People ex rel. Stearns v. Marr

During the spring of 1903 the relators employed a large number of workmen in operating their foundry at Syracuse, many of whom were members of the Iron Moulders’ Union Eo. 80, an unincorporated association, organized in the interest of mechanics who were iron moulders by trade. On the 15th of May, 1903, a strike was declared by said union and the most of its members employed by the relators ceased to work and tried to induce those who remained to cease work also, as well as to dissuade others who had not been thus employed from accepting employment at said factory. A picket line was established, threats made, intimidation practiced and finally violence was resorted to. An action was commenced by the relators to recover damages from the ■union for interfering with their business and to restrain its

Subsequently a motion was made to punish John Lillis, Kyran Powers, Otto Benz and Michael Strozik for contempt in violating said injunction, and upon the hearing a referee was appointed to take the evidence of the parties and their witnesses and report the facts with his opinion. After taking much testimony and upon due deliberation the referee reported that Lillis, Benz and Powers were guilty of contempt in violating said order, but that Strozik, owing to his ignorance of the English language, did not know enough about the terms of the injunction to w'arrant his punishment.- The referee found that the injunction had been served personally upon said Lillis, who w7as a defendant in the action, and that Benz and Powers, who were not defendants and upon whom the injunction had not been served, knew of the existence and the terms thereof when they disobeyed it. The report of 1he referee wras confirmed by .the Special Term and the three persons named wore adjudged guilty of contempt and punished by fine and imprisonment. An appeal was taken to the Appellate Division, where the order of the Special Term was affirmed unanimously as to Powers and Lillis, but one of the justices dissented as to Benz upon the ground that the evi

An act in willful contempt of a court of justice or its process is an offense against the People of the state. Government by law cannot exist without courts and courts cannot enforce the law unless disobedience of their orders is properly punished. . The wrong done to a party by the violation of an order made by a court for his protection is of less importance than the wrong done to the public by obstructing the course of justice and bringing dishonor upon the law itself. This is not a case of mere' civil contempt where a fine is imposed .mainly to indemnify a" party for a private injury, and incidentally to vindicate the authority of the court as an agency of public justice.: We are now dealing with a criminal contempt, not in the interest of a party merely, but in the interest of the public, to compel obedience to a lawful mandate of the Supreme Court and to punish resistance thereto as in the nature of a crime. There are three parties to every proceeding to punish for a criminal contempt, the plaintiff, the defendant and the People. If a fine is imposed it goes into the public treasury when paid, and is for “ punishment rather than indemnity, and if imprisonment is added, it is in the interest of public justice and purely as a penalty and not at all as a means of securing indemnity to an individual.” (People ex rel. Munsell v. Court of Oyer & Terminer, 101 N. Y. 245 , 248.) While the court may be set in motion by a person who has been injured, it acts to punish the wrong to the public rather than to redress the private injury.

All of the appellants knew that the injunction had been issued, one of them because it was personally served upon him and the others because they were present at a meeting held by the strikers when the existence and contents of the order were stated and advice was’given by one of the leaders’ to keep within the law. There was also evidence tending tó show that they discussed the terms of the injunction with different persons, talked about what they could and could not do in view of its. command, stated who -their'attorney-was1,

On the 26th of June, 1903, Albert Thurston, who was in the employ of the plaintiffs, left their factory when Powers took hold of his arm and said: “ If you come back here again, you will get your punching.”

On July 3rd, as said Thurston was entering the factory to work he was again stopped by Powers, who said : “ If you go down there to work you will get your God damned head plunked. You keep out of here.” On the same day at about five o’clock in the afternoon as Thurston and one Ernest Seib were leaving the factory they were met by some strikers, one of whom asked if they intended to keep on working for Stearns. They said they did and were thereupon assaulted, beaten and kicked by seven or eight strikers. Powers and Lillis were present and both incited the crowd to attack Thurston, Lillis saying, “ Now is your time,” while Powers said, “ Slug him one.” The referee further found that these acts were done for the purpose of intimidating Thurston and Seib and preventing them from continuing to work for the plaintiffs. These facts find ample support in the evidence and after the concurrent action of the courts below they are

The injunction permitted the use of all peaceful methods to induce workmen to leave the plaintiffs and join the strikers, but it forbade force, threats and intimidation. Both Benz and Powers used threats and Powers and Lillis instigated an assault. “ A person who directly or indirectly counsels, commands, induces or procures another to commitan assault is guilty of assault himself and subject to punishment as a principal. (Penal Code, § 29.) . When peaceable persuasion ended and threats and force began, both the command of the injunction and the command of the law,, independent of the injunction, were violated. This is a land of free speech, but freedom of speech does not permit the use of threats when an injunction is out against it. While persuasion is lawful, threats are not and it is dangerous to experiment in order to see how near one may come to a violation of an injunction without actually violating it. The command of the People, speaking through their' Supreme Court, is not to be trifled, with. (High on Injunctions [3d ed.], § 1427.)

It is insisted, however, in behalf of Benz and Powers that they cannot be adjudged guilty of criminal contempt, because they were not parties to the action in which the injunction was issued. This position is unsound. An injunction not only restrains the parties to the action in which it was granted, but also, when so drawn, those who act under or in connection with a party, as attorneys, agents or employees. No person with knowledge of the terms of an injunction, even if not a party himself, can aid or co-operate with a party in doing the prohibited act without incurring the penalty pre*scribed by statute. Otherwise, in order to make an injunction effective it would be necessary to join every person who could become an agent of a party in violating it. The law is n.ot so tender of those who defy its power and trample upon its command as to exempt them from punishment because

In Rigas v. Livingston ( 178 N. Y. 20 , 24) Judge Cullen said: “ It is true that persons not parties to the action may be bound by an injunction if they have knowledge of it, provided they .are servants or agents of the defendants or act in

It is further insisted in behalf of the same appellants that they cannot be lawfully punished for criminal contempt, because the injunction order was not personally served upon them. The rule upon the subject is well settled. “ This court has upheld proceedings in the Supreme Court, punishing parties for contempt in violating an injunction who had knowledge of it, though not served, and also the agents and attorneys of parties having like knowledge of the granting of the order, though it was imperfectly or irregularly served.” (Daly v. Amberg, 126 N. Y. 490 ,496, citing Abell v. N. Y., L. & W. R. R. Co., 18 Wkly. Dig. 554 ; affirmed, 100 N. Y. 634 ; Koehler v. Farmers and Drovers’ National Banlc, 6 N. Y. Supp. 470 ; affirmed, 117 N. Y. 661 . See, also, People ex rel. Platt v. Rice, 80 Hun, 437 ; 144 N. Y. 249 ; Null v. Thomas, 3 Edw. Ch. 236 ; People ex rel. Morrison v. Brower, 4 Paige, 405 ; Livingston v. Swift, 23 How. Pr. 1 ; Hearn v. Tennant, 14 Ves. Jr. 136.) In the case last cited the defendant and his attorney were committed for contempt in violating an order because they were present in court when the motion for an injunction was made, although they left before the decision was announced or the order signed. Lord Eldox said: “If these parties by their attendance in court were apprised that there was an order, that is sufficient; and I can not attend to a distinction so thin, as that persons standing here until the.moment the Lord Chancellor is about to pronounce the order, which from all that passed they must know will be pronounced, can by getting out of the Hall at this instant avoid all the consequences.”

While there is a distinction in the nature of civil and crimi

The Special Term awarded no costs against the appellants, but the Appellate Division inadvertently allowed costs against them. While the statute authorizes the imposition of costs in a proceeding to punish for a civil contempt, there is no such authority in a case of criminal contempt. (People ex rel. New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children v. Gilmore, 88 N. Y. 626 ; Boon v. McGucken, 67 Hun, 251 , and cases therein cited.)

The order appealed from should be so modified as to strike therefrom the allowance of costs and in all other respects affirmed.

Cullen, Oh. J., Gray, O’Bbien, Bartlett, Haight and Werner, JJ., concur.

Ordered accordingly.