Security Farms v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffers, Warehousemen & Helpers

This opinion springs from controversies possible only in a highly specialized, vertically integrated industry, heavily dependent on relatively low skilled agricultural workers, whom a strong international union seeks to organize, and in which each major party is more than amply represented by members of the legal profession. The opinion thus reflects both the soil of California and the intense competitiveness of its people.

This case involves three defendants and three separate but related appeals. The appeals derive from Security Farms’ and other agricultural growers’ (“Growers”) 1 request *1005 for damages for losses suffered by Growers in 1989 during a strike by General Teamsters, Warehousemen and Helpers Union, Local 890 (“Local 890”), against Bud Antle, Inc. (“Bud Antle”), a contractor of labor harvesting crops in California. Growers also seek to recover damages from the Local’s parent union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (“the International”), and an intermediate union within the International’s structure, Joint Council No.> 7 0‘the Joint Council”).

I.

BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Bud Antle is a vertically integrated company which harvests, packs,…

dissenting in part:

I concur in all of the opinion except section 2(C), regarding Rule 11 sanctions against the Growers’ attorneys. I respectfully dissent as to the sanctions, and would reverse that award. In my view, the district court was misled by the Teamsters’ attorneys into a Conclusion for which there was no foundation.

The conclusion, the basis for the sanctions, was that the Growers attorneys had filed declarations by imposters, people who claimed in the declarations to have picketed violently at the Local’s behest, but who were not really the individuals named in those declarations. .The judge did not conclude that the sanctioned attorneys willfully or knowingly sought to deceive the court. Rather, he found that the attorneys should have been more careful to verify the declarations, and were gulled by a private.investigator they should not have trusted.

The majority assumes that the declarations were in fact by imposters, and that the Growers’ attorneys presented a “pure heart and empty head” defense. The assumption is mistaken. The Growers’ attorneys’ position is that the declarations were true, by the persons who purported to make them, ■ or at least they had no…