Bd. of Trustees v. BAYLOR HEAT. & AIR CONDITIONING

• Decision Date: 29 December 1988
• Docket Number: No. Civ. A. No. 88-1314-A.,Civ. A. No. 88-1314-A.
• Citation: 702 F. Supp. 1253
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
• Parties: BOARD OF TRUSTEES, SHEET METAL WORKERS NATIONAL FUND; Board of Trustees, Sheet Metal Workers National COLA Fund; Board of Trustees, National Stabilization Agreement of Sheet Metal Industry Trust Fund; Board of Trustees, National Training Fund for the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Industry; Board of Trustees, National Energy Management Institute Committee, Plaintiffs, v. BAYLOR HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING, INC., Defendant.

702 F. Supp. 1253

BOARD OF TRUSTEES, SHEET METAL WORKERS NATIONAL FUND; Board of Trustees, Sheet Metal Workers National COLA Fund; Board of Trustees, National Stabilization Agreement of Sheet Metal Industry Trust Fund; Board of Trustees, National Training Fund for the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Industry; Board of Trustees, National Energy Management Institute Committee, Plaintiffs, v. BAYLOR HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING, INC., Defendant.

No. Civ. A. No. 88-1314-A.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Alexandria Division.

December 29, 1988.

Marc E. Le Blanc, Susan Tsui, Alexandria, Va., for plaintiffs.

William Michael Schiff, Robert H. Brown of Kahn, Dees, Donovan & Kahn, Evansville, Ind., Amy Berman of Venable, Baetjer & Howard, McLean, Va., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ELLIS, District Judge.

This Section 1404(a) transfer motion arises in the context of an ERISA¹ suit. More specifically, defendant, a small southwestern Indiana contractor, is being sued for failing to make contributions to employee benefit plans as required by an alleged collective bargaining agreement. Defendant seeks to transfer this matter from this District to the Southern District of Indiana. Convenience of the parties and the witnesses and the pendency of a related matter in Indiana are the chief grounds relied upon in support of the motion. Plaintiffs are the five separate Boards of Trustees of the Sheet Metal Workers National Pension Fund. They vigorously oppose transfer, arguing that ERISA's special venue provisions preclude transfer, that the balance of convenience to the witnesses and parties weighs against transfer, and that the interest of justice also militates against transfer.

For the reasons stated herein, the motion to transfer is denied. Defendant has not borne its burden of showing that transfer is warranted. Defendant's reliance on inconvenience to its witnesses is not sufficiently documented to justify transfer. Nor does the interest of justice militate in favor of transfer. The matters pending in Indiana and the Seventh Circuit do not justify transfer to Indiana.

Background

Defendant is an Indiana corporation headquartered in Evansville. It is engaged in the heating and air conditioning contracting business in an area within a 100-mile radius of Evansville. Defendant's offices and business records are located in Evansville and its officers all reside there. Since May 1987, defendant has employed a number of employees, all but one of whom are Indiana residents.² None of these employees has ever performed any work for defendant outside that 100 mile radius. Defendant has never done business in Virginia and, except for mailing contributions to plaintiffs under a pre-existing labor contract, has no contacts whatsoever with Virginia.³

As noted, plaintiffs are the five separate Boards of Trustees of the Sheet Metal Workers National Pension Fund.⁴ They are, in essence, labor management trust funds charged under the law and by contract with the administration of the various employee benefit plans for members of the National Sheet Metal Workers Union. Plaintiffs' business offices and records are located chiefly in Alexandria, Virginia.⁵ Virtually all of their 150 employees work in Alexandria. Plaintiffs' members, the Trustees, meet, transact business and administer the funds in this district.

Defendant was a signatory to a collective bargaining agreement with Local Union No. 20 of the Sheet Metal Workers Union. Local Union No. 20 and its business agent are located in Evansville, Indiana. The collective bargaining agreement apparently included an arbitration clause. This clause required the parties to arbitrate in the event they could not reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement when the then-existing agreement expired. This in fact occurred; the agreement expired and the parties were unable to reach an agreement. Local Union No. 20 sought arbitration. Defendant elected not to participate in the arbitration. The arbitrator ruled in favor of Local Union No. 20. He ruled specifically that a new collective bargaining agreement was established between defendant and Local Union No. 20. This agreement provided, inter alia, for contributions to plaintiffs' funds on behalf of defendant's employees. Defendant chose to ignore this arbitration award. Local Union No. 20 then brought suit in the federal district court for the Southern District of Indiana to confirm the award. The union prevailed; Judge Steckeler granted summary judgment confirming the arbitration award. Sheet Metal Workers Local Union No. 20 v. Baylor Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., 688 F.Supp. 462 (S.D. Ind.1988). This matter is now on appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Indiana is also the situs of two additional, related disputes between defendant and Local Union No. 20. In March 1987, Local Union 20 filed an unfair labor practice charge against defendant alleging that refusal to recognize and bargain with the union constituted an unfair labor practice. The National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) Acting Regional Director rejected this charge, pointing out that no evidence had been presented to prove that the union could claim a majority relationship with defendant's employees at the time the second contract was negotiated. Indeed, as the Acting Director noted, only one union member was apparently working for defendant at that time.

On September 14, 1988, the NLRB issued a complaint against Local Union No. 20, alleging that the Local's efforts to compel defendant's adherence to the collective bargaining agreement violated Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the National Labor Relations Act. 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(1)(B). This complaint is pending and will ultimately be heard in Evansville, Indiana. Thereafter, on November 9, 1988, the NLRB notified defendant that an election would be held November 30, 1988 to permit defendant's employees to vote on whether they wanted Local Union No. 20 to represent them. This election was conducted in Evansville, Indiana. The employees voted by a large majority not to be represented by the union.

Analysis

Section 1404(a)'s general language is rarely dispositive in specific cases. Its language is too general. Rather, the Section vests district courts with substantial discretion to decide transfer motions by weighing various factors under the broad rubric of "the convenience of the parties and witnesses," and "the interest of justice." See 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a).⁶ The starting point for analysis of what factors are relevant and the weight they should be accorded is Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 67 S.Ct. 839, 91 L.Ed. 1055 (1947).⁷ That seminal decision offered the following guidance:

An interest to be considered, and the one likely to be most pressed, is the private interest of the litigant. Important considerations are the relative ease of access to sources of proof; availability of compulsory process for attendance of unwilling, and the cost of obtaining attendance of willing, witnesses; ... and all other practical problems that make trial of a case easy, expeditious and inexpensive.

Numerous district court decisions in the wake of Gilbert identify and analyze the various factors that merit consideration in the transfer calculus.⁸ Each of the factors pertinent to the resolution of this transfer motion are separately discussed below.

(1) Plaintiff's Choice of Venue

A number of settled principles bear on the weight accorded plaintiff's forum choice in the transfer calculus. In general, plaintiff's choice of venue is entitled to substantial weight in determining whether transfer is appropriate.⁹ Indeed, before transfer is warranted, a defendant must demonstrate that the deference due plaintiff's choice of venue is "clearly outweighed by other factors." Darchuk v. Kellwood Co., 47 Fair. Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1259 (E.D.Ark. July 8, 1988) (1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12859) 1988 WL 126573; see also Central States, Southeast & Southwest Area Pension Fund v. Sloan, No. 88-C-6316 (N.D.Ill. Nov. 15, 1988) (1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12865) 1988 WL 124334. But the weight given to plaintiff's choice of venue varies with the significance of the contacts between the venue chosen by plaintiff and the underlying cause of action. For obvious reasons, the plaintiff's choice is entitled to less weight where there is little to connect the chosen forum with the cause of action.¹⁰ And ordinarily, a plaintiff's choice of his home forum for venue purpose is given greater weight than a plaintiff's choice of a foreign forum.¹¹

In ERISA cases, there is a further policy rationale in favor of according plaintiff's choice of forum somewhat greater weight than would typically be the case. Congress recognized as a special goal of ERISA that

the enforcement provisions have been designed specifically to provide both the Secretary and participants and beneficiaries with broad remedies for redressing or preventing violations of the Act. The intention of the Committee is to provide the full range of legal and equitable remedies available in both state and federal courts and to remove jurisdictional and procedural obstacles which in the past appear to have hampered effective enforcement of fiduciary responsibilities under state law for recovery of benefits due to participants.

H.R.Rep. No. 533, 93d Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1974 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 4639, 4655.¹² Given this, plaintiffs' venue selection under ERISA is arguably entitled to somewhat greater deference than that typically accorded plaintiffs' choice of forum. See Connors v. Peles Coal Co., 637 F.Supp. 321, 322 (D.D.C. 1986).¹³

These principles, applied to the instant case, lead to the conclusion that plaintiffs' forum choice is not dispositive here — it neither prohibits nor requires transfer — but is instead a factor of some significance in the transfer equation. This District is plaintiffs' home forum. As noted, this selection is, therefore,...