146 Ga. 402 | Ga. | 1917
(After stating the foregoing facts.) The judge was authorized to find, from the evidence submitted at the hearing, that the plaintiff became a member of the union about fourteen years prior to the trial. He preferred certain charges against another member, but was unable to sustain them because those members who furnished the information were intimidated from testifying by persons outside of the union. Upon his failure to sustain the charges brought by him the plaintiff in turn was accused of maliciously preferring an unfounded charge against a member, and was tried and fined fifty dollars at a meeting at which he was not present, and without any written charge against him. About a month after his trial and sentence, as soon as he discovered
Although the petition does not in terms pray for a reinstatement of the suspended member, it must be conceded that such is the essence of the prayer for an injunction against the defendants’ interference with his rights and benefits as a member. The local union had suspended him from membership, and he could only become entitled to the rights of a member by a restoration to membership. He could not be restored by a mandamus proceeding, since that remedy is appropriate when addressed to officers of corporations, being predicated on the proposition that since corporations derive their existence from the State it is an efficient means by which the courts may compel corporations to obey the
Judgment affirmed.