McCoy v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Decision Date: 05 September 1991
• Docket Number: No. 91-1318,91-1318
• Citation: 950 F.2d 13
• Parties: , 71 Ed. Law Rep. 610, 14 Employee Benefits Cas. 1874 James L. McCOY, Administrator of the Electrical Workers Trust Funds, etc., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Defendant, Appellee. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 13

950 F.2d 13

60 USLW 2366, 71 Ed. Law Rep. 610,

14 Employee Benefits Cas. 1874

James L. McCOY, Administrator of the Electrical Workers

Trust Funds, etc., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Defendant, Appellee.

No. 91-1318.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Sept. 5, 1991.

Decided Nov. 19, 1991.

Katherine A. Hesse, with whom David W. Healey, and Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane, Quincy, Mass., were on brief, for plaintiff, appellant.

Corwin & Corwin, Lisa H. Harrod and Joseph M. Corwin, Boston, Mass., were on brief for David R. McGinness, Administrator for Trustees of Various Funds (Plumbers and Gasfitters Local Union No. 12), amicus curiae.

Bruce D. Berns, with whom Jeffrey Swope, Harvey Nosowitz and Palmer & Dodge, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendant, appellee.

Before BREYER, Chief Judge, ALDRICH and SELYA, Circuit Judges.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This appeal calls upon us to determine an issue of first impression: whether the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1461 (1988), preempts the operation of a Massachusetts mechanics' lien statute, Mass.Gen.L. ch. 254 (1990), as it concerns the rights of employee benefit plans. The district court dismissed the plaintiff's suit, finding preemption. McCoy v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 760 F.Supp. 12 (D.Mass.1991). We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Because the district court's order of dismissal was entered pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), we must accept as true the well-pleaded factual averments contained in the complaint, while at the same time drawing all reasonable inferences therefrom in the appellant's favor. See Correa-Martinez v. Arrillaga-Belendez, 903 F.2d 49, 51 (1st Cir.1990); Dartmouth Review v. Dartmouth College, 889 F.2d 13, 16 (1st Cir.1989).

The salient facts are susceptible to succinct summarization. Plaintiff-appellant James L. McCoy is the administrator of several different trust funds (the Funds) set up by Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The Funds, through McCoy, brought suit in state court to enforce a lien against property owned by the defendant Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Neither the Funds nor the union had any direct relationship with MIT. Rather, the Funds premised their action on a Massachusetts law allowing the trustee of an employee benefit plan to assert a lien against property improved through the labor of plan participants in order to collect overdue benefit contributions.

The Funds alleged, in particular, that S.N. Brown Electrical Corporation (Brown) was the employer of some plan participants; that Brown, as a subcontractor, employed these persons to effect improvements to property owned by MIT and located at 143-153 Albany Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts; that Brown, in derogation of its obligations under a collective bargaining agreement, neglected to make employee benefit contributions attributable to the work; and that the Funds were, therefore, entitled to look to MIT's interest in the Albany Street property as a means of recouping the resultant shortfall.

Invoking 28 U.S.C. § 1441 (1988), MIT removed the case to the district court based on federal question jurisdiction. ¹ MIT then moved to dismiss, claiming preemption. The district court agreed, McCoy, 760 F.Supp. at 14-16, and this appeal ensued.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We afford plenary review to orders of the district court granting motions to dismiss under Civil Rule 12(b)(6). See Miranda v. Ponce Fed. Bank, 948 F.2d 41, 43 (1st Cir.1991); Kale v. Combined Ins. Co., 924 F.2d 1161, 1165 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 69, 116 L.Ed.2d 44 (1991). The same benchmarks apply in the exercise of appellate jurisdiction as in the nisi prius court. It follows that, "[i]n the Rule 12(b)(6) milieu, an appellate court ... may affirm a dismissal for failure to state a claim only if it clearly appears, according to the facts alleged, that the plaintiff cannot recover on any viable theory." Correa-Martinez, 903 F.2d at 52.

III. THE STATE STATUTE

To place the issues on appeal into perspective, it is necessary first to give the reader a glimpse of the Massachusetts mechanics' lien law. The central provision of the lien law states:

A person to whom a debt is due for personal labor performed in the erection, alteration, repair or removal of a building or structure upon land, by virtue of an agreement with, or by consent of, the owner of such building or structure, or of a person having authority from or rightfully acting for such owner in procuring or furnishing such labor, shall, under the provisions of this chapter, other than sections three and four, have a lien upon such building or structure and upon the interest of the owner thereof in the lot of land upon which it is situated, for not more than eighteen days' work actually performed during the forty days next prior to his filing a statement as provided in section eight.

For purposes of this chapter, a person shall include any employee of any employer and the trustee or trustees of any fund or funds, established pursuant to section 302 of the Taft Hartley Law (29 USC 186), providing coverage or benefits to said person. The trustee or trustees of any such fund or funds shall have all the liens under this chapter that any person has. The trustee or trustees shall also have the right to enforce said liens pursuant to this chapter.

Mass.Gen.L. ch. 254, § 1. The statute provides for notices referable to liens, see, e.g., id. §§ 2-4, and specifically contemplates that, where subcontractors are involved, certain lien notices "may also be filed by the trustee or trustees of a fund or funds, described in section one, providing coverage or benefits to any person performing labor under a written contract with a contractor, or with a subcontractor of such contractor." Id. § 4. In succeeding sections, the lien law limns the mechanics of enforcement. Generally, a lien is enforced by means of a civil action brought by the lienor against the property owner in the county or judicial district where the property lies. Id. § 5.

The remaining provisions of the lien law are not germane to our discussion.

IV. ANALYSIS

We elect to divide our perlustration of the merits into three segments. Initially, we review the general principles and policies pertaining to preemption in the ERISA context. We then address the chief argument advanced in support of reversal. Finally, we comment upon certain secondary theses hawked by the Funds.

A. ERISA Preemption: An Overview.

Out of respect for the distinct spheres of authority inherent in our federal system, preemption of state law is generally disfavored. See, e.g., Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., 451 U.S. 504, 522, 101 S.Ct. 1895, 1905, 68 L.Ed.2d 402 (1981). But, this presumption is not inviolable. If "the nature of the regulated subject matter permits no other conclusion, or ... Congress has unmistakably so ordained," federal preemption of state law is mandated under the Supremacy Clause. Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 142, 83 S.Ct. 1210, 1217, 10 L.Ed.2d 248 (1963).

ERISA preemption is, as a general matter, extensive in its scope. ERISA governs "employee benefit plans." 29 U.S.C. § 1001. As part of the statutory structure established to regulate such plans, Congress formulated a sweeping preemption clause. This clause, ERISA § 514(a), commands that ERISA "shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan." 29 U.S.C. § 1144(a). For preemption purposes, "State laws" are "all laws, decisions, rules, regulations, or other State action having the effect of law." 29 U.S.C. § 1144(c)(1).

Under the provisions of section 514(a), if a state law "relates to" an employee benefit plan, it is preempted. "A law 'relates to' an employee benefit plan, in the normal sense of the phrase, if it has a connection with or reference to such a plan." Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 463 U.S. 85, 96-97, 103 S.Ct. 2890, 2900, 77 L.Ed.2d 490 (1983). "[A] state law may 'relate to' a benefit plan, and thereby be preempted, even if the law is not specifically designed to affect such plans, or the effect is only indirect." Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 478, 483, 112 L.Ed.2d 474 (1990); see also Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U.S. 41, 47-48, 107 S.Ct. 1549, 1553, 95 L.Ed.2d 39 (1987); Shaw, 463 U.S. at 98, 103 S.Ct. at 2900.

At the bottom line, "the question whether a certain state action is pre-empted by federal law is one of congressional intent." Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 208, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 1909-10, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985); Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U.S. 497, 504, 98 S.Ct. 1185, 1190, 55 L.Ed.2d 443 (1978). While fathoming congressional intent can sometimes be an imprecise venture, section 514(a)'s bold and capacious language provides a particularly incisive manifestation of congressional purpose, thus easing the judicial chore. See Ingersoll-Rand, 111 S.Ct. at 482 ("Where, as here, Congress has expressly included a broadly worded pre-emption provision in a comprehensive statute such as ERISA, our task of discerning congressional intent is considerably simplified."); Shaw, 463 U.S. at 96, 103 S.Ct. at 2899 (similar).

In considering Congress' intent in the ERISA context, all roads lead to Rome. The legislative history of section 514(a), like its language, counsels against a crabbed interpretation of the statute. As the Shaw Court observed, the bill that became ERISA originally contained a much narrower preemption clause that Congress rewrote more panoramically, indicating "that the section's pre-emptive scope was as broad as its language." Shaw, 463 U.S. at 98, 103 S.Ct. at 2901. Senator Williams, a principal sponsor of the bill, stated that the ERISA preemption clause, in its final form, was "intended...