Williams v. Phillips Petroleum Co.

Citation23 F.3d 930
Decision Date24 June 1994
Docket NumberNo. 93-2478,93-2478
Parties9 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. (BNA) 1103 Cynthia WILLIAMS, Lorenzo Harris, Shelly Hill, Hallie Cloud, Frelander Yarbrough, Jr., Donald Jackson, Clyde Warner, Dwjana Lawson, Jackie Martin, and Huey Cunningham, Individually and on Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, W. Wayne Allen, and C.J. Pete Silas, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Julius J. Larry, III, Houston, TX, for appellant.

Kerry E. Notestine, Robert J. Fries, Sr. Atty., Bracewell & Patterson, Houston, TX, for appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before SMITH and BARKSDALE, Circuit Judges, and WALTER, * District Judge.

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs appeal a summary judgment in favor of defendants on claims under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act ("WARN"). Finding no error, we dismiss the appeal. Concluding that the appeal is frivolous and that plaintiffs' counsel's attacks on opposing counsel and the district court are baseless and scurrilous, we award attorneys' fees and double costs under FED.R.APP.P. 38.

I.
A.

In 1992, Phillips Petroleum Company, Phillips Gas Holding Company, Inc. ("PGHC"), and Phillips 66 Company, a division of Phillips Petroleum Company, reduced their work forces at their Houston Chemical Complex ("HCC"). Phillips Petroleum Company laid off over 500 employees in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and provided them with sixty days' advance written notice. The company laid off many of those employees in May 1992, including Clyde Warner, Dwjana Lawson, Jackie Martin, and Huey Cunningham (the "Bartlesville plaintiffs").

HCC laid off twenty-seven employees who worked at three different locations in the Houston area and did not give any of them sixty-day written notices. HCC laid off five employees in December 1991, sixteen employees from March to July 1992, and six employees in September 1992. From March through June 1992, PGHC laid off forty employees who worked in three different single sites of employment. Thirty-one employees worked in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, eight in Houston, and one in Washington, D.C.

PGHC gave all the employees who worked in Bartlesville and four employees who worked in Houston sixty days' written notice of the layoff. The remaining laid-off PGHC employees did not receive sixty days' notice.

Five of the plaintiffs (collectively "Williams" or the "original plaintiffs") worked for HCC, which laid off Cynthia Williams and Shelly Hill in March 1992 and Hallie Cloud, Frelander Yarbrough, Jr., and Donald Jackson in September 1992; the other named plaintiff, Lorenzo Harris, worked for PGHC in Houston. PGHC laid off Harris in March 1992. The defendants did not provide sixty-days' written notice to any of the original plaintiffs. No original plaintiff worked in Bartlesville, although the Bartlesville plaintiffs all worked in Bartlesville.

Phillips Petroleum Company laid off the Bartlesville plaintiffs in March 1992 and provided sixty-day written notices. The original and Bartlesville plaintiffs all signed releases after their terminations in exchange for enhanced layoff benefits.

B.

The original plaintiffs brought this action for alleged violations of WARN, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 2101-2109, alleging that Phillips Petroleum Company and two of its officers, W.W. Allen, and C.J. Silas (collectively "Phillips"), 1 laid them off without providing the sixty-day written notice required by WARN.

On January 25, 1993, defendants requested summary judgment on the grounds that WARN was not implicated because the layoffs were not from a single site and that even if the single-site requirement was met, the plaintiffs had signed written releases of their claims against Phillips. Plaintiffs filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, asking that the written releases be declared invalid.

On April 26, 1993, the original plaintiffs moved to join unnamed new parties to the lawsuit, stating that the new parties would be individuals who had been laid off from Phillips's operations in Bartlesville. The district court denied the motion.

The district court granted summary judgment to Phillips in an order and separate judgment entered on June 8, 1993. In that order, the district court identified several outstanding motions from both parties, rendered summary judgment for Phillips on all issues, and declared all other motions pending at that time to be moot.

On June 14, 1993, the plaintiffs attempted to have the Bartlesville plaintiffs join this action. In an order of July 26, 1993, the court denied all motions filed after the entry of final judgment. The court reserved ruling in its July 26 order on the defendants' bill of costs, which included a request for attorneys' fees, and has not ruled on the defendants' bill of costs at this time.

II.

Plaintiffs stated in their notice of appeal that they were appealing "the final judgment entered in this action on the 8th day of June, 1993." In its June 8 order, the court rendered summary judgment on the original plaintiffs' claims against the defendants, denied the original plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, and held that all other pending motions were moot. The court issued another order dated July 26, denying all motions filed after the June 8 order, including the original plaintiffs' attempt to join the Bartlesville plaintiffs. Because the plaintiffs appealed only the June 8 order, the only issues the plaintiffs perfected for appeal are the decisions made in that order. The motion to join the Bartlesville plaintiffs has not been preserved for appeal.

III.
A.

The district court rendered summary judgment because no mass layoff occurred at the single sites of employment where the original plaintiffs worked. Whether multiple work locations constitute a "single site of employment" under WARN is a mixed question of fact and law. Carpenters District Council v. Dillard Dep't Stores, 15 F.3d 1275, 1289 (5th Cir.1994). Reviewing de novo the issue of whether the Houston and Bartlesville employment locations constitute a "single site of employment", we agree with the district court and hold that the Houston and Bartlesville locations were not a single site of employment.

WARN requires covered employers to provide "affected employees" notice of a mass layoff. "Affected employees" include "employees who may reasonably be expected to experience an employment loss as a consequence of a proposed plant closing or mass layoff by their employer." 29 U.S.C. Sec. 2101(a)(5). A "mass layoff" is defined as any employment loss at a single site of employment that involves one-third of the employees at that site and at least fifty employees, or at least 500 employees. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 2101(a)(3); 20 C.F.R. Sec. 639.3(c). If a "mass layoff" occurs, the employer must provide written notice to each affected employee at least sixty days prior to the layoff and inform various state and local officials of the mass layoff. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 2102. An employer who violates WARN is liable for back pay, lost benefits, civil penalties, and attorneys' fees. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 2104.

1.

The statute does not define a "single site of employment." The rules promulgated by the Secretary of Labor provide that "[n]on-contiguous sites in the same geographic area which do not share the same staff or operational purpose should not be considered a single site." 20 C.F.R. Sec. 639.3(i)(4). Groups of structures within a campus or industrial park, or separate facilities across the street from one another, may be considered a single site of employment. Two plants on opposite sides of a town do not constitute a single site of employment if they employ different workers. See 20 C.F.R. Sec. 639.3(i)(1), (4).

The Houston and Bartlesville layoffs cannot be aggregated to bootstrap the Houston plaintiffs over the WARN minimum required for a mass layoff. The regulations indicate that two plants across town will rarely be considered a single site for purposes of a mass layoff. It is not plausible, under any reasonable or good-faith reading of the regulations, that the Houston and Bartlesville plants--located in different states and hundreds of miles apart--could be considered a "single site" for purposes of WARN.

Employees were not rotated between the different sites, and the locations did not share staff and equipment. See 20 C.F.R. Sec. 639.3(i)(3). No other "unusual circumstances" have been alleged that would support classifying the two plants as a "single site." See 20 C.F.R. Sec. 639.3(i)(8); Carpenters, 15 F.3d at 1290. As the Bartlesville and Houston sites are distinct, they may not be aggregated in order to meet the minimum employee requirements of WARN. 20 C.F.R. Sec. 639.3(i)(1); International Union, United Mine Workers v. Jim Walter Resources, Inc., 6 F.3d 722, 724-27 (11th Cir.1993). The Bartlesville layoffs, accordingly, are irrelevant to the issue of whether the Houston employees were entitled to notice under WARN.

No mass layoff occurred at the single sites of employment where the original plaintiffs worked. Five of the plaintiffs worked at HCC's operations in three different locations in and around Houston. HCC laid off twenty-seven employees over a ten-month period. One of the named plaintiffs worked for PGHC in Houston; PGHC laid off eight employees who worked at that site. The layoffs at HCC and PGHC were not mass layoffs as defined by the Act, as the number of employees laid off did not meet the fifty-employee minimum. Thus, the Houston employees were not entitled to WARN notification.

2.

Williams contends that the mass layoff in Bartlesville triggered the applicability of WARN, requiring that notice be given to those laid off in Houston. See Department of Labor Comments, 54 Fed.Reg. 16042, 16046 (1989). Even if we assume that these comments have legal effect, they apply only if the employees at the single site...

To continue reading

Request your trial
82 cases
  • Kephart v. Data Systems Intern., Inc., CIV. A.01-2533-KHV.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Kansas
    • 16 Enero 2003
    ... ... 1280 (8th Cir.1996) (sites need not be contiguous but must be connected in some respect); Williams v. Phillips Petro. Co., 23 F.3d 930, 934 (5th Cir.1994) (Houston and Bartlesville plants, located ... ...
  • Allen v. Sybase, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit
    • 25 Octubre 2006
    ... ... See, e.g., United States v. Flaherty, 668 F.2d 566, 585 (1st Cir.1981); Phillips v. Raymond Corp., 213 F.R.D. 521, 523, 525 (N.D.Ill.2003); Anderson v. Hale, 159 F.Supp.2d 1116, ... Auto. Club of N.M., 420 F.3d 1098, 1118 n. 17 (10th Cir.2005); Pasternak v. Lear Petroleum Exploration, Inc., 790 F.2d 828, 832-33 (10th Cir.1986). Even if defendants were disadvantaged by ... release was invalid because of fraud, duress, material mistake, or some other defense." Williams v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 23 F.3d 930, 935 (5th Cir. 1994). The parties in this case disagree ... ...
  • Young v. Houston Lighting & Power Co.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas
    • 24 Junio 1998
    ... ... The burden is on Plaintiff to show that the Release is invalid. See Williams v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 23 F.3d 930, 935 (5th Cir.1994) ...         Plaintiff argues ... ...
  • Livingston v. Bev-Pak, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York
    • 18 Septiembre 2000
    ... ... Fleming v. United States Postal Serv. AMF O'Hare, 27 F.3d 259, 260-61 (7th Cir.1994); Williams v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 23 F.3d 930, 937 (5th Cir.1994); Clark, 3 F.Supp.2d at 371; Dorn, ... ...
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • Law Clerks Gone Wild
    • United States
    • Seattle University School of Law Seattle University Law Review No. 34-01, September 2010
    • Invalid date
    ..."care of" the courthouse), pursuant to courthouse safety procedures implemented in response to the events of September 11, 2001). 261. 23 F.3d 930 (5th Cir. 1994). 262. Id. at 938. 263. Id. at 938-39. 264. Id. at 940. 265. Id. 266. Id. 267. Id. 268. Id. at 941. 269. 234 F. App'x 803 (9th Ci......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT