Alongi v. Ford Motor Co., 02-2514.
| Decision Date | 13 October 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-2514.,02-2514. |
| Citation | 386 F.3d 716 |
| Parties | Charles ALONGI, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. FORD MOTOR CO.; Environ, Inc., Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Nancy G. Edmunds, J.
Maurice G. Jenkins, Dickinson, Wright, PLLC, Detroit, MI, for Appellants. Brian P. Swanson, Roy, Shecter & Vocht, Bloomfield Hills, MI, for Appellees.
ON BRIEF:
Maurice G. Jenkins, Paul R. Bernard, Dickinson, Wright, PLLC, Detroit, MI, for Appellants. Lynn H. Shecter, Roy, Shecter & Vocht, Bloomfield Hills, MI, for Appellees.
Before: BOGGS, Chief Judge; and DAVID A. NELSON and SUTTON, Circuit Judges.
The question that the parties have raised and briefed in this case is whether the plaintiffs' amended complaint-which on its face, asserts exclusively state-law causes of action—is pre-empted in whole or in part by the Labor-Management Relations Act, see 29 U.S.C. § 185, and/or the National Labor Relations Act, see 29 U.S.C. § 158. The district court held that two claims in plaintiffs' amended complaint were pre-empted, and dismissed them in the belief that primary jurisdiction over these claims lay with the NLRB. It held that the other two claims were not pre-empted by federal law, and remanded them to the state courts of Michigan.
Defendants appeal from this order, arguing that all of the plaintiffs' claims are pre-empted by federal law, and that, in addition, all of the claims are untimely under the federal statute of limitations. Accordingly, defendants ask this court to order dismissal of the plaintiffs' complaint in its entirety, with prejudice.
We affirm the district court insofar as it held that the two challenged claims in the plaintiffs' amended complaint were not completely preempted, but we go further. Mindful of our independent obligation to ensure our subject-matter jurisdiction, we conclude that none of the claims in the plaintiffs' original complaint were completely preempted by the Labor-Management Relations Act, either. That means that removal jurisdiction in federal court was lacking from the outset of this case. We further conclude that we are obligated to act on this jurisdictional defect in the earlier proceedings, even though neither party has raised it. We accordingly vacate the district court's rulings on the plaintiffs' original and amended complaints, and remand to the district court for entry of an order dismissing all claims without prejudice, and entry of an order remanding the entire case to state court.
This is an appeal from the district court's partial grant and partial denial of defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' amended complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Accordingly, the facts are taken from the amended complaint, or, where noted, from plaintiffs' original complaint.
Plaintiffs are ex-employees of Environ, Inc., a former subsidiary of co-defendant Ford Motor Co. Plaintiffs worked at Environ's Wayne County, Michigan facility, and were represented by Local 2659 of the United Steelworkers of America (the "Union"). Environ's primary business was salvaging Ford's test and prototype vehicles and collecting recalled Firestone tires. Plaintiffs allege that Environ improperly resold the recalled tires to dealers and stores. They also allege that Environ sold other parts salvaged from test vehicles to commercial dealers, even though the parts had not been approved for commercial use. Plaintiffs protested these practices, but were threatened with the loss of their jobs if they refused to participate in them.
From June to September 1999, the Union and Environ negotiated a new, six-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA), to take effect on September 27, 1999. One of the Union's lead negotiators was David Lenart, the business agent for Local 2659. Environ's chief negotiator was Martin Cygan, the vice president and COO of Environ. The resulting agreement contained no provision for the job security of Environ employees in the event the plant closed.
Plaintiffs have alleged somewhat differing accounts of what happened at the negotiations. In their original complaint, plaintiffs alleged that during the negotiation of the CBA, Cygan represented that Environ would remain open for at least six more years and that all employees would be guaranteed their jobs during the period of the CBA. The original complaint also said that Cygan represented that Environ was financially secure. It claimed that the Union's bargaining committee communicated these alleged representations to the plaintiffs and other employees, who relied on them. After the federal district court held some claims in their original complaint to be pre-empted by federal law (as discussed below at page 3), the plaintiffs amended their complaint. The amended complaint alleges that Cygan made the same representations noted above, but did so after the ratification of the CBA.
Plaintiffs further allege (in both versions of the complaint) that at the time Cygan made these representations, he and Environ knew that a decision had been made to close the plant. Plaintiffs assert that this decision was made in part because of employee complaints about Environ's use of recalled Firestone tires.
On August 2, 2000, nearly a year into the CBA period, Environ informed the plaintiffs, and the rest of the plant's hourly employees, that the plant would close. The Union and Environ then executed a "plant closing agreement" that extended certain seniority-based severance payments, benefits, and the like to the outgoing employees. This agreement did not contain any guarantees pertaining to job security. The plaintiffs and the other Environ employees were officially terminated on November 30, 2000.
After the closing, Ford sold Environ to DST Industries, Inc. DST took over a number of Environ's contracts and eventually opened a plant on the former Environ site, where it engages in a similar business. A small number of ex-Environ employees were given jobs with DST, including Lenart, the former union negotiator, who received a managerial position. Plaintiffs, however, were not given jobs at DST.
Plaintiffs brought this suit in the Circuit Court of Wayne County, Michigan, on December 12, 2001. Their original complaint asserted four counts, all pleaded under state law. We designate these counts with arabic numerals:
(1) Violation of Michigan public policy. This claim was founded upon Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.125, a misdemeanor statute that criminalizes bribery of the agents or employees of another. The plaintiffs asserted that defendants violated public policy by giving Lenart a supervisory position at DST in return for Lenart's acquiescence in negotiating a CBA that knowingly failed to protect the plaintiffs from the planned plant closing, despite Lenart's fiduciary relationship to the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs argued that the statutory anti-bribery provision gave rise to an implied cause of action against defendants.
(2) Common law fraud. This claim asserted that Cygan knowingly made misrepresentations during the CBA negotiations that Environ was sound and would remain open for six years, which misled the plaintiffs.
(3) Civil conspiracy. This claim asserted that the alleged payoff agreement between Lenart and Environ management constituted a civil conspiracy to violate public policy (as described in Count 1 above).
(4) Discharge in violation of public policy. This claim asserted that Environ required plaintiffs to participate in reselling unapproved parts, prototype vehicles, and recalled tires, in violation of the federal statute requiring sellers to comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards, 49 U.S.C. § 30112. It further alleged that Environ had retaliated against plaintiffs (who had complained about this) by not rehiring them to DST or any other Ford entity after the Environ plant closed. This, the plaintiffs argued, violated Michigan public policy.
The defendants responded by removing the case to federal district court and asserting that the complaint raised questions of federal labor law. The plaintiffs' state-law claims, they argued, were completely pre-empted by federal law, because adjudicating them would require interpretation of the CBA. Plaintiffs disagreed, and moved to remand the case to state court.
The district court denied the plaintiffs' motion to remand. It concluded that there was federal subject-matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs' Count 2, for fraud. The court reasoned that adjudicating Count 2 would require a court to look to the CBA and the negotiation process that produced it; accordingly, the count was completely pre-empted by federal labor law, and provided a basis for removal to federal court. To the extent that the other counts might not be so pre-empted, the court added, it would exercise supplemental jurisdiction over them.
Defendants then filed a motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) and Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c). They contended that all of plaintiff's claims were essentially federal in nature, and that, as a result, the claims were subject to dismissal with prejudice as untimely under the six-month federal statute of limitations applicable to claims under the NLRA. See DelCostello v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 172, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983). (Indeed, plaintiffs conceded in a later filing before the district court that if any of their claims are pre-empted by federal labor law, then those claims are indeed untimely under the applicable statute of limitations.)
Plaintiffs responded to the defendants' motion to dismiss by filing an amended complaint that recast their allegations. Like the original complaint, the amended complaint asserted four counts, which we will designate with Roman numerals:
(I) Violation of Michigan public policy. This count...
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