Labor Unions Held Responsible for Damages
LABOR unionism received a severe blow in Great Britain about two years ago by a court decision which made the strikers responsible for damage to property and loss in business caused by violence in attempting to prevent non-union men from filling the places of union men on a strike. And now, according to a newspaper dispatch, a ruling has been made by the Gibson Circuit Court of the State of Indiana to the effect that an unincorporated labor union may be held responsible by a jury for injuries to a third party when the injuries complained of are the result of an act for which the union as an association of individuals is responsible. The case on trial involved “the question of responsibility of a labor union for injuries resulting from a boycott established against a contractor, for which he sought to recover damages. He had been an employer of union labor, but had resisted the demands of the union, and when his employees refused to work for him, he hired non-union men. A resolution was adopted by the union placing him on the ‘unfair’ list.” “Dealers were threatened with a boycott if they sold him materials, and he was forced to buy in distant markets. Pickets were placed about his shops, his men were harassed, and his patrons were subject to constant annoyance. “Under the ruling of the court on the responsibility of the union which had ordered the boycott, the jury found for the plaintiff, but the verdict was a compromise so far as the questions of fact were concerned. “The case will doubtless go to the supreme court of the State for further adjudication, and if the ruling is sustained, the principle will be fixed in Indiana, at least, that failure to incorporate does not relieve the union from responsibility for injuries growing out of its acts. “Some of the best lawyers of the State say that the decision is fraught with important consequences to laboring men and employers, and that its affirmation by the supreme court, which they confidently expect, will be the death of the boycott in Indiana.”