Local Joint Executive Board of Spokane v. Spokane Lodge No. 228, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks

Local Joint Executive Board of Spokane and two of its local unions (Joint Board) brought this action for breach of a collective bargaining agreement pursuant to section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 185 . The defendant, Spokane Lodge No. 228, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (Spokane Lodge), raised fraud, mutual mistake, and lack of authority in its manager to enter into the agreement as affirmative defenses to the existence of an enforceable contract. The case was submitted to a jury on the issue of liability, and the jury found for the defendant, Spokane Lodge. The trial judge granted plaintiff’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and entered judgment in favor of Joint Board, from which Spokane Lodge appeals.

In ruling on a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, as on a motion for directed verdict, the court must view the evidence and all reasonable inferences to be drawn from it in the light most favorable to the party that obtained the verdict, and we must do likewise on appeal. Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., 1962, 370 U.S. 690 , 696 n. 6, 82 S.Ct. 1404 , 8 L.Ed.2d 777 .

We have thus viewed…