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Batson v. Shiflett3/12/1992
In Batson v. Shiflett, 86 Md. App. 340, 586 A.2d 792 (1991), the Court of Special Appeals affirmed a judgment entered on a jury verdict in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County awarding compensatory and punitive damages against petitioners, Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, IAM, District Lodge 4 (National Union) and Arthur E. Batson, Jr., its President, in favor of respondent, A. Spencer Shiflett, Jr., former President of Local 33, an affiliate of the National Union. The jury credited Shiflett's allegations that he was defamed in leaflets disseminated and speeches made by Batson and subjected to intentional infliction of emotional distress by the National Union and Batson in the course of a heated labor dispute. We granted certiorari to consider the following issues:
-- whether the decision below violated principles of issue preclusion and of federal labor law preemption.
-- whether the evidence demonstrated that the allegedly defamatory statements at issue were substantially true, or, even if they were not, whether there was clear and convincing evidence that the statements were made with actual (constitutional) malice.
-- whether the jury was properly instructed as to the element of malice in the defamation action.
-- whether the holding that petitioners' conduct was sufficiently "extreme and outrageous" to permit recovery for intentional infliction of emotional distress conflicts with Maryland law, federal labor law, or the First Amendment.
I.
Shiflett began his employment at the Sparrows Point shipyard of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, (Bethlehem) in 1967, and shortly thereafter became a member of Local 33. After serving in a variety of local union offices, Shiflett was elected President of Local 33 in 1980, and was re-elected in
1983. The facts underlying this appeal stem from a dispute that arose in 1984, while Shiflett was president of Local 33. The National Union and Local 33 together maintained a collective bargaining agreement covering Bethlehem's shipyard at Sparrows Point. That agreement was due to expire on August 19, 1984.
In March of 1984, Local 33 and Bethlehem executed a new long-term agreement which substantially reduced wages and benefits at the Sparrows Point shipyard. The National Union denied having any knowledge of the negotiations and denied authorizing Local 33 to negotiate the agreement. Batson and the National Union's General Executive Board immediately repudiated the new agreement and threatened to place Local 33 in trusteeship, which would have resulted in Shiflett's ouster as President. Bethlehem and Local 33 claimed that Batson and the National Union had authorized Local 33 to negotiate the agreement without involving the National Union. Consequently, an intense legal battle erupted.
As a result of the National Union's attempts to nullify the agreement, Local 33 and Bethlehem filed identical unfair labor practice charges against the National Union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Local 33 and Bethlehem alleged that the National Union's repudiation of the new agreement constituted the unfair labor practice of a "refusal to bargain" in violation of § 8(b)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169 (1988). Local 33 also charged that the National Union violated § 8(b)(1)(A) of the NLRA by filing internal union charges against officials of Local 33, including Shiflett, in order to remove them from office. A lengthy evidentiary
hearing was held before NLRB Administrative Law Judge David Evans. The crucial contested fact in th
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