On October 19, 1966, defendant S. Frank Raftery, General President of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America (“the Brotherhood”), placed District Council No. 9 of the Brotherhood under a special trusteeship, naming John Damery as Trustee. On April 6, 1967, nineteen members of local unions affiliated with the District Council sued to enjoin the continued functioning of the trusteeship and for related relief, invoking 29 U.S.C. §§ 185, 462 and 464. In an exhaustive opinion rendered after seven days of an evidentiary hearing resulting in over 1,400 pages of transcript,
In this court appellants claim, inter alia, that the district court erred in finding that the trusteeship had been established and maintained in bad faith; in failing to dismiss the complaint because plaintiffs had not exhausted their remedies within the union and through the Department of Labor; and in postponing and then supervising the union election.
The record and opinion below make clear that the finding of bad faith was not only not “clearly erroneous” but was amply justified. Appellants’ remaining points are adequately dealt with in the opinion below, and we affirm on that analysis. In further support of their exhaustion argument, appellants press here the decision of this court, rendered after the injunctive order below, in Wirtz v. Hotel, Motel and Club Employees Union, Local 6,
The motions for leave to file amicus briefs are granted. Judgment affirmed.
