Note 661 — Chapter X

Trade Unionists would be well advised not to presume too far on this apparently absolute immunity from legal proceedings. It must not be imagined that either the ingenuity of the lawyers or the prejudice of the judges has been exhausted. It has already been urged that the immunity of a Trade Union from being sued should be regarded as implicitly limited to acts done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute; but such a limitation has so far been negatived (Vacher v. London Society of Compositors, 29 T.R. 73). It is now suggested that the immunity might one day be held to be limited to acts committed by a Trade Union in the exercise of its specifically Trade Union functions, or for the “statutory objects” of Trade Unions as defined by the Act, and not to acts which the Court might hold to be beyond its legitimate scope, or not specifically connected with what they might in their wisdom consider to be the principal purpose of a Trade Union. (But see Shinwell v. National Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union, 1913, a decision of the Scottish Court of Session, limiting the liability of a Union to reimburse its trustees for damages incurred by them.) Thus, a new Taff Vale case, at a moment when public opinion was exceptionally hostile to Trade Unionism, is by no means impossible. Similarly, Trade Union officials should remember that their privileged position is confined to a trade dispute, which, as specifically defined in the Act, does not include all strikes; and what limits the Courts might set to the phrase is uncertain. Moreover, the Trade Disputes Act does not repeal other statutes; and Trade Union officials have been fined for persuading sailors not to embark, in contravention of the Merchant Shipping Acts. The Trade Disputes Act does not protect officials committing illegalities other than those to which it expressly refers, or under circumstances other than those indicated. See Valentine v. Hyde (1919); Conway v. Wade (1908), A.C. 506; Larkin v. Belfast Harbour Commissioners (1908), 2 Ir.K.B.D. 214; Legal Position of Trade Unions, by H. H. Slesser and W. S. Clark, 1912.