74 Pa. Super. 139 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1920
Opinion by
The plaintiff was expelled from the defendant unincorporated association, of which he had been a member for fifteen years. If he was lawfully expelled, he has no complaint; if he was not, he is unlawfully deprived of Ms interest in the accumulated funds of the association, wMch, it is alleged in the bill and not denied in the answer, amount to $4,000,000, and loses the benefit of the certificate issued by the association’s benéficiary department which entitled him to the sum of $1,500 in the event of his total and permanent disa*
The expulsion was based on an alleged violation of Rule No. 23 of the General Rules of the Brotherhood, which provides inter alia, that “any member of the Brotherhood using his influence to defeat any action taken by a national legislative representative or any action regularly taken by legislative representatives in meeting assembled, or of legislative boards under their proper authorities, shall, upon conviction thereof, be expelled.” It was charged that the appellant had violated this rule by signing a petition to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, asking for the repeal of the act commonly known as the Pull Crew Law.
A trial was had before the lodge which sustained the charge and expelled the appellant from membership. On successive appeals to the president and the Grand Lodge (the course prescribed in the constitution and rules of the brotherhood), this action was sustained.
This bill was then filed praying that such expulsion be declared void on three grounds: (1) That the trial on said charge was void and illegal because there was no proof presented that he had violated Rule 23 as aforesaid; (2) that the said provision in Rule 23, if construed so as to deprive appellant of his constitutional right to petition for redress of grievances, is in contravention of law and public policy and void; (3) that the whole legislative department of the defendant brotherhood, to which said Rule 23 pertains, is illegal and against public policy as an improper interference with the law-making branch of the Commonwealth.
(1) The learned trial judge of the court below correctly stated the law ip Ms quotation from Com, v.
The question at the trial before the lodge was not whether the appellant had signed the petition for the repeal of the Full Crew Law — that was admitted, — but whether that action had been in violation of Rule 23; the appellant specifically denied) that he had violated
(2) The appellant’s second contention is based on the first amendment to the Federal Constitution and on Article I, Section 20, of our State Constitution. The former is not applicable here. It provides that Congress shall make no law abridging......the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. It was held in United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, that this amendment did nothing more than limit the power of Congress; it left the authority of the several states just where they found it; the right was not created by the amendment nor was its continuance guaranteed except as against congressional interference.
Our State Constitution, however, in order “that the general, great and essential principles of liberty and free government may be recognized and unalterably established” declares in article I, that......“the citizens have a right in a peaceable manner to assemble together for their common good and to apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances or other proper purposes, by petition, address or remonstrance”; and to guard against transgressions of the high powers delegated, declares that everything contained in this article, is excepted out of the general powers of government and shall forever remain inviolate. The purpose of this Bill of Bights is to prevent aggression by the government upon the individual rights of the citizen; it does not prevent the citizen from voluntarily committing their exercise temporarily to an association
(3) The defendant brotherhood, as set forth in its constitution and rules was organized to unite railroad trainmen; to promote their general welfare and advance their interests, social, moral and intellectual; to protect their families by the exercise of a systematic benevolence; and to endeavor to establish mutual confidence and create and maintain harmonious relations with their employers. The legislative department was created for the purpose of protecting the interests of its members along legislative lines in the several states and territories.
It is against the law of this Commonwealth and contrary to public policy for any individual, association or corporation to employ an agent, attorney or representative to influence the passage of legislation or to interfere with or control legislative action: Clippinger v. Hepbaugh, 5 W. & S. 315; Spalding v. Ewing, 149 Pa. 375; Kuhn v. Buhl, 251 Pa. 348. See also Le Tourneux v. Gilliss, 82 Pac. 627 (Cal.); Crichfield v. Bermudez Asphalt Paving Co., 51 N. E. 552 (Ill.); Houlton v.
The fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, twelfth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second assignments of error are sustained, the decree of the court below is reversed, the action of the defendants in expelling the plaintiff from the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen is set aside, and it is ordered that he be reinstated to full membership therein. Costs to be paid by the appellees.