Lord Shand.... The case was one of competition in labor, which, in my opinion, is in all essentials analogous to competition in trade, and to which the same principles must apply; and I ask myself what would be the thought of the application of the word “malicious” to the conduct of a tradesman who induces the customer of another tradesman to cease making purchases from one with whom he had long dealt, and instead to deal with him, a rival in trade. The case before the jury was, in my view, in no way different, except that in the one case there was competition in labor,—in the other there would be competition in trade.
Some of the learned consulted judges speak of Allen’s conduct as having been caused by a desire to inflict “punishment” on the shipwrights for past acts, and indicate that, if the shipwrights had been actually working at ironwork on the vessel at the time, the case would have been different.[[601]]
I cannot agree in any such view. “Punishment” in a wide and popular sense may possibly be used, though incorrectly, to describe the boilermakers’ action; but it is quite clear that what they were resolved to do, and really did, was, while marking their sense of the injury which they thought (rightly or wrongly is not the question) the shipwrights were doing to them in trenching on their proper lines of business, to take a practical measure in their own defence. Their object was to benefit themselves in their own business as working boilermakers, and to prevent a recurrence in the future of what they considered an improper invasion on their special department of work. How this could possibly be regarded as “malicious,” even in any secondary sense that can reasonably be attributed to that term, I cannot see.
Coming now directly to the merits of the question in controversy in the case, the argument of the plaintiffs and the reasons for the opinions of the majority of the consulted judges seem to me to fail, because, although it is no doubt true that the plaintiffs were entitled to pursue their trade as workmen “without hindrance,” their right to do so was qualified by an equal right, and indeed the same right, on the part of other workmen. The hindrance must not be of an unlawful character. It must not be by unlawful action. Amongst the rights of all workmen is the right of competition. In the like manner and to the same extent as a workman has a right to pursue his work or labor without hindrance, a trader has a right to trade without hindrance. That right is subject to the right of others to trade also, and to subject him to competition,—competition which is in itself lawful, and which cannot be complained of where no unlawful means (in the sense I have already explained) have been employed. The matter has been settled in so far as competition in trade is concerned by the judgment of this House in the Mogul Steamship Co. Case, [1892] A. C. 25. I can see no reason for saying that a different principle should apply to competition in labor. In the course of such competition, and with a view to secure an advantage to himself, I can find no reason for saying that a workman is not within his legal rights in resolving that he will decline to work in the same employment with certain other persons, and in intimating that resolution to his employers.
[The opinions of Lord Davey and Lord James of Hereford, in favor of reversing the order of the Court of Appeal are omitted.]
Order of the Court of Appeal reversed and judgment entered for the appellant with costs here and below including the costs of the trial: cause remitted to the Queen’s Bench Division.[[602]]
LEATHEM v. CRAIG
Queen’s Bench Division, Ireland, November 22, 1898.
Court of Appeal, Ireland, May 2, 1899.
Reported in [1899] 2 Irish Reports, 667, 744.
QUINN v. LEATHEM
In the House of Lords, August 5, 1901.
Reported in [1901] Appeal Cases, 495.[[603]]
This was an action tried before FitzGibbon, L. J., at the Belfast Summer Assizes, 1896, brought against the defendants for damages for maliciously and wrongfully procuring certain persons to break contracts into which they had entered with the plaintiff, and not to enter into other contracts with the plaintiff; and for maliciously and wrongfully enticing and procuring certain workmen in the employment of such persons to leave the service of their employers and to break their contracts of service, with intent to injure the plaintiff, and to prevent such persons from carrying out their contracts with the plaintiff, and from entering into other contracts with the plaintiff; and for maliciously and wrongfully intimidating such persons, and coercing them to break their contracts with the plaintiff; and intimidating such servants in their employ, and coercing them to leave the service of their employers, to the injury of the plaintiff; and for unlawfully conspiring, together with other persons, to do the acts aforesaid, with intent to injure the plaintiff.