<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Case opinions </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Majority </Th> <Td> Lemuel Shaw </Td> </Tr> <P> Commonwealth v. Hunt, 45 Mass . 111 (1842) was a case in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of labor unions . Prior to Hunt the legality of labor combinations in America was uncertain . In March 1842, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that labor combinations were legal provided that they were organized for a legal purpose and used legal means to achieve their goals . </P> <P> The history of labor disputes in America substantially precedes the Revolutionary period . In 1636, for instance, there was a fishermen's strike on an island off the coast of Maine, and in 1677 twelve carmen were fined for going on strike in New York City . However, most instances of labor unrest during the colonial period were temporary and isolated, and rarely resulted in the formation of permanent groups of laborers for negotiation purposes . Little legal recourse was available to those injured by the unrest because strikes were not typically considered illegal . The only known case of a criminal prosecution of workers in the colonial era occurred as a result of a carpenters' strike in Savannah, Georgia in 1746 . </P>

In the case of commonwealth v. hunt the supreme court of massachusetts ruled that