Schneider v. Local Union No. 60, United Ass'n Journeymen Plumbers

Citations

• 116 La. 270
• 40 So. 700
• 1905 La. LEXIS 767

Syllabus

<p>1. Trade Unions—Obligation of Members.</p> <p>The obligation or pledge which an initiate in a labor union is required to take is to be construed with reference to the declared purposes of the organization, and is binding only in so far as those purposes are lawful and are to be attained by lawful means, and when such union attempts the accomplishment of an object which is foreign to the purposes for which it is organized, or attempts the accomplishment of those purposes by unlawful means, the initiate or member may properly say: “I entered into no such contract.”</p> <p>2. Contracts—Public Policy—Influencing ■ Appointment to Office.</p> <p>Agreements which tend to injure the public service are opposed to the policy of the law and will not be enforced by the courts. Of this character are agreements to use one’s influence to secure the election or appointment of a person to a public office, and those which restrict the free exercise of the discretion vested in a public officer for the public good.</p> <p>[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 11, Cent. Dig. Contracts, § 577.]</p> <p>3. Same.</p> <p>It is the duty of an officer having a power of appointment to make the best appointment in his power at the time the appointment is made, and it is against public policy that he should be deprived of the exercise of his best judgment by a contract previously made or an obligation previously assumed. Whatever may he the practice, appointments are, in theory, made for the public good.</p> <p>4. Trade Unions—Recommendation to Oenice—-Duties oe Members — Suspension — Reinstatement.</p> <p>The fact that the labor union of which the plaintiffs are members recommended another member for an office, the appointment to which rests with a board of public officers, the members of which, in turn, are appointed by the mayor and council of New Orleans, imposed no obligation upon the plaintiffs, upon their subsequently becoming members of said board, to vote for the candidate recommend