Geddes v. American Airlines, Inc.

• Citation: 321 F.3d 1349
• Decision Date: 21 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-13885.,02-13885.
• Parties: Arthur GEDDES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Terry Meenan, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

321 F.3d 1349

Arthur GEDDES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Terry Meenan, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 02-13885.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

February 21, 2003.

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Carolyn Myers-Simmonds, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Deborah Marks, Miami, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Angel Castillo, Jr., Lisa Rothberg Askowitz, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, Terence Conner, Richard B. Celler, Vernis & Bowling of Miami, P.A., Miami, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.

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

Before BARKETT and WILSON, Circuit Judges, and LIMBAUGH^*, District Judge.

BARKETT, Circuit Judge:

Arthur Geddes, an aircraft technician, originally filed a complaint in Florida state court against his employer American Airlines ("American") claiming damages resulting from the torts of defamation, negligence, and negligent supervision and retention. American, a Texas corporation, removed the case to federal district court, asserting that federal law completely preempted Geddes's state law tort claims, and thus, removal was appropriate on the basis of federal question jurisdiction.¹ Geddes challenged this jurisdictional ground, moving to remand the case back to state court. The district court denied Geddes's motion, finding that the Railway Labor Act ("RLA"), 45 U.S.C. § 184 (1986), completely preempted the state tort claims, and it applied the RLA to dismiss the complaint. Geddes, arguing that removal was improper, appeals from the denial of his motion to remand the case to state court and from the dismissal of his complaint.

BACKGROUND

Geddes's complaint alleges that, during his employment at Miami International Airport, a co-worker reported to management that Geddes had threatened him with violence. American began an investigation of Geddes's alleged misconduct and temporarily suspended him. The complaint alleges that American knew the accusation was false but nonetheless published it and failed to stop the spread of false statements related to it.

American maintains that they acted in accordance with the requirements of the collective bargaining agreement ("Agreement") between American and the Transport Workers Union of America. The Agreement, concerning "rates of pay, rules, and working conditions," was made under and is governed by the RLA, 45 U.S.C. §§ 152, First, and 184. The RLA establishes a mandatory framework for the resolution of "minor disputes" over the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements, see Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen v. Chicago River & Ind. R.R. Co., 353 U.S. 30, 33, 77 S.Ct. 635, 1 L.Ed.2d 622 (1957), reserving their adjudication exclusively to boards of adjustment. American argued that because the evaluation and adjudication of Geddes's claims would require an interpretation of the Agreement, the complaint in effect raises a federal question, providing the basis for removal to the federal court. American then argued that the federal district court should dismiss the complaint because Geddes's allegations constituted "minor disputes" under the Agreement, and the RLA requires that minor disputes be sent to arbitration. The district court agreed with American and dismissed Geddes's claims. This appeal followed.

On appeal, Geddes argues that removal under 28 U.S.C. § 1441² was improper because: (1) the doctrine of complete preemption does not apply to the Railway Labor Act, and thus the district court lacks jurisdiction over his claims; and (2) even if complete preemption does apply to the RLA, the RLA does not apply to his claims because they lie outside of the collective bargaining agreement governing his employment and do not implicate any interpretation or application of the agreement.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The issue before us is whether the district court correctly determined that Geddes's claims are completely preempted by the RLA, thus giving the district court jurisdiction. Whether a district court may exercise jurisdiction over a case based upon complete preemption is a question of law that this Court reviews de novo. BLAB T.V. of Mobile, Inc. v. Comcast Cable Communications, Inc., 182 F.3d 851, 854 (11th Cir.1999).

DISCUSSION

I

In order to determine whether removal to federal court was proper on the grounds that Geddes's claim was completely preempted by federal law, we must again clarify the differences between "complete" preemption and "ordinary" preemption. See BLAB T.V., 182 F.3d at 854. Preemption is the power of federal law to displace state law substantively.³ The federal preemptive power may be complete, providing a basis for jurisdiction in the federal courts, or it may be what has been called "ordinary preemption," providing a substantive defense to a state law action on the basis of federal law.

More specifically, ordinary preemption may be invoked in both state and federal court as an affirmative defense to the allegations in a plaintiff's complaint. Such a defense asserts that the state claims have been substantively displaced by federal law. See Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams, 482 U.S. 386, 392, 107 S.Ct. 2425, 96 L.Ed.2d 318 (1987); BLAB T.V., 182 F.3d at 855. However, a case may not be removed to federal court on the basis of a federal defense, including that of federal preemption. Caterpillar, 482 U.S. at 393, 107 S.Ct. 2425.

Complete preemption, on the other hand, is a doctrine distinct from ordinary preemption. Rather than constituting a defense, it is a narrowly drawn jurisdictional rule for assessing federal removal jurisdiction when a complaint purports to raise only state law claims. See id. at 393, 107 S.Ct. 2425. It looks beyond the complaint to determine if the suit is, in reality, "purely a creature of federal law," even if state law would provide a cause of action in the absence of the federal law. Id. It transforms the state claim into one arising under federal law, thus creating the federal question jurisdiction requisite to removal to federal courts. See Metropolitan Life Ins. v. Taylor, 481 U.S. 58, 63-64, 107 S.Ct. 1542, 95 L.Ed.2d 55 (1987) ("Congress may so completely pre-empt a particular area that any civil complaint raising this select group of claims is necessarily federal in character.").

The Supreme Court and this Circuit have found complete preemption only under section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act ("LMRA"), 29 U.S.C. § 185, and section 502 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a). See Anderson v. H & R Block, Inc., 287 F.3d 1038, 1042 (11th Cir.2002); BLAB T.V., 182 F.3d at 855. The Supreme Court has cautioned that complete preemption can be found only in statutes with "extraordinary" preemptive force. See Caterpillar, 482 U.S. at 393, 107 S.Ct. 2425; Metropolitan Life, 481 U.S. at 65, 107 S.Ct. 1542. Moreover, that "extraordinary" preemptive force must be manifest in the clearly expressed intent of Congress. See Anderson, 287 F.3d at 1047; cf. Metropolitan Life, 481 U.S. at 66, 107 S.Ct. 1542 (finding a clear manifestation of Congress's intent to make causes of action within the scope of section 502 of ERISA removable). Indeed, in "the absence of explicit direction from Congress," the Supreme Court has indicated its reluctance to find the extraordinary preemptive power necessary for complete preemption. Id. at 64-65, 107 S.Ct. 1542. Thus, the complete preemption inquiry turns on the question of "whether Congress not only intended for a federal statute to provide a defense to state-law claims, but also intended to confer on defendants the ability to remove a case to a federal forum." Anderson, 287 F.3d at 1041.

In summary, a federal law may substantively displace state law under ordinary preemption but lack the extraordinary force to create federal removal jurisdiction under the doctrine of complete preemption. If no other grounds for federal jurisdiction exist in such cases, then it falls to the state courts to assess the merits of the ordinary preemption defense. See Caterpillar, 482 U.S. at 398 n. 13, 107 S.Ct. 2425 (leaving the merits of ordinary preemption arguments to be addressed first by the state court). Under this framework, we address the question of whether the RLA completely preempts Geddes's state law claims and provides the requisite federal question jurisdiction to support removal to the federal court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a).

II

Whether the Railway Labor Act has the extraordinary preemptive force necessary to create federal removal jurisdiction is a question of first impression for this Court. We begin the inquiry into congressional intent by looking first to the language and substance of the Railway Labor Act itself. The RLA regulates labor relations between air carriers and their employees, see 45 U.S.C. § 181, with a general purpose "to provide for the prompt and orderly settlement of all disputes growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements covering rates of pay, rules, or working conditions." 45 U.S.C. § 151a. These disputes, "controversies over the meaning of an existing collective bargaining agreement in a particular fact situation," are known as "minor disputes." Trainmen, 353 U.S. at 33, 40, 77 S.Ct. 635. "Congress' purpose in passing the RLA was to promote stability in labor-management relations by providing a comprehensive framework for resolving labor disputes." Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. Norris, 512 U.S. 246, 252, 114 S.Ct. 2239, 129 L.Ed.2d 203 (1994). This comprehensive framework establishes a system of adjustment boards with exclusive and mandatory jurisdiction to handle minor disputes, see 45 U.S.C. § 184, thus keeping them out of courts altogether. See Union Pac. R.R. Co. v. Sheehan, 439 U.S. 89, 94, 99 S.Ct. 399, 58 L.Ed.2d 354 (1978) ("Congress considered it essential to keep these so-called `minor disputes' within the Adjustment Board and out of the courts."); Pyles v. United Air Lines, Inc., 79 F.3d...