U.S. v. International Union of Petroleum and Indus. Workers, AFL-CIO

• Decision Date: 21 March 1989
• Docket Number: AFL-CI,No. 88-6023,D,88-6023
• Citation: 870 F.2d 1450
• Parties: 111 Lab.Cas. P 11,052 UNITED STATES of America and Ann McLaughlin, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PETROLEUM AND INDUSTRIAL WORKERS,efendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1450

870 F.2d 1450

111 Lab.Cas. P 11,052

UNITED STATES of America and Ann McLaughlin, Secretary of

Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PETROLEUM AND INDUSTRIAL WORKERS, AFL-CIO, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 88-6023.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Feb. 10, 1989.

Decided March 21, 1989.

Susan Webman, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.

Laurence D. Steinsapir, with Dolly M. Gee on the brief, Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant-appellee.

Laurence Gold and Walter Kamiat, brief of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Indus. Organizations ("AFL-CIO"), Washington, D.C., as amicus curiae in support of defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Before FLETCHER, PREGERSON and LEAVY, Circuit Judges.

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge:

The District Court partially enforced the subpoena duces tecum which appellant Department of Labor (hereinafter "Department" or "DOL") issued to appellee International Union of Petroleum and Industrial Workers (hereinafter "IUPIW" or "International"). The subpoena sought financial data and election records of local unions affiliated with IUPIW. DOL had issued the subpoena as part of its investigation of the union's 1987 elections; that inquiry was mandated by section 402 of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, 29 U.S.C. section 482, which requires the Secretary of Labor to investigate union elections upon receipt of a complaint by individual union members. ¹ The District Court ordered the International to produce the financial data, but ruled that the Department had not shown that the International "controlled" the locals' election records, and therefore refused to enforce that part of the subpoena.

DOL appeals from that part of the District Court's decision denying enforcement of the subpoena that requested the International to produce the locals' delegate election records. The Department contends that the International does indeed "control" the locals' delegate election records, thereby rendering full subpoena enforcement appropriate. ²

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The District Court's decision to deny enforcement of part of the administrative subpoena will be reversed only if the panel finds that that court abused its discretion by so ruling. N.L.R.B. v. G.H.R.

Energy Corp., 707 F.2d 110, 112 (5th Cir.1982).

DISCUSSION

The party to whom a subpoena for records is issued must produce only those records which are in his "possession, custody or control." Fed.R.Civ.P. 34(a). ³ DOL does not contend that the International maintained possession or custody of the recalcitrant locals' delegate election records; therefore, the only issue is whether the International had control over these records such that it must produce them in compliance with the administrative subpoena. Control is defined as the legal right to obtain documents upon demand. Searock v. Stripling, 736 F.2d 650, 653 (11th Cir.1984). The party seeking production of the documents (here, DOL) bears the burden of proving that the opposing party has such control. Norman v. Young, 422 F.2d 470, 472-73 (10th Cir.1970).

The LMRDA requires the International to preserve for one year the delegates' credentials and all other convention records pertaining to the election of officers. LMRDA Sec. 401(f), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 481(f). But local union delegates are not union officers. LMRDA Sec. 3(n), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 402(n); 29 C.F.R. Sec. 452.22. Local delegate election records must be preserved, but the Act does not state whether the officers of the local or of the International have the right or responsibility to do so, in the absence of an express provision in the union constitution or bylaws. LMRDA Sec. 401(e), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 481(e). In the present case, IUPIW asserts that its longstanding practice has been for the International Secretary-Treasurer to preserve election records relating to the election of International officers, while each local's Secretary-Treasurer holds the records of the local's delegate elections.

A corporation must produce documents possessed by a subsidiary that the parent corporation owns or wholly controls. See, e.g. Hubbard v. Rubbermaid, Inc., 78 F.R.D. 631 (D.Md.1978); In re Investigation of World Arrangements, Etc., 13 F.R.D. 280 (D.D.C.1952); see also Advance Labor Service, Inc. v. Hartford Accident & Indem. Co., 60 F.R.D. 632 (N.D.Ill.1973). Extending this principle to cover the relationship between an International union and its locals, however, is not consistent with federal labor law. Because the locals and the International are separate "labor organizations" within the meaning of both the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 152(5), and the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 402(i), their relationship is governed by the IUPIW constitution, which is a "contract between labor organizations." United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry v. Local 334, 452 U.S. 615, 619, 101 S.Ct. 2546, 2548, 69 L.Ed.2d 280 (1981). We must look to that document and its interpretation to resolve the issue of control.

A union's construction of its own constitution is entitled to a certain measure of deference. See Lucas v. Bechtel Corp., 800 F.2d 839, 850 (9th Cir.1986) ("when union officials have offered a reasonable construction of the constitution, and no bad faith on their part has been shown, the courts should not disturb the union officials' interpretation.") (quoting Stelling v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union Number 1547, 587 F.2d 1379, 1389 (9th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 944, 99 S.Ct. 2890, 61 L.Ed.2d 315 (1979)). ⁴ In general, judicial interference in intra-union affairs should be undertaken only with great reluctance, Stelling, 587 F.2d at 1387, for "in ... enforcing statutory standards, great care should be taken not to undermine union self-government." S.Rep. No. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. 5 (1959) at 7, reprinted at I N.L.R.B., Leg.History of LMRDA, at 402-03.

No section of the IUPIW constitution expressly gives the International the right to obtain locals' delegate election records upon demand. DOL urges us to read several disparate provisions of the constitution together, believing this will lead us to conclude that the locals are mere subsidiaries of the International and that the International does enjoy the right to demand election documents.

None of these sections seem intended to hinder locals' right and ability to maintain their own delegate election records. They include, rather, organizational provisions, and rules designed to ensure locals' compliance with existing federal law; they do not seem necessarily to imply an accompanying element of control. Locals must submit to the International, and the International has a right to inspect, only those documents mentioned in the union constitution. Art. VI, Sec. 4.

The only constitutionally-mandated means by which the International can gain access to local records upon demand is in the event of a dissolution of the local, wherein "all money, books, records, and other union property shall remain property of the union and shall be surrendered upon demand to the International Secretary-Treasurer." Art. XIV, Sec. 3. The Department argues that this provision establishes that locals' records are union property, and can be taken upon demand. We do not believe, however, that this provision gives the International the unfettered right to demand that an active local turn over its records to the International, aside from those records mentioned in the constitution.

The Department contends that the International can enforce its demand for local election records by either removing recalcitrant local officers (Art. XIII, Sec. 1), imposing a trusteeship on the local to ensure democratic procedures (Art. VII, Sec. 3), or dissolving the chartered locals (Art. VI, Sec. 2) and revoking charters of affiliated locals (Art. VIII, Sec. 1).

The union constitution does not, however, contemplate the use of any of these drastic measures simply to obtain locals' delegate election records. The purpose of the sections sanctioning these measures clearly was not to enable the International to obtain records that the local rightfully wished to retain. First, the right to remove a union officer is restricted to instances in which (s)he willfully violates the union constitution or commits an act detrimental to workers in the petroleum and allied industries. Art. XIII, Sec. 1. Second, a trusteeship may be imposed only for the purposes delineated at 29 U.S.C. section 462. ⁵ Providing the International access to locals' election records is not one such purpose. Indeed, the entire section is geared toward maintaining local autonomy in the face of union attempts to subordinate it. See also Retail Clerks Union, Local 770 v. Retail Clerks International Association, 479 F.2d 54, 55 (9th Cir.1973) ("the imposition of a trusteeship is an extraordinary intrusion into the affairs of a local union.").

The International may authorize dissolution of a local "as conditions and policy of the International warrants." Art. VI, Sec. 2. Affiliated locals can have their charters revoked only if they fail "to comply with any decision after a full hearing by the International Executive Board." Art. VIII, Sec. 1. We can discern in these two sections no intent to authorize the International to use dissolution or charter revocation as a means to obtain locals' records.

The Department's final argument is that the International union has "control" of the locals' election records by virtue of its "inherent relationship" to the locals, which are, DOL contends, mere subdivisions of the International, and of inferior status. DOL's authority for this theory is scant and unpersuasive.

Control must be firmly placed...