## Facts

- A teachers’ association served as the collective-bargaining representative for teachers in a regional New Hampshire school district.
- The parties agreed to negotiate during 1973 for a 1974–75 contract, but negotiations began late and continued into early 1974 with limited agreement.
- Many key proposals (including salary-related and other employment conditions) were treated by the school board as nonnegotiable.
- Before a salary agreement was reached, the school board submitted salary proposals to a budget committee, which the association later discovered.
- The association began a strike on February 26, 1974, resulting in closure of two schools.
- The school district petitioned the superior court to enjoin the association from engaging in or supporting the strike.
- A master recommended that the injunction be denied at that time but that the petition remain on file to be brought forward later if necessary; the superior court approved that recommendation.

## Issues

1. Whether the superior court erred by denying an injunction against a teachers’ strike where public-employee strikes are unlawful.
2. Whether the court could, consistent with statutory policy, deny immediate injunctive relief while keeping the petition on file to permit further bargaining.
3. Whether the denial of immediate injunctive relief constituted an abuse of equitable discretion.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Hampshire affirmed the decree denying an immediate injunction and leaving the petition on file.
- Although public employees had no right to strike, injunctive relief was not automatic and remained governed by equitable discretion.
- The trial court acted within its discretion in concluding that bargaining and compromise had not been exhausted and in reserving the ability to grant relief later if warranted.

## Legal Principles

- Strikes by public employees, including public-school teachers, are unlawful under New Hampshire law.
- The illegality of conduct does not require a court of equity to issue an injunction in every case; an injunction is an extraordinary remedy.
- A trial court may deny immediate injunctive relief and keep a petition on file where the court reasonably finds that further bargaining may resolve the dispute and later judicial action remains available.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a discretionary, equitable approach to an unlawful public-school teachers’ strike: the trial court could refuse to issue an immediate injunction while preserving jurisdiction to grant relief if continued negotiations failed.


Timberlane Reg'l Sch. Dist. v. Timberlane Reg'l Educ. Ass'n, 114 N.H. 245, 317 A.2d 555 (1974)