Air Line Pilots Ass'n, Intern. v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., s. 78-1285

• Decision Date: 20 February 1980
• Docket Number: 78-1383,Nos. 78-1285,s. 78-1285
• Citation: 627 F.2d 272
• Parties: 103 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2652, 200 U.S.App.D.C. 219, 88 Lab.Cas. P 11,841, 2 Employee Benefits Ca 1665, 2 Employee Benefits Ca 2452 AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL, et al., Appellants, v. NORTHWEST AIRLINES, INC. AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL, et al., v. NORTHWEST AIRLINES, INC., Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 272

627 F.2d 272

103 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2652, 200 U.S.App.D.C. 219,

88 Lab.Cas. P 11,841,

2 Employee Benefits Ca 1665,

2 Employee Benefits Ca 2452

AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL, et al., Appellants, v. NORTHWEST AIRLINES, INC.

AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL, et al., v. NORTHWEST AIRLINES, INC., Appellant.

Nos. 78-1285, 78-1383.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Sept. 26, 1979.

Decided Feb. 20, 1980.

Michael E. Abram with whom Donald J. Capuano and Sally Armstrong, Washington, D. C., were on brief, for Air Line Pilots Association et al., appellants in No. 78-1285 and cross-appellees in No. 78-1383.

Jay Kelly Wright, Washington, D. C., with whom Philip A. Lacovara and Julie K. Spiegel, Washington, D. C., were on brief, for Northwest Airlines, Inc. in No. 78-1285 and cross-appellants in No. 78-1383.

Before ROBINSON and ROBB, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS ^*, Judge, United States Court of Claims.

Opinion for the Court filed by Judge DAVIS.

DAVIS, Judge:

Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Northwest Airlines (Northwest) have had for some time a collectively bargained pension plan for the latter's pilots. This suit by ALPA, the pilots' bargaining agent, ¹ brought in the District Court for declaratory and monetary relief, asserts that in 1975 Northwest violated certain parts of the pension plan, as well as provisions of the Employees Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001, et seq. (ERISA). Northwest moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, claiming that under the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151, et seq., the whole dispute had to be submitted to arbitration because it concerned the interpretation and application of a collective bargaining agreement, and that the compulsory arbitration requirements of that Act took precedence over the section of ERISA opening the district courts to pension suits. The District Court agreed, dismissing the suit, but refused to award attorneys' fees to Northwest. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, Int'l v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 444 F.Supp. 1138, 1142-43 (D.D.C.1978). ALPA appeals from the order of dismissal (No. 78-1285), while Northwest cross-appeals from the denial of attorneys' fees (No. 78-1383). We affirm the dismissal so far as this action relates to the application and interpretation of the pension plan, but reverse it to the extent the complaint alleges violations of ERISA which are independent of the coverage and meaning of the pension plan. On attorneys' fees we vacate the District Court's order so that the matter of fees can be considered at the end of the litigation.

I.

For over two decades Northwest had had a collectively bargained pension arrangement with and for its pilots (represented by ALPA). For a substantial period prior to August 7, 1975, that plan consisted of two separate funds: Trust Fund "A" (to which Northwest alone contributed), which provided fixed retirement benefits; and Trust Fund "B", providing variable benefits to reflect appreciation and market values of fund assets, to which Northwest contributed but individual pilots could also make voluntary contributions. On retirement a pilot obtained benefits from both Trust Funds.

As of August 7, 1975, this pension plan was restructured by agreement to replace the two funds with a single one (combining the assets of the two prior funds), to which the employer would alone contribute for the future and which would offer only fixed benefits. As a transition measure, active-service pilots who had contributed to Trust Fund "B" were allowed either to have distributed to them the value of their contributions or to leave with the plan's new trustee the assets attributable to their prior contributions for distribution on retirement as though the 1975 amendment had not taken effect.

This proceeding is concerned with the pilots who elected in 1975 the "cash out" option. Under the agreement of August 7, 1975, they were to receive the value of their Trust Fund "B" contribution, as of August 7th, "as soon as is administratively feasible after the adoption of this plan." Actual distribution began in November 1975 and apparently continued into December 1975. ALPA's demand in this litigation is that these pilots should also receive interest on the accrued value of their contributions for the period between August 7, 1975, and the actual date of disbursement. ² Jurisdiction of the district court is laid under section 502 of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1132. ³

II.

All agree that at least part of this suit seeks to enforce ALPA's understanding of the August 1975 amendments to the collectively bargained pension plan. As to that segment, ALPA's position is that the provisions of the Railway Labor Act calling for compulsory arbitration of disputes over collective bargaining agreements have been superseded for pension matters by the ERISA provision making the federal courts available to decide pension disputes, including those arising under such bargaining agreements. Northwest's stance, to the contrary, is that the compulsory arbitration requirement of the Railway Labor Act still stands unimpaired for controversies arising from the Northwest-ALPA pension agreement.

A. ERISA aside, it is undisputed and indisputable that the Railway Labor Act, which has been extended in this respect to the airline industry (International Ass'n of Machinists v. Central Airlines, Inc., 372 U.S. 682, 685-86, 83 S.Ct. 956, 959, 10 L.Ed.2d 67 (1963)), requires the contractual controversy between ALPA and Northwest to be submitted to an arbitration board. Under the Act, air carriers and their employees are obliged to bargain collectively over "rates of pay, rules, or working conditions" terms which include employee pensions. See Jackson v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 457 F.2d 202, 204 (2d Cir. 1972). The statute also mandates the carrier or the union to refer disputes over the application or interpretation of bargaining agreements covering these matters, if they cannot be resolved informally, to arbitration. See § 204 of the Act, 45 U.S.C. § 184. This is a compulsory statutory obligation. Walker v. Southern Ry., 385 U.S. 196, 198, 87 S.Ct. 365, 366, 17 L.Ed.2d 294 (1966); International Ass'n of Machinists v. Central Airlines, Inc., supra, 372 U.S. at 686, 83 S.Ct. at 956; Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Chicago River & Ind. R. R., 353 U.S. 30, 39, 77 S.Ct. 635, 639, 1 L.Ed.2d 622 (1957). The arbitral board's jurisdiction is exclusive and cannot be avoided by efforts to bring the dispute directly into court. See Slocum v. Delaware, L. & W. R. R., 339 U.S. 239, 244, 70 S.Ct. 577, 579, 94 L.Ed. 795 (1950); Pennsylvania R. R. v. Day, 360 U.S. 548, 552, 79 S.Ct. 1322, 1324, 3 L.Ed.2d 1422 (1959); Andrews v. Louisville & N. R. R., 406 U.S. 320, 325, 92 S.Ct. 1562, 1565, 32 L.Ed.2d 95 (1972); Haney v. Chesapeake & O. R. R., 162 U.S.App.D.C. 254, 259, 498 F.2d 987, 992 (1974); de la Rosa Sanchez v. Eastern Airlines, Inc., 574 F.2d 29, 31-33 (1st Cir. 1978).

B. Were it not for one provision of ERISA, it might be troubling to decide whether or not the later enactment of ERISA, with its opening of the federal courts to suits over the coverage and application of pension plans (section 502, 29 U.S.C. § 1132), modified the exclusivity of this pattern of the Railway Labor Act. ⁴ But we think that Congress made its will very clear in section 514(d) of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1144(d), which declares:

Nothing in this title (subchapter) shall be construed to alter, amend, modify, invalidate, impair, or supersede any law of the United States (except as provided in sections 1031 and 1137(b) of this title) or any rule or regulation issued under any such law. ⁵

On its face this is a strong, comprehensive, express statement that ERISA is not to be read as displacing by implication any pre-existing federal legislation. Congress' declaration incorporates and goes beyond the normal canon that repeals by implication are not favored (see, e. g., Universal Interpretive Shuttle Corp. v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Comm'n, 393 U.S. 186, 193, 89 S.Ct. 354, 358, 21 L.Ed.2d 334 (1968)) to say, more definitively, that they should not in any case be implied.

Tying subsection (d) to other parts of section 514 which automatically preempt state laws, ALPA urges that the only purpose of subsection (d) is to foreclose federal law from being mechanically preempted in the same way as state legislation that Congress meant to leave it to the courts to decide for themselves, on the basis of a comparison of the policies and purposes of the two pieces of federal legislation, whether ERISA or the other federal statute should prevail. But there is nothing in the legislative history to support that narrow interpretation and it runs counter to the sweeping and very specific language Congress used. ⁶

In the light of the plain directive of section 514(d), unsoftened as it is by anything in ERISA's history or background, we cannot balance ERISA against the Railway Labor Act, as ALPA invites us to do, so as to interpret the former "to alter, amend, modify, invalidate, impair, or supersede" the compulsory arbitration provisions of the Labor Act. ⁷ Nor are we persuaded that the legislative history of ERISA reveals an affirmative Congressional intention to do away with all compulsory arbitration for pension matters. ⁸ The most that can be gathered from this aspect of the statute's background is that Congress did not wish to require all benefit plans to offer an arbitral remedy, nor did it desire to make it possible for any collective bargaining agreement, no matter in what industry or business, to make arbitration compulsory. There is nothing in this history to show that Congress also wanted to change, repeal, or modify a prior Congressional enactment, like the Railway Labor Act, which expressly made arbitration mandatory in a very few selected businesses. And, as we have pointed out, the terms of section 514...