AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT.

Hastings Standard, Issue 503, 16 December 1897, Page 2

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT.

AFFECTING WORKING MEN. (Per Press Association.—Copyriyht. , London, Dec. 15 In the action of Allen rer-sm Food, fhe House of Lords allowed the appeal with costs. This was a case in which two workmen, Food and Taylor, recovered damages from Allen, the London delegate of the Boilermakers Union. Some dispute arose between the shipwrights and boilermakers as to the limits of their respective work. Both Food and Taylor, as shipwrights, were discoveved to have done ironwork in another yard. Allen informed the manager of the Glengall Iron Company that if the two men were not discharged the other men would strike. The men were discharged and took action against Allen. The jury awarded a verdict for the plaintiffs, which the Court of Appeal subsequently confirmed. In delivering their present judgment Loi'ds Halsbury, Ashburne and Morris upheld the Court of Appeal, but Lords Herschell, Macnaughton, Watson, Shand, Davey, James, and Hare ford reversed the decision of the Court below. Lord Herschell held the act of Allen prima t'aeie a lawful one, and not unlawful or actionable on account of the motives dictating it. Lord M'Naughton said the decision did not impair the law relating to oppressive combination and boycotting.

The Standard remarks that the decision is a severe blow struck at the workman's individual liberty. The action is the most important militant to trades unionism ever wrested from a legal tribunal.