause (their) written appearance to be entered, and (their) written answer or other lawful pleading’ ... to be filed in
The master found from the evidence that, both before and after the filing of the bill of complaint, members of the union had interfered with the movements of the plaintiffs’ trucks and had intimidated the drivers of their trucks. After the confirmation of the master’s report by interlocutory decree of the Superior Court, the trial judge in his findings and rulings stated that at the hearing before him on November 2, 1933, upon the question of the issuance of a temporary injunction, at which hearing all defendants served with process were represented, he, being unaware that the defendants had filed a special appearance, discussed in open court with counsel for the defendants the questions of the time of completion of pleadings and the referring of the cause to a master, and the attitude of the defendants’ counsel and of Gatelee “gave the court reason to believe that the defendants so represented and so present in court assented to the order as to completion of the pleadings and the hearing of the case before a master on the date or dates set.” He found “as a fact that the defendants theretofore served and present in
The first contention relied on by the defendants is that the judge erred in entering orders for the completion of the pleadings at a date prior to that named in the subpoena. Their argument is that a judge is without power to order the pleadings to be completed otherwise than as stated in the subpoena, unless the defendant has entered a general appearance. The defendants, in support of their position, rely upon the intimation expressed in the note to Rule 2 of the Superior Court (1932), that it may be doubted whether “the court in its discretion may order or permit pleadings to be filed, or any act to be done, at other times than are provided in these rules,” against a defendant who has not appeared and to whom Rule 25 gives twenty-one days after the return day for appearance. Assuming a general appearance to be necessary before the time for completion of the pleadings may be shortened, it may be doubted whether the defendants succeeded in doing more than raise a question, since no motion to dismiss or plea to the jurisdiction was made at the time; and whether the “special” appearances entered November 1 and 2, 1933, were not in the circumstances the equivalent of a general appearance. Rollins v. Bay View Auto Parts Co. 239 Mass. 414, 423. Compare Walling v. Beers, 120 Mass. 548, 550; Wrinn v. Sellers, 252 Mass. 423, 425. The finding-.of the trial'judge that the defendants in open court had given him reason to believe that they were raising no objection to the procedure of the court is a conclusive answer to the defendants’ contention. There is nothing in the record which is inconsistent with the trial judge’s conclusion that the defendants’ attorney impliedly assented to the time for the completion of the pleadings. The so called special appearances, filed November 1 and 2,
Another, and the principal argument relied on by the defendants, is that the case, over the defendants’ objection, was referred to a master who by reason of interest, or because the relationship of attorney and client existed between him and one of the plaintiffs in the present suit, was disqualified to sit as master. It is to be observed in connection with this objection that the defendants did not remain silent until after the hearings had commenced before the master, but brought their objection to the attention of the master and the trial judge. See Thomajanian v. Odabshian, 272 Mass. 19, 23, and cases cited. The master stated in his report that he was at the time of the hearing the attorney of record for Consolidated Motor Lines Incorporated, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, but that the action in which he represented the corporation as attorney involved issues entirely disconnected from the case being tried before him. It is the familiar rule in this Commonwealth, embodied in art. 29 of the Declaration of Rights, that it is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges “as free, impartial and independent as the lot of humanity will admit,” and this mandate is rigidly enforced. Thomajanian v. Odabshian, 272 Mass. 19, 23. King v. Grace, 293 Mass. 244, 246. Interest in the outcome of litigation is a familiar ground for disqualification, and such disqualification is not limited to judges but extends broadly to all persons authorized to decide the rights of litigants, this latter class includ-.
Decree reversed•
