American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO v. WJBK-TV (New World Communications of Detroit, Inc.)

• Decision Date: 14 January 1999
• Docket Number: AFL-CI,No. 97-2079,P,WJBK-TV,97-2079
• Parties: 160 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2193 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TELEVISION AND RADIO ARTISTS,laintiff, Warren Pierce, Plaintiff-Appellant, v.(NEW WORLD COMMUNICATIONS OF DETROIT, INC.); A & M Specialists, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1004

164 F.3d 1004

160 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2193

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TELEVISION AND RADIO ARTISTS, AFL-CIO, Plaintiff, Warren Pierce, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WJBK-TV (NEW WORLD COMMUNICATIONS OF DETROIT, INC.); A & M

Specialists, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 97-2079.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Oct. 29, 1998.

Decided Jan. 14, 1999.

Steven Z. Cohen, Bloomfield Hills, MI, for Plaintiff.

Steven Z. Cohen (argued and briefed), Frederick D. Elias, Cohen & Elias, Bloomfield Hills, MI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Herschel P. Fink, Honigman, Miller, Schwartz & Cohn, Detroit, MI, Mark E. Hunt (argued and briefed), King & Ballow, Nashville, TN, for WJBK-TV, New World Communications of Detroit, Inc.

Julie C. Mayer, Mark H. Fink (argued and briefed), Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth, Heller & Pesses, Southfield, MI, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before: GUY, CLAY, and GILMAN, Circuit Judges.

GUY, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which GILMAN, J., joined. CLAY, J. (pp. 1010-15), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

RALPH B. GUY, Jr., Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff, Warren Pierce, appeals from the district court's dismissal of this action seeking enforcement of a subpoena duces tecum issued to defendant A & M Specialists, Inc., by the arbitrator in a grievance proceeding between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO (AFTRA or Union), and his former employer, defendant WJBK-TV (New World Communications of Detroit, Inc.) (WJBK). ¹ Pierce argues on appeal that the district court erred by refusing to enforce the subpoena under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 185, or § 7 of the Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 7. We agree and reverse the judgment of the district court.

I.

Pierce was employed by WJBK as a news anchor, reporter, and talk show host, under an individual contract and a collective bargaining agreement. The collective bargaining agreement provided for "final, binding and conclusive" arbitration of grievances. ² On November 30, 1995, WJBK terminated Pierce's employment. WJBK contends that, among other things, Pierce violated the terms of his contract and code of business conduct when he misused automobile privileges extended to him by certain automobile companies. Pierce grieved the discharge arguing, in part, that other media personalities guilty of similar abuses were not disciplined or discharged. The dispute was submitted to arbitration pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement.

A & M, which was not a party to the employment contract or the grievance, is in the business of maintaining, storing, and delivering automobiles to third persons, including media personalities, on behalf of various automobile manufacturers. Aside from the arbitrator's subpoena at issue in this case, Pierce made several other unsuccessful attempts to subpoena records from A & M. The arbitrator issued his subpoena on August 30, 1996, directing A & M to appear at the office of plaintiff's counsel on September 6, 1996, and at the arbitration hearing scheduled for September 13, 1996, and to produce records concerning the use of its vehicles by media personalities. A & M refused to comply and filed a petition to quash the subpoena with the district court. In response, Pierce asked the district court to enforce the subpoena. The district court dismissed the action in February 1997, for failing to allege any basis for subject matter jurisdiction.

In June 1997, Pierce and the Union filed this action seeking once again to enforce the arbitrator's subpoena issued August 30, 1996. The district court ordered A & M to show cause why it should not be required to comply. Both WJBK and A & M filed motions to dismiss and the district court heard oral argument. In September 1997, the district court granted the defendants' motions to dismiss and denied the plaintiffs' request to enforce the subpoena. Finding that it had subject matter jurisdiction and authority to enforce the subpoena under § 301 of the LMRA, the district court nonetheless refused to enforce it on the grounds that the information was "irrelevant to the decision to be made by the arbitrator." The district court explained:

The parties, through the arbitrator, may seek and obtain knowledge of what WJBK knew about the use and misuse, if any, of A & M-provided automobiles by other WJBK employees. This information will allow the arbitrator to answer the question whether WJBK treated Mr. Pierce any differently from other employees known to [have] been provided automobiles by A & M, if there are any such employees. The "everybody's doing it" defense is not relevant unless WJBK knew other WJBK employees, covered by the AFTRA contract, were engaged in behavior substantially similar to that for which Mr. Pierce was apparently terminated.

That A & M provided automobiles to employees of media other than WJBK could only be relevant if WJBK knew this at a level of cognition sufficient to prompt a more moderate reaction to Mr. Pierce's alleged violation of company policy. This, too, is a matter of what WJBK knew and evidence of that must be obtained, at least in the first instance, from WJBK, the employer party to the collective bargaining agreement.

(Emphasis in original). Pierce appeals from this decision.

II.

A. Subject Matter Jurisdiction

The district court found that it had subject matter jurisdiction of this case under § 301 of the LMRA. We agree. Care must be taken in addressing the question of jurisdiction because this is an independent action, rather than a claim "embedded" in another controversy over which the district court already had subject matter jurisdiction. The amended complaint filed by Pierce and the Union specifically alleged that the court had jurisdiction arising under § 301 of the LMRA, § 7 of the FAA, and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1332. ³ Plaintiffs also alleged that the grievance was being arbitrated pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement between the plaintiffs and WJBK.

District courts have federal question jurisdiction of cases "arising under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1331. A case arises under federal law when an issue of federal law appears on the face of a well-pled complaint. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U.S. 58, 63, 107 S.Ct. 1542, 95 L.Ed.2d 55 (1987). "Merely referring to a federal statute, however, does not establish federal jurisdiction if the dispute does not involve 'a substantial question of federal law.' " Ford v. Hamilton Inv., Inc., 29 F.3d 255, 258 (6th Cir.1994) (citing Franchise Tax Bd. v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 28, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983)).

Notwithstanding plaintiff's averments, it is well established that the Federal Arbitration Act does not create any independent federal question jurisdiction. See Moses H. Cone Mem'l Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 25 n. 32, 103 S.Ct. 927, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983) (The FAA creates "a body of federal substantive law establishing and regulating the duty to honor an agreement to arbitrate, yet it does not create any independent federal-question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (1976 ed. Supp. V) or otherwise.") Likewise, we have held that the federal nature of the underlying claims submitted to arbitration does not confer federal question jurisdiction over a suit to confirm an arbitration award since the rights asserted "are actually based on the contract to arbitrate rather than on the underlying substantive claims." Detroit Pension Fund v. Prudential Sec., Inc., 91 F.3d 26, 29 (6th Cir.1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1119, 117 S.Ct. 1252, 137 L.Ed.2d 333 (1997). See also Smith Barney, Inc. v. Sarver, 108 F.3d 92, 94 (6th Cir.1997); Collins v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, 103 F.3d 35, 38 (6th Cir.1996); Ford, 29 F.3d 255.

In contrast with Detroit Pension Fund, Smith Barney, and Collins, the agreement to arbitrate in this case is part of a collective bargaining agreement governed by § 301 of the LMRA and, therefore, the agreement to arbitrate itself arises under federal law. Not only does § 301 of the LMRA confer jurisdiction over all suits "for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization," it is also a source of substantive law for the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements, including suits to compel arbitration. See Textile Workers Union v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957). In this case, Pierce and the Union sued the employer and A & M seeking to enforce a subpoena issued by an arbitrator in a grievance proceeding being conducted pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement. We find this action arises under § 301 of the LMRA. ⁴

A & M argues that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because A & M was not a party to the collective bargaining agreement and did not agree to arbitrate disputes with the Union, Pierce, or WJBK. ⁵ This argument begs the real question because the issue in this case is not whether A & M can be forced to arbitrate a dispute, but whether, as a non-party, it can be compelled to produce documents in the arbitration between Pierce and WJBK. As the Supreme Court has observed, "[t]he nature of the relief available after jurisdiction attaches is, of course, different from the question whether there is jurisdiction to adjudicate the controversy. The relief in § 301 cases varies ... [b]ut the breadth or narrowness of the relief which may be granted under federal law in § 301 cases is a distinct question from whether the court has jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter." Avco Corp. v. Aero Lodge 735, Int'l Ass'n of Machinists, 390 U.S. 557, 561, 88 S.Ct. 1235, 20 L.Ed.2d 126 (1968). We find that the action seeking enforcement of the arbitrator's subpoena in a grievance conducted pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement arises under § 301 and, therefore, the district court...