Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Kramarsky
| Decision Date | 11 May 1981 |
| Docket Number | D,57,Nos. 18,s. 18 |
| Citation | 650 F.2d 1287 |
| Parties | 25 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1193, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 31,831, 2 Employee Benefits Ca 1336 DELTA AIR LINES, INC., Allegheny Airlines, Inc., National Airlines, Inc., Piedmont Aviation, Inc., Braniff Airways, Inc., North Central Airlines, Inc., Southern Airways, Inc., Eastern Air Lines, Inc., Northwest Airlines, Inc., Trans World Airlines, Inc., Ozark Air Lines, Inc., American Airlines, Inc., Pan American World Airways, Inc., and United Air Lines, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellees- Cross-Appellants, v. Werner H. KRAMARSKY, Individually and in his capacity as Commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights; Ann Thacher Anderson, Individually and in her capacity as General Counsel of the New York State Division of Human Rights; The New York State Division of Human Rights, an agency of the Executive Department of the State of New York; Arthur Cooperman, Individually and in his capacity as Chairman of the New York State Workmen's Compensation Board; and the New York State Workmen's Compensation Board, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees. ockets 80-7179, 80-7225. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
J. Stanley Hawkins, Atlanta, Ga. (Dean Booth, Keith M. Wiener, Seward & Kissell, Atlanta, Ga., on the brief), for plaintiffs-appellees-cross-appellants Delta Air Lines, Inc., et al.
Ann Thacher Anderson, Gen. Counsel, State Div. of Human Rights, New York City, for defendants-appellants Werner H. Kramarsky et al.
Myrna M. Martinez, Asst. Atty. Gen., New York City , for defendants-cross-appellees Arthur Cooperman et al.
Carol Moschandreas, Washington, D. C. (Leroy D. Clark, Gen. Counsel, Joseph T. Eddins, Associate Gen. Counsel, Lutz Alexander Prager, Washington, D. C., on the brief), for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as amicus curiae.
Before MOORE and KEARSE, Circuit Judges, and TENNEY, District Judge. *
Defendants New York State Division of Human Rights, Werner Kramarsky, its Commissioner, and Ann Thacher Anderson, its General Counsel (collectively the "Commissioner"), appeal from so much of a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Morris E. Lasker, Judge, 485 F.Supp. 300 (S.D.N.Y.1980), as enjoined them from requiring plaintiffs to alter their employee benefit plans to conform with New York's Human Rights Law, N.Y. Exec. Law § 296 (McKinney 1972 & Supp. 1980-1981) ("HRL"). Plaintiffs Delta Air Lines, Inc., et al. (the "airlines"), cross-appeal from so much of the judgment as dismissed their complaint seeking a similar injunction against enforcement by the New York State Workmen's Compensation Board and its Chairman, Arthur Cooperman (collectively the "Board"), of New York's Disability Benefits Law, N.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 205(3) (McKinney Supp. 1980-81) ("DBL"). For the reasons below we reverse the ruling as to the HRL, and vacate the ruling as to the DBL and remand for further proceedings.
Section 296 of the HRL requires that employee benefit plans provide coverage for disability due to pregnancy on the same basis on which other disabling conditions are covered. 1 Section 205(3) of the DBL requires employers to provide at least eight weeks of coverage for pregnancy-related disability. 2 The plaintiff airlines maintain various employee benefits plans, including sickness and accident disability plans, sick leave plans, and medical benefit plans, through which payments are made to their employees who suffer nonoccupational illnesses or injuries covered by the plans. During the periods relevant herein their plans did not provide complete coverage for disabilities or costs associated with pregnancies. Plaintiffs brought the present action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against enforcement of the HRL and the DBL on the grounds that each is preempted by any of three federal statutes: (1) the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1381 (1976 & Supp. II 1977) ("ERISA"); (2) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17 (1976) ("Title VII"); or (3) the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-188 (1976) ("RLA"). 3
Section 703(a)(1) of Title VII, enacted in 1964 as part of the Civil Rights Act, makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee "because of ... sex." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). As originally enacted, Title VII did not specify whether or not denial of employee benefits related to pregnancy was intended to constitute discrimination because of sex. In 1976, the Supreme Court held that an employer's exclusion of pregnancy-related benefits from coverage under disability benefit plans did not constitute discrimination "because of ... sex" within the meaning of § 703(a)(1). General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 97 S.Ct. 401, 50 L.Ed.2d 343 (1976). 4
Like Title VII, New York's HRL prohibits discrimination in employment "because of ... sex." Unlike the United States Supreme Court, however, the New York Court of Appeals interpreted this language in its own statute to require private employers maintaining disability benefits plans to provide benefits for pregnancy on the same basis as for other covered disabilities. Brooklyn Union Gas Co. v. New York State Human Rights Appeal Board, 41 N.Y.2d 84, 390 N.Y.S.2d 884, 359 N.E.2d 393 (1976). 5 Soon afterward, New York amended the DBL to require employers to provide coverage for at least eight weeks of pregnancy-related disability. 6
As of April 29, 1979, Title VII was amended to provide that the term "because of sex" would include the meaning "because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions." Pub.L. 95-555, 92 Stat. 2076 (1978). The amendment further provided that "women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes, including receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work ...." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k) (Supp. II 1978). Thus, after April 29, 1979, the HRL was no longer broader than Title VII.
In 1974, Congress enacted ERISA, a comprehensive federal statutory program designed to curb a variety of abuses associated with pension and other employee benefits plans, see 29 U.S.C. § 1001 (). To protect the integrity of the federal regulatory scheme, ERISA § 514(a), 29 U.S.C. § 1144(a), provides that ERISA "shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan described in (ERISA § 4(a), 29 U.S.C. § 1003(a)) and not exempt under (ERISA § 4(b), 29 U.S.C. § 1003(b))." 7 Section 4(a) of ERISA extends ERISA coverage to "any employee benefit plan" maintained by an employer or union that affects interstate commerce. Section 4(b)(3) exempts from ERISA, inter alia, benefit plans "maintained solely for the purpose of complying with applicable ... disability insurance laws." 8
The RLA, enacted in 1926, regulates labor relations of interstate rail carriers, and is made applicable to air carriers by 45 U.S.C. § 181. The RLA is designed to promote the collective bargaining process, and generally permits the parties to collective bargaining to agree upon whatever terms are mutually satisfactory.
Plaintiffs contend that from December 20, 1976, when the HRL was first interpreted more broadly than Title VII, until April 29, 1979, when Title VII became as broad as the HRL, the HRL could not lawfully be applied to their employee benefit plans. Their principal contention is that because the HRL "relate(s) to" employee benefits plans within the meaning of ERISA § 514(a), that statute preempted the HRL during the above period, and thus relieved plaintiffs of any obligation to comply with it. In addition they argue that the RLA supersedes the HRL under general principles of federal labor law preemption, and that the inclusion of pregnancy benefits in its disability plan pursuant to the HRL during that period would have constituted sex discrimination against male employees in violation of Title VII. 9
Plaintiffs similarly contend that the DBL is preempted or superseded by ERISA, RLA and Title VII, but their challenge is not limited to the same period. Because the DBL imposes a specific minimum level of benefits for disability due to pregnancy (whereas the HRL requires only that pregnancy be treated the same as other disabilities), the DBL's command is not congruent with that of Title VII. Accordingly, plaintiffs argue that the DBL amendment was invalid from its effective date, August 3, 1977, to the present.
The district court entered summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs on their claim that the HRL was preempted by ERISA, and enjoined enforcement of the HRL with respect to their employee benefit plans. In so ruling, the court relied on Pervel Industries, Inc. v. Connecticut Comm'n on Human Rights & Opportunities, 468 F.Supp. 490 (D.Conn.1978), aff'd mem., 603 F.2d 214 (2d Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1031, 100 S.Ct. 701, 62 L.Ed.2d 667 (1980), in which this Court affirmed by summary order a ruling of then-District Judge Newman that ERISA § 514(a) preempted a Connecticut statute that is quite similar to the HRL. The court found it unnecessary to pass on the airlines' RLA and Title VII arguments concerning the HRL.
As to the DBL, the court rejected all of plaintiffs' arguments and granted the...
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