Hart v. Overseas Nat. Airways Inc., 75-2408
| Decision Date | 24 August 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-2408,75-2408 |
| Citation | 541 F.2d 386 |
| Parties | 93 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2103, 79 Lab.Cas. P 11,610 Hugh HART, Appellant, v. OVERSEAS NATIONAL AIRWAYS INC. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
J. Anthony Messina, Lawrence S. Coburn, Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellant.
Louis A. Mangone, Alan C. Drewsen, Breed, Abbott & Morgan, New York City, Paul Breen, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellee.
Before SEITZ, Chief Judge, ALDISERT and GARTH, Circuit Judges.
The plaintiff, Hugh Hart, brought this action in the district court against Overseas National Airways, Inc. (ONA) to enforce an arbitration award. Under the Award Hart's discharge from employment with ONA was held to be improper and the Award directed that he "be made whole for any and all wages, benefits and/or rights" to which he would have been entitled had he not been discharged. Both Hart and ONA moved for summary judgment. Despite its recognition that the Award "definitively states the discharge of plaintiff was without proper cause," the district court refused enforcement, holding the Award to be uncertain and indefinite and granted ONA's motion for summary judgment.
We reverse and remand to the district court with instructions for further proceedings.
Hugh Hart was employed by ONA as flight navigator. On May 2, 1970 Hart After the crash, Hart and the other members of the cockpit crew were discharged from ONA's employ. Hart contested his discharge invoking the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between ONA and Local 295, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America.
served as navigator on Flight 980 which left New York for the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. As the aircraft approached its destination it was rerouted due to poor weather conditions. When the flight was finally cleared for landing on St. Maarten, the visibility was so poor that after four approaches which were unsuccessful, the flight captain attempted to land at the designated alternate airport at St. Thomas. However, the flight's fuel was sufficient for a flight time of only 4 hours and 34 minutes and 4 hours and 16 minutes had already elapsed since the flight's departure from New York. 1 After 4 hours and 35 minutes in flight, the aircraft crashed in the Caribbean killing twenty-three persons and injuring several others including Hart. 2
Ultimately Hart's grievance came before the "Flight Navigators System Board of Adjustment" (SBA) established pursuant to Sec. 21 of the collective bargaining agreement and § 204, Title II of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 184. 3 The SBA held that Hart had been discharged without proper notification under § 24 of the collective bargaining agreement, 4 but deadlocked on the question of whether Hart had been discharged for just cause. A neutral referee, Melvin A. Rosenbloom, was selected by the National Mediation Board to serve on a three-man panel with one representative of the union and one representative of ONA to resolve this issue. The parties agreed that all disputed procedural and substantive issues would be decided solely by the referee. As a consequence an evidentiary hearing was held before Rosenbloom as referee and two members of the SBA in December, 1970 and the case was thereafter taken under advisement.
On June 23, 1972 Rosenbloom wrote to counsel for Local 295 and ONA setting forth reasons for the "extraordinary delay in . . . rendering a decision . . . ." Rosenbloom stated that he was at that time revising the fourth draft of his opinion but nevertheless felt constrained to release his "Findings, Conclusions and Award," with the full text of his opinion to be furnished shortly. 5 The body of the letter then set forth Rosenbloom's "Findings, Conclusions, and Award":
FINDINGS
Contrary to the theory of the Company, the evidence herein fails to establish the following concerning the conduct of Hugh Hart on May 2, 1970, in connection with his assignment as navigator on ALM Flight 980:
1. That his performance of his duties was below commonly accepted professional standards or contrary to Company requirements;
2. That he performed in a manner inconsistent with his training, scope of responsibilities or direct instructions from his superiors;
3. That the manner in which he performed his duties contributed to the 4. That an oversight, omission or failure to perform a function which could reasonably have been expected of him under the circumstances prevailing at the time of the flight was responsible for the low fuel condition going undetected until it was too late to avoid the loss of the aircraft;
aircraft reaching the condition of fuel exhaustion and therefore was a causative factor in the ditching of the aircraft;
5. That an oversight, omission or failure to perform a function which could reasonably have been expected of him under the circumstances prevailing at the time of the flight was a factor in the various command decisions the results of which combined to make the ditching of the aircraft inevitable; and
6. That he was culpable of misconduct in the preparation of the cabin for ditching and in his actions after ditching.
The Referee is unable to find on the basis of the record herein that the Company satisfied its burden of proving that good and sufficient cause existed for the discharge of Hugh Hart.
The discharge of Hugh Hart was without proper cause. His termination shall be set aside and stricken from his personal record and he should be made whole for any and all wages, benefits and/or rights to which he is or would have been entitled had he not been wrongfully discharged.
Soon after the issuance of Rosenbloom's "Findings, Conclusions and Award," Local 295, as Hart's bargaining representative, demanded compliance from ONA.
On October 26, 1973, Hart, alleging that ONA had failed to comply with the award, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against ONA seeking enforcement. Jurisdiction was alleged to exist under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 (federal question), 1337 (actions arising under federal statutes regulating commerce) and 45 U.S.C. § 153 (). 6 The complaint alleged that Hart was entitled to be "made whole" in the amount of $82,610.00. 7
Following discovery, Hart moved for summary judgment arguing that the award was valid and should be enforced. Hart's brief in support of his motion argued essentially that liability having been determined in his favor by the arbitrator, the district court should compute the damages under the award and enforce the award in that amount.
ONA also moved for summary judgment alleging: (1) that Rosenbloom's letter was ambiguous, vague and incomplete and was not a final award which could be enforced; (2) that ONA had complied with the award by allegedly making Hart "whole"; 8 (3) that the referee had violated ONA's due process rights by refusing to admit certain hearsay testimony into evidence under an agreement made by the parties; and (4) that the referee's finding of wrongful discharge was arbitrary, capricious, wholly baseless and completely without merit.
The district court, concluding that the award was too incomplete to be enforced as a final award, denied Hart's motion for enforcement and granted ONA's motion for summary judgment. In so doing, the court stated:
The Award clearly and definitively states the discharge of plaintiff was without proper cause. Also, the Award clearly sets forth that plaintiff is entitled to have his termination set aside and stricken from his personal record. However, plaintiff seeks to enforce the part of the Award dealing with damages, and it is this part of the Award which is uncertain and indefinite. This part of the Award states, 'he should be made whole for any and all wages, benefits and/or rights to which he is or would have been entitled had he not been wrongfully discharged.' This language is too vague to permit the Court to determine the intention of the neutral referee as to the extent and scope of damages, if any, to be recovered by plaintiff.
This appeal followed. 9
We are not entirely clear as to the precise basis for the district court's order of October 9, 1975, for its opinion can be read in more than one way. At the outset of its opinion the district court stated:
We deny plaintiff's motion and grant defendant's motion for summary judgment because the attempted determination of the dispute by the neutral referee is not enforceable as it is ambiguous, incomplete and indefinite.
After setting forth the relevant facts, proceedings, and contentions of the parties, the district court then said:
We decide that the Award is incomplete and too uncertain and indefinite to enforce, thus we need decide only the issues raised in the first category of defendant's contentions. 10
At that point in its opinion, the district court then appeared to affirm the finding by the referee of a wrongful discharge but went on to say:
However, plaintiff seeks to enforce the part of the Award dealing with damages, and it is this part of the Award which is uncertain and indefinite. (Emphasis added.)
The balance of the district court's opinion then focuses on the uncertainty as to the extent and scope of damages, if any, to be recovered by Hart, concluding:
It is clear that disputed issues crucial to a final determination of this matter remain; consequently, the Award remains ambiguous, indefinite and incomplete, and thus not enforceable by this Court as a complete final award.
Hence, the district court's opinion could be read as either (a) affirming the referee on his finding of liability in favor of Hart, but rejecting the entire award because of the uncertainty of damages; or (b) affirming no part of the award because, as to liability, the district court admitted...
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