Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, a Corp. v. East Bay Union of MacHinists Local 1304, Etc.

This is an action brought by the appel-lee Unions against the appellant, here called Fibreboard, to recover damages on account of an alleged breach by Fibre-board of a collective bargaining agreement between the Union on the one hand and Fibreboard on the other. Answering the complaint, Fibreboard, in addition to denying certain of its allegations, pleaded three separate affirmative defenses which we shall describe shortly. The Union moved to strike these three affirm ative defenses and the court sustained the motion to strike the second and third and denied the motion to strike the first of such defenses. Pursuant to the trial court’s determination that an immediate appeal from such order would materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation, this court pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b), granted appellant’s application to take this appeal which has now been briefed and argued and is before us for decision.

The record upon which the trial court made its ruling was not limited to the pleadings alone. The ruling took into account other facts, as we shall note. These disclosed that Fibreboard had a manufacturing plant at Emeryville, California ; that…