Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen v. National Labor Relations Board
Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen v. National Labor Relations Board
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a companion case to Leedom v. International Union, ante, p. 145, decided this day. International Fur and Leather Workers Union
In August 1953 an indictment was returned against Ben Gold, an officer of the union, charging that the § 9 (h) affidavit which he filed with the Board on August 30, 1950, was false. In 1954 Gold was convicted for that offense.
The Board sought a stay of the preliminary injunction pending decision by the Court of Appeals in the Farmer case. When the stay was denied, the Board petitioned the court below, pursuant to § 10 (e) of the Act, for enforcement of the unfair labor practice order. Respondent Lannom Mfg. Co. moved for dismissal of the enforcement petition on the grounds of Gold’s conviction for false filing under §9(h). The union intervened and opposed the motion to dismiss.
The court below granted the motion to dismiss, holding that, since the falsity of the affidavit had been proved, the requirements of § 9 (h) had not been met and no benefits should be accorded the union. We granted certiorari. 351 U. S. 905.
As noted, the complaint in the unfair labor practice proceeding was issued in February 1952, more than twelve months after the affidavit of August 30, 1950. Section 9 (h) provides that no investigation shall be made or complaint issued on behalf of a union unless there is on file with the Board a non-Communist affidavit of each officer “executed contemporaneously or within the preceding twelve-month period.” There was no charge against Gold for filing a false affidavit in 1951. The Court of Appeals met that difficulty by presuming that a person who was a Communist in 1950 continued as such through 1951 and through the critical date of February 1952, in absence of evidence showing a change in the factual situation.
For the reasons stated in Leedom v. International Union, ante, p. 145, we conclude that the sole sanction for the filing of a false affidavit under § 9 (h) is the criminal penalty imposed on the officer who files a false affidavit, not decompliance of the union nor the withholding of the benefits of the Act that are granted once the specified officers file their § 9 (h) affidavits. Having so concluded, we find it unnecessary to reach the collateral phases of this controversy.
Reversed.
In February 1955 this union merged with Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workers of North America, petitioner in this case.
The judgment of conviction was affirmed by an equally divided Court of Appeals, sitting en banc. Gold v. United States, 99 U. S. App. D. C. 136, 237 F. 2d 764. We granted certiorari on October 8, 1956. 352 U. S. 819.
It was on this phase of the case that Judge Stewart dissented:
“A jury has found that in 1950 Gold was both a Communist and a liar, to put it bluntly. Yet to indulge in the presumption that he was therefore guilty of committing a criminal offense a year later in filing the 1951 affidavit is further than I can go on the record before us.” 226 F. 2d, at 200.
Note 2, supra.
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
I agree that decompliance of the union is not a sanction authorized by § 9 (h). But this case presents another consideration that cannot be overlooked in the due administration of justice and that, standing alone, would lead me to reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals. As stated below in the dissenting opinion of Judge Stewart:
“A court of competent jurisdiction has found that Gold’s affidavit of August 30, 1950, was false. The critical date as to compliance with § 9 (h) of the National Labor Relations Act as amended was the date of issuance of the Board’s complaint. N. L. R. B. v. Dant, 344 U. S. 375 .... If the complaint had issued during the twelve month period while this false affidavit was in effect, the question before us would be clear cut. That, however, is not the case.
*157 “In August of 1951 Gold filed a new non-Communist affidavit, and it was during the effective period of that affidavit that the complaint in this case issued. No court has found that affidavit to be false. It is true that the Board found in 1954 that the Union was not at that time in compliance with § 9 (h). Assuming the Board had power to make such a finding, and assuming further that it be considered a finding that the 1951 affidavit was false, it must, I should think, be supported, like any Board finding, by substantial evidence, considering the record as a whole. We have no such record before us. Indeed, it appears that the question of the truth or falsity of the 1951 affidavit has never been heard on the merits. [Footnote omitted.]
“A jury has found that in 1950 Gold was both a Communist and a liar, to put it bluntly. Yet to indulge in the presumption that he was therefore guilty of committing a criminal offense a year later in filing the 1951 affidavit is further than I can go on the record before us.” 226 F. 2d 194, 199-200.
Reference
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- AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL-CIO, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Et Al.
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