Ventimiglia v. United States

Frank Ventimiglia and James Parran (defendants), officers of non-union contractor Weather-Mastic, Inc., were indicted for conspiracy to violate the Taft-Hartley Act's prohibition on employer payments to any representative of its employees. Weather-Mastic worked as a subcontractor on a union-controlled job, and industry practice required non-union employees on such jobs to hold union-issued "working cards"; when local union business agent Joseph Martin became upset that Ventimiglia, rather than Martin himself, had issued working cards to Weather-Mastic employees, the defendants agreed to pay Martin $100 per card issued. Martin never actually represented any Weather-Mastic employees in any other capacity. The defendants were convicted of conspiracy but acquitted of the underlying substantive Act violations, and they appealed.