Air Line Pilots Ass'n, Intern. v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc., 79-2055
| Decision Date | 19 December 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 79-2055,79-2055 |
| Parties | 106 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2104, 90 Lab.Cas. P 12,464 AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL, etc., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. EASTERN AIR LINES, INC., a corporation, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
William G. Bell, Jr., Miami, Fla., for defendant-appellant.
Seth D. Rosen, Washington, D.C., Patrick A. Brennaman, Minneapolis, Minn., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before HENDERSON, POLITZ and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
Eastern Air Lines, Inc. (Eastern) appeals a summary judgment vacating in part and remanding a decision by a System Board of Adjustment (Board) in this proceeding initiated by the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) on behalf of one of its member pilots, M. A. Aponte. Concluding that the findings and order of the Board in this instance are final and not subject to judicial review, we reverse the district court and reinstate the decision of the Board.
In 1973, Eastern acquired the assets and route structure of Caribbean Atlantic Airlines, Inc. (Caribair) by whom Aponte had been employed as a pilot for 27 years. Eastern and ALPA executed an Integration Agreement to provide an orderly procedure for phasing Caribair pilots into the Eastern system. Pursuant to this agreement Aponte was trained on Boeing 727 and DC-9 aircraft. In February 1974, Aponte was terminated by Eastern for failing to satisfy the proficiency requirements of an Eastern Captain.
ALPA and Aponte provoked an arbitration hearing before the Board pursuant to the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-188, as amended, which applies to the airline industry. The Board found Eastern's training program to be inadequate for Aponte's particular needs and ordered that Aponte be reinstated for the purpose of receiving specific additional training. Provisions for back pay or reinstatement of seniority rights were not included in the Board's order. Furthermore, the Board's order provided that if, after the additional training, Eastern made a good faith judgment that Aponte still "failed to meet the Company standards for flight proficiency, then the termination ... shall become final and binding." The arbitration was subject to being reopened on the issue of bad faith performance by Eastern in its training and evaluation process.
Eastern provided Aponte with additional training, but in January 1976 he again was terminated for inadequate pilot proficiency. ALPA filed the instant complaint seeking a judgment vacating the Board's arbitration award, alleging that the award was "improper, arbitrary, without basis in law or fact, in excess of the System Board's jurisdiction and contrary to the provisions of the Railway Labor Act." After the court denied Eastern's motion to dismiss, both parties sought summary judgment. The court vacated part of the order on the ground that the Board had exceeded its jurisdiction when it limited Aponte's right to appeal his termination after the additional training. The district court remanded for a Board determination of whether Aponte was "exonerated" by the order and thus entitled to certain benefits not included in the award. Eastern appeals the judgment of the district court.
The range of judicial review in cases arising under the Railway Labor Act is "among the narrowest known to the law." Diamond v. Terminal Railway Alabama State Docks, 421 F.2d 228, 233 (5th Cir. 1970). The findings and order of an Adjustment Board are final and conclusive and subject to very limited review. An order may be set aside or remanded on one of three grounds as set forth in 45 U.S.C. § 153(q): (i) failure of the (Board) to comply with the requirements of (the Act); (ii) failure of the order to conform, or confine itself, to matters within the scope of the (Board's) jurisdiction; or (iii) fraud or corruption by a member of the (Board) making the order. We again recently recognized the limited standard of review of arbitration awards in Johns-Manville Sales v. Intern. Ass'n of Machinists, 621 F.2d 756, 758 (5th Cir. 1980): "An award must be enforced, without judicial review of the evidence, if it draws its essence from the collective bargaining agreement," a recognition that national policy encourages the settlement of labor-management disputes by arbitration. Our review of the instant arbitration award proceeds on this basis. 1
The Board did not specifically exonerate Aponte of fault nor did the award mention, except in the dissent, the benefits which would accrue to one who has been exonerated. 2 The court took note that the Board did not find Aponte at fault and obviously was impressed that the order appeared to exonerate Aponte. Recognizing the Board's priming responsibility, however, the court was reluctant to read into the order more than may have been intended and remanded to the Board so that it might speak definitively on the issue of exoneration.
We hold that the district court was without authority to evaluate the Board's decision on the merits. Likewise it was not free to remand because the order was viewed as ambiguous. Such action clearly lies outside of the limited range of review granted statutorily or flowing from overriding constitutional considerations. That the Board's decision contains no clear expression of why Aponte would be reinstated for the additional training without a full exoneration with accompanying benefits, is not a fatal omission. "Arbitrators ... 'have no obligation to the Court to give their reasons for an award.' " Eastern Air Lines v. Transport Wkrs. U., AFL-CIO, 580 F.2d 169, 173 (5th Cir. 1978), citing Steelworkers v. Enterprise Corp., 363 U.S. 593 80 S.Ct. 1358, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960). Furthermore, "mere ambiguity in the opinion accompanying an award, which permits the inference that the arbitrator may have exceeded his authority, is not a reason for refusing to enforce the award." Steelworkers, 363 U.S. at 598, 80 S.Ct. at 1361. The Supreme Court has recognized the need for flexibility in the formulation of arbitration remedies. As...
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