Daniel B. Van Campen Corporation v. Building and Construction Trades Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity

In Daniel B. Van Campen Corporation v. Building and Construction Trades Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity, 202 Pa. Super. 118, 195 A.2d 134 (Pa. Super. 1963), the Superior Court addressed a claim by a contractor seeking damages because it was a victim of an illegal secondary boycott of the unions who were attempting to force a subcontractor to be a union shop. It alleged that the city was liable because it failed to assist in taking actions in removing the boycott or attempting to have the subcontractor become a union shop. In answering that question, the Superior Court stated: Since the City had a positive duty under the law to let contracts of this nature to the lowest bidder, Taylor v. Philadelphia, 261 Pa. 458, 104 A. 766, and since it would be illegal for it to distinguish between contractors employing union people from those employing people who were not organized, Anthony P. Miller, Inc. v. Wilmington Housing Authority, D.C., 165 F.Supp. 275; Glassman v. Philadelphia, 9 Pa.Dist. & Co.R.2d 495, we cannot read into the contract the implied provision asserted by plaintiff. Id., 195 A.2d at 137.