Opinion
39521.
DECIDED MAY 17, 1962.
Action for damages. Bibb Superior Court. Before Judge Aultman.
Wilson, Branch Barwick, Robert Thompson, Thomas S. Bentley, Lokey Bowden, Hamilton Lokey, Glen Frick, Jones, Sparks, Benton Cork, Frank Jones, for plaintiff in error.
Nall, Miller, Cadenhead Dennis, A. David Kahn, James W. Dorsey, Martin, Snow, Grant Napier, Cubbedge Snow, contra.
1. Service may be perfected upon an unincorporated organization by service upon a member of such organization who is employed by the president as a field representative to organize locals, solicit applications for membership, service such locals, handle grievances and aid in negotiating contracts, etc., under the supervision of a regional director who is also employed by such president.
2. While service may be perfected upon an unincorporated organization by serving an "official member" of a branch or local, service cannot be perfected upon such an unincorporated organization by serving an "official member" of a successor organization or an "official member" of an organization that, at the time of service, has no connection with the organization sought to be served.
DECIDED MAY 17, 1962.
Mrs. Russell W. Smith sued United Construction Workers, District 50, United Mine Workers of America; District 50, United Mine Workers of America; and United Mine Workers of America to recover her damages resulting from the alleged willful and tortious acts of the defendants, their agents, employees and members in shooting her husband. The defendants traversed the entries of service of process and, after amendments had been filed to the returns of service and the separate traverses amended, the trial court, hearing the issue thus made without the intervention of a jury, sustained the traverse of each defendant and thereafter dismissed the petition because it appeared that no further service could be made on the defendants in Bibb County. The plaintiff assigns error on the judgments adverse to her.
1. The first question to be dealt with is whether the person served as an "official member" of District 50, United Mine Workers of America, was a person authorized by the act of 1959 (Ga. L. 1959, p. 44; Code Ann. § 3-117 et seq.), to receive service for such defendant. The person served was a member of such union and was an employee of such union (field representative), being appointed by the president of the union, and under the supervision of a regional director, also appointed by the president, worked as an organizer, took applications for membership, serviced local unions, handled grievances and helped local unions negotiate contracts.
In Claycraft Co. v. United Mine Workers, 204 F.2d 600, it was held that a regional director with duties similar to those of the person upon whom service of process was served was an agent upon whom service of process could be perfected so as to bind the international union. Certainly, if such a person is an agent upon whom service may be perfected he is, under the act of 1959, supra, a member who would be classified as an "official member" of such union. Accordingly, as to District 50, United Mine Workers of America, the judgment sustaining the traverse must be reversed.
2. No question is presented for decision as to whether District 50, United Mine Workers of America, is a successor organization to United Construction Workers, District 50, United Mine Workers of America, or successor to an organization that was, at the time the injuries were inflicted upon the plaintiff's husband, an arm or division of the United Mine Workers of America. The sole question is whether, at the time of service, the person served was an "official member" of such organizations. Under the undisputed evidence at the time of service the person served was not a member of the United Mine Workers of America, and the United Construction Workers, District 50, United Mine Workers of America had ceased to exist prior to the time such service was perfected. As to these two organizations the attacks on the service of process were properly sustained, there being no showing that any of the organizations had, at the time of service, any connection with the others that would authorize service upon them by serving an "official member" of District 50, United Mine Workers of America. See Section 3 of the act of 1959, supra ( Code Ann. § 3-119).
The cases of Claycraft Co. v. United Mine Workers, 204 F.2d 600, supra, and United Mine Workers v. Meadow Creek Coal Co., 263 F.2d 52, do not authorize or require a different decision as to these defendants inasmuch as the evidence in those cases discloses that at the time those cases were tried District 50, United Mine Workers of America, was not a separate and distinct organization but a mere branch or local of the United Mine Workers of America operating under it and without any constitution of its own. The record here discloses without contradiction that District 50, United Mine Workers of America, has its own constitution and is an autonomous organization according to such constitution.
Judgment affirmed in part; reversed in part. Frankum and Jordan, JJ., concur.