D. C. Thomson & Co v Deakin and Others [1952] Ch 646

Facts: The plaintiffs were D. C. Thomson & Co Ld., a limited company carrying on business in Dundee, Manchester, Glasgow and London as owners, printers, publishers and sellers of a large number of newspapers and periodicals. The defendants were Mr Arthur Deakin, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, Mr John Wood and Mr C.E. Intin, the trade group secretary and regional secretary respectively of the union, Mr Richard W. Briginshaw, general secretary of the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants, and Mr W.A. Morrison, secretary of the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers. The plaintiffs sought to restrain the defendants from doing any further act, whether by themselves, their agents or workmen, with a view to causing or procuring a breach or breaches by Bowaters Sales Ld., of Park Place, St James’s, London, or any other company, firm or person of any contract between the plaintiffs and Bowaters Sales Ld., or such other company, firm, or person, for the supply of newsprint or any other goods whatsoever to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs’ case as regards paper, is that the defendants persuaded, induced or procured employees of Bowaters (that is, drivers employed by Bowaters Sales Company Ld., and loaders employed by Bowaters Mersey Mills Ld.) to break their contracts of employment by refusing to drive lorries loaded with, or to load lorries with, paper destined for the plaintiffs, with the object and intention of causing Bowaters to break, or making it impossible for them to fulfil, their contract for the supply of paper to the plaintiffs; and that the defendants did in fact, by the means stated, produce the intended result.