O'donnell v. Boggs

• Decision Date: 08 July 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-1659.,09-1659.
• Citation: 611 F.3d 50
• Parties: Paula O'DONNELL, Plaintiff, Appellant,v.Donna BOGGS, The Boston Globe Employees Credit Union, Brendan Hall, William Francis, Mary Lou Meighan, Marion Doucette, Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

611 F.3d 50

Paula O'DONNELL, Plaintiff, Appellant,v.Donna BOGGS, The Boston Globe Employees Credit Union, Brendan Hall, William Francis, Mary Lou Meighan, Marion Doucette, Defendants, Appellees.

No. 09-1659.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard March 3, 2010.

Decided July 8, 2010.

Scott E. Adams for appellant.

Elizabeth A. Houlding with whom Harvey Weiner and Peabody & Arnold LLP were on brief for appellees.

Before BOUDIN, Circuit Judge, SOUTER,^* Associate Justice, and HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

BOUDIN, Circuit Judge.

Paula O'Donnell, a former employee of the Boston Globe Employees Credit Union (“the Credit Union”), appeals from the dismissal on summary judgment of her Massachusetts state law claims alleging tortious interference with contractual relations by her supervisor and others. On this appeal, the central issue concerns preemption of state law claims under Supreme Court precedent designed to protect the collective bargaining process governed by federal labor law.

O'Donnell began working at the Credit Union as a teller in 1974. Her employment was governed by a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between the Credit Union and the Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 6, AFL-CIO (“Local 6”), of which she was a member. During the relevant period, defendant Marion Doucette was Manager/CEO of the Credit Union and was also a member of its board of directors (“the Board”) along with Donna Boggs, Brendan Hall, William Francis, and Mary Lou Meighan.

According to O'Donnell, in 1998 as head teller she reported fraud and embezzlement by Gene Farrell, then Manager/CEO of the Credit Union, which “engendered hostility and antagonism from certain Board members.” Farrell was replaced later that year by Doucette. Within the next year or so, O'Donnell was promoted to bookkeeper and then systems manager, positions in which she had some auditing and oversight functions.

In November 2000, Doucette hired her daughter Linda as bookkeeper. O'Donnell complained to Doucette and the Board that Linda was not qualified and was being paid more than the CBA schedule provided. O'Donnell says that then Doucette

began a course of retaliation, intimidation and interference directed at Mrs. O'Donnell .... [including] verbally harass[ing] and intimidat[ing] Mrs. O'Donnell, obstruct[ing] performance of her duties, and prevent[ing] her from fully participating in managerial tasks that would allow her to maintain or advance her position in the Credit Union.

On O'Donnell's account, Doucette's behavior toward O'Donnell worsened when O'Donnell reported serious misconduct by Linda,¹ who was finally terminated in February 2003.

When the most serious charges of wrongdoing by Linda were reported to the state banking commission, O'Donnell claims Credit Union Board members Francis and Boggs blamed her and “hostile[ly] and antagonistic[ally] ... retaliated by obstructing the performance of her duties.” O'Donnell discovered that she had been locked out of a computer system and could no longer monitor Linda's still-active Credit Union account; when she told the Board, Boggs simply ordered her to clear certain checks submitted by Linda. By August 2003, O'Donnell says Doucette had expanded her retaliatory and intimidating conduct, including “daily verbal abuse, almost weekly acts of physical violence ... and weekly interference with the performance of Mrs. O'Donnell's duties,” which “resulted in both actual physical, emotional and professional injury” to O'Donnell.

As a result, O'Donnell says that upon prudent medical advice, she stopped working on August 15, 2003, citing stress-related reasons. In late November 2003, the Credit Union requested that she provide a doctor's report, but she did not do so. She exhausted her sick leave and vacation time by December 2003, asked for further leave, and was refused because the Board concluded that Doucette had not committed any wrongful conduct that would warrant O'Donnell's leave of absence and, additionally, because O'Donnell had provided no medical evidence to show her need for the leave.

After a further warning that O'Donnell must return to work or face termination, O'Donnell was terminated. Local 6 filed a grievance on her behalf, claiming unjust termination in violation of the CBA; but it eventually withdrew the grievance, stating that the case lacked merit and that the Credit Union had not violated the CBA. O'Donnell then charged Local 6 with inadequate representation, but a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board dismissed the charge and O'Donnell's internal administrative appeal failed.

In the meantime, in April 2005, O'Donnell filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts Superior Court, alleging two counts of tortious interference of contractual relations-one against her supervisor Doucette, and one against Board members Boggs, Hall, Francis, and Meighan. The defendants removed the case to federal district court, arguing that section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”), 29 U.S.C. § 185(a) (2006), preempted O'Donnell's state law tort claims; and they thereafter moved for summary judgment on the same ground.

There followed a second complaint by O'Donnell in federal court, which added another claim and was consolidated with the first; the district court permitted O'Donnell to file an amended complaint in the consolidated case that added yet another claim; and magistrate judge recommendations were issued on the first complaint and the amended one.

In the end the district court agreed that the tortious interference claims were preempted and their dismissal alone is challenged by O'Donnell on this appeal. Several other claims made by O'Donnell were dismissed on other grounds but O'Donnell has not challenged those dispositions. The district court's preemption ruling is primarily a legal issue subject to de novo review. Southex Exhibitions, Inc. v. R.I. Builders Ass'n, 279 F.3d 94, 98 (1st Cir.2002).

On its face, section 301 merely confers federal court jurisdiction over “[s]uits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees in an industry affecting commerce,” 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), but the Supreme Court has deemed such contracts creatures of federal law, whatever the intent of the parties Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 451, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957); and the Court treats section 301 as a warrant both for removing to federal court state law claims preempted by section 301 and then dismissing them. Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 220-21, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985); Avco Corp. v. Aero Lodge No. 735, Int'l Ass'n of Machinists, 390 U.S. 557, 559-60, 88 S.Ct. 1235, 20 L.Ed.2d 126 (1968).

The phrase “complete preemption” is often used in describing this state of affairs Beneficial Nat'l Bank v. Anderson, 539 U.S. 1, 8, 123 S.Ct. 2058, 156 L.Ed.2d 1 (2003), and it applies most readily to state-law contract claims purporting to enforce CBAs covered by section 301, Local 174, Teamsters v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U.S. 95, 101-03 & n. 9, 82 S.Ct. 571, 7 L.Ed.2d 593 (1962). But the doctrine extends beyond this point to other claims, including purported state law tort claims, whose enforcement interferes with federal labor law and policy. Allis-Chalmers, 471 U.S. at 210-13, 105 S.Ct. 1904. “Just how far beyond has never been precisely settled.” Martin v. Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc., 105 F.3d 40, 42 (1st Cir.1997).

Pertinent to the present appeal, the Supreme Court has declared that state law claims are preempted under section 301 if they “require construing the collective-bargaining agreement” because of the congressional interest in uniform interpretation of collective bargaining agreements. Lingle v. Norge Div. of Magic Chef, Inc., 486 U.S. 399, 407, 108 S.Ct. 1877, 100 L.Ed.2d 410 (1988). No Supreme Court decision has addressed directly preemption of tortious interference claims under section 301, but many federal courts of appeals have done so, and a number including our own have found certain such claims preempted under section 301 where deciding them would require the court to interpret a CBA.²

Whether a given claim is completely preempted depends importantly on the elements of that claim under state law and the content of the applicable CBA. DeCoe v. Gen. Motors Corp., 32 F.3d 212, 216-18 (6th Cir.1994); Covenant Coal, 977 F.2d at 899. Massachusetts imposes liability for intentional interference with contractual relations on two different bases: interference by the defendant with a third party's performance of its contract with the plaintiff, and interference by the defendant with the plaintiff's performance of its contractual obligations with the third party. Shafir v. Steele, 431 Mass. 365, 727 N.E.2d 1140, 1143-44 (2000). See generally Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 766, 766A (1979).

The elements of tortious interference with contractual relations, common to both theories of the tort under Massachusetts law, are as follows:

[T]he plaintiff must prove that (1) he had a contract with a third party; (2) the defendant knowingly interfered with that contract [by inhibiting the third party's or the plaintiff's performance thereof, depending on the theory]; (3) the defendant's interference, in addition to being intentional, was improper in motive or means; and (4) the plaintiff was harmed by the defendant's actions.

Harrison v. NetCentric Corp., 433 Mass. 465, 744 N.E.2d 622, 632 (2001).

What is special about O'Donnell's claim in this case is that the defendants accused of interfering with O'Donnell's contractual rights with her employer-her supervisor Doucette and several members of the Board-are agents of the employer itself. The problems of separating unlawful interference from management's lawful control of its employees are obvious and Massachusetts law imposes special restrictions on tortious interference claims by employees against agents of the employer.³

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