On Monday, Mr. Justice. Coleridge •delivered judgment in a case
brought- by a workman, Mr. Samuel Blackall, against his trade union. After• being a member of the- union for twenty-five years, Mr. Blackall was fined for doing three-quarters of an hour overtime work for which he did not ask to be paid. As he was-not given a hearing, he considered the fine unjust, and refused to pay either it. or his subscription to the. union. Slightly under twenty weeks later he was excluded from the union for not paying the subscription. He then applied to the Court for an injunction to restrain the union from expelling him. The judge granted the injunction, on the ground that he could' not be expelled under the by-laws of the union, which provided that at least twenty- weeks' non-payment of subscription should exclude a - member. The full; twenty weeks . had not elapsed ; a fortunate chlince which gave, as it were, a loophole to the judge. It is- worth noticing that this technical mistake on the part of the union was the only ground for Mr. Justice- Coleridge's decision, and that in the ordinary course of events there would be no remedy against such an injustice. The judge made some apt observations on the subject of " brotherhood."
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