United Paperworkers Intern. Union Local 14, AFL-CIO-CLC v. International Paper Co.

• Decision Date: 09 June 1995
• Docket Number: No. 95-1075,AFL-CIO-CLC,95-1075
• Citation: 64 F.3d 28
• Parties: 150 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2202, 64 USLW 2208, 130 Lab.Cas. P 11,405 UNITED PAPERWORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 14,, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 28

64 F.3d 28

150 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2202, 64 USLW 2208,

130 Lab.Cas. P 11,405

UNITED PAPERWORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 14, AFL-CIO-CLC, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 95-1075.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard June 9, 1995.

Decided Sept. 7, 1995.

Jeffrey Neil Young, with whom McTeague, Higbee, Libner, MacAdam, Case & Watson, Topsham, ME, was on brief, for appellants.

Jane B. Jacobs, with whom Andrew E. Zelman and Klein, Zelman, Briton, Rothermel & Dichter, L.L.P., New York City, were on brief, for appellee.

Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge, and CYR, Circuit Judge.

TORRUELLA, Chief Judge.

The plaintiff-appellants, United Paperworkers International Union, Local 14, AFL-CIO, and International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers, Local 246, AFL-CIO (the "Unions"), appeal the district court's decision on summary judgment in favor of International Paper Company (the "Company"), ruling that a recall agreement between the Unions and the Company became unenforceable upon the Unions' decertification. For the following reasons, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

The Unions and the Company agree that there are no material facts in dispute. The Company owns and operates a paper mill in Jay, Maine known as the Androscoggin Mill (the "Mill"). Between 1965 and March 1993, employees at the Mill were represented for purposes of collective bargaining by the Unions. Throughout that time, the Unions and the Company have been parties to a series of collective bargaining agreements setting forth the terms and conditions of employment at the Mill. In June 1987, when the Company and the Unions could not reach an accord over a succeeding collective bargaining agreement, members of the Unions engaged in an economic strike. The Company hired replacement workers during the strike.

In October of 1987, the Company laid off 151 striking employees (the "Employees"). All but three of these Employees had recall rights for twelve months after layoff. ¹ The twelve month period in which the Employees were eligible for recall expired before the parties began strike settlement negotiations.

On November 16, 1987, certain Mill employees petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (the "NLRB") to hold a decertification election to determine whether the Mill employees desired continued representation by the Unions. The actual election was delayed for over a year.

On October 9, 1988, the Unions ended their strike and made an unconditional offer to return to work. Between October 18 and October 26, 1988, the Unions and the Company negotiated and executed an agreement setting forth terms and procedures under which former strikers would be recalled as replacement workers left and their positions became available. During negotiations, the Unions raised the issue of the 151 Employees who had been laid off in October 1987 and whose recall rights had technically expired. The final recall agreement provided, with limited exceptions, that the 151 laid off Employees would be among the employees recalled under the agreement.

In April 1989, at the Unions' request, portions of the recall agreement were renegotiated and amended to include lists setting forth the order in which employees were to be recalled. The 151 laid off Employees were included on these lists. Both the October 1988 agreement and the April 1989 amended agreement were silent as to its duration or termination. The decertification petition was pending throughout the negotiations.

In July 1989, the NLRB conducted a decertification election at the Mill. Of the employees eligible to vote, 616 voted for decertification, and 361 voted against. After investigating and holding a hearing on the Unions' challenge to the election, the NLRB issued a decision upholding the election results and dismissing the Unions' objections. The Unions thus became decertified as of March 30, 1993. Both parties acknowledge that upon decertification, the then-existing collective bargaining agreement, which would otherwise have been effective until September 30, 1993, became null and void.

In August 1993, the Company advised the Unions and several of the 151 laid off Employees that as a result of the Unions' decertification, the Employees no longer had recall rights. The Unions thereafter filed this action in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, contending that the recall agreement, unlike the collective bargaining agreement, survived the Unions' decertification and thus remained binding on the Company.

Following cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court issued its decision on December 1, 1994. The district court found that there was no indication in the recall agreement itself that the parties intended it to survive decertification, despite the fact that the decertification petition had been filed and was pending during the negotiation of the agreement. The court explained that because the recall agreement establishes rights for a category of represented employees, and explicitly specifies that its terms are to prevail if there is any conflict with "other provisions of the labor

                agreement," the recall agreement is "tied directly to the collective bargaining agreement," such that it contemplates "ongoing union involvement."   Because the recall agreement would affect the Company's negotiations with a new union seeking to represent a majority of employees, and would "perpetuate a limited portion of the elements ordinarily covered by a collective bargaining agreement," the recall agreement cannot be said to be independent of the collective bargaining agreement.  Therefore, the court reasoned, the recall agreement did not survive decertification.  Accordingly, the court granted summary judgment in the Company's favor
                

DISCUSSION

A. Standards of Review

In general, summary judgment is proper only if no genuine issue of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Therefore, a party seeking summary judgment must make a preliminary showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists. Once this showing is made, the non-movant must point to specific facts demonstrating that there is a trialworthy issue. National Amusements, Inc. v. Town of Dedham, 43 F.3d 731, 735 (1st Cir.1995). An issue is "genuine" when the evidence relevant to it, viewed in the light most flattering to the non-moving party, is "sufficiently open-ended to permit a rational factfinder to resolve the issue in favor of either side." Id. (citation omitted). Because the summary judgment standard requires the trial court to make a legal determination rather than to engage in factfinding, appellate review is plenary. Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n v. Steamship Clerks Union 1066, 48 F.3d 594, 602 (1st Cir.1995).

This standard is the norm. Having stated it, however, we must note that under our precedent, in certain, somewhat unusual cases, this standard does not apply. In a nonjury case, when the basic dispute between the parties concerns only the factual inferences that one might draw from the more basic facts to which the parties have agreed, and where neither party has sought to introduce additional factual evidence or asked to present witnesses, the parties are, in effect, submitting their dispute to the court as a "case stated." Steamship Clerks, 48 F.3d at 603 (citing Federacion De Empleados Del Tribunal Gen. De Justicia v. Torres, 747 F.2d 35, 36 (1st Cir.1984) (Breyer, J.)). The district court is then "freed from the usual constraints that attend the adjudication of summary judgment motions," and may engage in a certain amount of factfinding, including the drawing of inferences. Id.

By the same token, the appellate court may assume that the parties considered the matter to have been submitted to the district court as a case ready for decision on the merits. Id. The standard for appellate review consequently shifts from de novo review to clear-error review; that is, the district court's factual inferences should be set aside only if they are clearly erroneous. Id. (citing United States v. Ven-Fuel, Inc., 758 F.2d 741, 744 n. 1 (1st Cir.1985)).

In the instant case, the parties cross-moved for summary judgment, yet both agreed that there was no dispute over the basic facts of the case. ² Nor did either party give any indication that it intended to present additional evidence or witnesses, or request a jury trial. The only dispute in the case stems from the inferences that the parties claim must be drawn from those basic facts--what legal significance should be ascribed to those facts. In effect, therefore, the parties submitted their case to the district court as a case stated. See Steamship Clerks, 48 F.3d at 603 (holding same in virtually identical procedural circumstances).

Similarly, the parties both state in their appeal briefs and during oral argument that they agree upon the basic material facts of the case. Accordingly, we are bound to apply the more deferential clear-error standard of review when examining the inferences drawn by the district court. Id. The district court's legal conclusions nevertheless engender de novo review. Id. (citing McCarthy v. Azure, 22 F.3d 351, 354 (1st Cir.1994)).

B. The District Court's Decision

The Unions' primary contention on appeal is that the district court erred as a matter of law, and that its ruling is contrary to the Supreme Court's decision in Retail Clerks Internat'l Ass'n Local 128 v. Lion Dry Goods, 369 U.S. 17, 82 S.Ct. 541, 7 L.Ed.2d 503 (1962). Specifically, the Unions argue that the Lion Dry Goods decision compels the legal conclusion that the recall agreement in the instant case is an enforceable contract. We think that the Unions' argument ascribes too much to the Lion Dry Goods case and too little to the district court's decision here.

In addressing the issue of whether the recall agreement...