These two cases were heard together in the trial court, upon the same evidence. One judgment was passed, applicable to both cases. Two bills of exception were sued out, and they were argued as one in this court. The bills of exception and the records in the two cases in this court are identical, with the exception of the difference in names. As the same judgment must necessarily be rendered in both cases in this court, they will be decided as one case.
The petitions filed by the plaintiffs in the court below, Atlanta Envelope Company et al. and Webb & Vary Inc., against McMi
It was alleged that the defendants, acting as representatives of said Union, made a demand upon the plaintiffs that they contract with all of the pressmen and feedmen employed by them at that time, to give to such employees a large increase in wages, to make a substantial reduction in their working hours, and also to “ close ” their shops, that is, that the plaintiffs should agree to employ as pressmen and feedmen only persons who were members of said Union; that upon the refusal of the plaintiffs to yield to these demands all of the pressmen and feedmen then employed by plaintiffs walked out, rendering it necessary for plaintiffs to secure nonunion pressmen and feedmen or to yield to the demands of the defendants and thus be forced into bankruptcy; that they thereupon determined to run non-union shops so far as their pressmen and feedmen were concerned; that petitioners had at great expense made contracts of employment with certain persons, and expected to be able to contract with others, upon the distinct understanding that such new employees could not work for and be in the employment of plaintiffs and be a member of said union, and that if any one of such new employees should become a member of said union
The question to be determined by this court is whether or not, under the pleadings and the evidence, there was an abuse of discretion by the trial judge. It is well settled and recognized that this court cannot undertake to decide questions of fact on conflicting evidence. "We can only say whether there was evidence sufficient to authorize the -finding of the trial court. Plaintiffs in error contend that the judgment was unauthorized by the evidence, because their acts, as shown by the evidence, were strictly within their lawful rights. Their brief contains the following statement: “This case involves the question of just what can striking employees do to win a trade.dispute; and second, just how far the employer can go towards fighting the demands of his employees without injuring the property rights of the employees or the rights of the public. It is a case of employee organization against employer organization. The rights and relations are so intermingled that the one can hardly act without trespassing upon the other.” In reference to what took place after the strike or walkout the brief for the plaintiffs in error says: “ The usual course of operations took place by the union employees doing all within their lawful power to keep, others from talcing their places and the employers getting in new employees in order to win the fight. On October 12, 1920, the employers started injunction proceedings against the union employees, and alleged, among other things, that since the walkout the various employers had adopted a policy in their shops to employ only pressmen and feeders who did not belong to any union and agreed not to join the union, and if they did so they would be discharged; that after employing a number of new men under such contract the various union employees were inducing and attempting to induce these new employees to break their contracts by joining a union, alleging therein that these union employees were using both unlawful and persuasive means.”
Judgment affirmed.