Brown v. National Football League

• Citation: 219 F.Supp.2d 372
• Decision Date: 18 March 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01 Civ. 4086(GEL).,01 Civ. 4086(GEL).
• Parties: Orlando BROWN and Mira Brown, Plaintiffs, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

219 F.Supp.2d 372

Orlando BROWN and Mira Brown, Plaintiffs, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, Defendant.

No. 01 Civ. 4086(GEL).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

March 18, 2002.

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Brian J. Shoot (Clifford J. Stern, James M. Lane, The Cochran Firm, Schneider, Kleinick, Weitz, Damashek, & Shoot, New York City, of counsel) for Orlando and Mira Brown.

Brad S. Karp (Jeffrey L. Nagel, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York City, of counsel) for National Football League.

OPINION AND ORDER

LYNCH, District Judge.

This is a personal injury action brought by Orlando Brown ("Brown"), formerly a professional football player with the Cleveland Browns, and his wife Mira Brown, against the National Football League ("NFL"), seeking damages for an injury that occurred during a game when an NFL referee threw a penalty flag weighted with "BB" pellets and struck Brown in the eye, causing him to sustain eye injuries that ended his football career. The action was originally brought in New York Supreme Court, Bronx County, and was removed here by the Defendant. As it happens, neither party believes that this Court is the proper forum in which the merits of the dispute should be resolved. Plaintiffs urge that the suit should be remanded to the state courts, to be pursued as an ordinary negligence action; Defendant claims that the case is really one for breach of a collective bargaining agreement ("CBA"), and therefore should be sent to arbitration according to the terms of that agreement.¹

Following the removal of the action to this Court, the NFL moved to dismiss the complaint, on the ground that the Browns' claims are preempted by Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act ("LMRA"); to compel arbitration of Plaintiffs' claims, on the ground that arbitration is mandated by the CBA; and to dismiss or stay the claims asserted by Mira Brown, as wholly derivative of her husband's claims. Plaintiffs opposed the motion, and cross-moved pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c) to remand the case to the New York state courts. For the reasons that follow, Defendant's motion to dismiss and compel arbitration will be denied, and Plaintiffs' cross motion to remand will be granted.

BACKGROUND

On December 19, 1999, during the second quarter of a football game in Cleveland in which Brown was playing, NFL referee Jeff Triplette ("Triplette") called a "false start" penalty and released a penalty flag to signal the infraction. Plaintiffs allege that instead of properly dropping the penalty flag in accordance with NFL rules, regulations and guidelines, Triplette negligently threw the weighted penalty flag into the air in Brown's direction. The flag flew through an opening in Brown's protective helmet and struck him the eye. (Comp. ¶¶ 30, 31.) The incident caused serious injury to Brown's eye, such that "[h]e can no longer play football without significant risk of sustaining further damage to his eye, including blindness." (Stern Aff., Ex. 2 at 2.) As a result, Brown's previously successful and potentially lucrative career as a professional football player came to an end.

Plaintiffs brought this complaint against the NFL in tort, in four counts. The two claims on Brown's own behalf charge that the NFL is liable for his injuries, both in its own right for negligent hiring and training of Triplette, and vicariously, as Triplette's employer, for his negligence in throwing the flag. Two parallel and derivative claims are brought by Mira Brown, for loss of services, society, companionship and consortium resulting from her husband's injuries. (Comp. ¶¶ 54, 59.) Brown seeks $200 million in damages for loss of future earnings, medical expenses and physical and emotional anguish, and Mira Brown seeks $50 million in damages for her loss of consortium and related claims. (Comp. ¶¶ 46, 51, 55, 60.)²

More specifically, Brown's first claim is that the NFL breached its duty to him and to the general public to hire and employ competent referees for NFL football games (Comp.¶ 32), to train and supervise its referees (Comp. ¶ 33), to ensure that its referees not throw penalty flags directly at a person when calling an infraction (Comp. ¶ 34), to ensure that penalty flags not be unsafely weighted in violation of NFL rules, regulations and guidelines (Comp. ¶ 36) and to train its employees on the proper manner in which penalty flags should be thrown (Comp. ¶ 37). Failure of the NFL "to ensure compliance with all NFL rules, regulations and guidelines relative to the type of penalty flag to be used and the manner in which the flag is to be thrown during football games conducted by ... the NFL" is cited by Brown as evidence that the NFL "violated its duty to Brown and the general public." (Comp. ¶ 38.) Brown's second claim is that Triplette was negligent or reckless in throwing the penalty flag that injured Brown (Comp. ¶ 49), and that the NFL, as Triplette's employer, was vicariously liable for Triplette's tortious act in question (Comp. ¶ 50).

Thus, Plaintiffs' theory of the case is that this is a garden-variety tort action invoking a general duty to avoid negligently causing harm, owed by the NFL not only to its players but also to any other person in society who could possibly have been threatened by Triplette's weighted projectile. They contend that a fan, member of the press, or other bystander could equally bring such a claim had he or she been injured in the same manner. On this view, whether Triplette or the NFL was negligent, or whether the NFL has a valid defense that Brown assumed the risk of such an injury by playing professional football (or any other defense to the action), are simply ordinary issues of state tort law that, in the absence of diversity of citizenship, should be adjudicated in state court.

For purposes of this motion, the NFL does not dispute the facts in the Browns' complaint. (Def.'s Br. at 4.) Moreover, the NFL agrees that this Court is not the proper forum in which the merits of this dispute should be adjudicated. Defendant, however, views the nature of the case through an entirely different lens. The NFL maintains that this case is really a dispute over the terms of the CBA between the National Football League Players Association ("NFLPA") — the players' union — and the terms comprising the NFL, and, thus, under the terms of the CBA, should be decided in neither state nor federal court, but rather in arbitration pursuant to the terms of the CBA. Because § 301 of the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a) (1998), completely preempts state claims to enforce CBAs, the NFL contends that the case was properly removed to federal court, where, in turn, the arbitration clause of the CBA should be enforced.

In support of this claim, the NFL points out that the complaint relies on various documents, such as the NFL's Rules and the NFL Officials Mechanics Manual issued to referees, as evidence of negligence. The NFL argues that these documents are associated with or incorporated by reference into the CBA, and therefore that the references to these documents in the complaint demonstrate that any duty Plaintiffs claim was owed by the NFL to Brown is not a general duty owed to the public at large, but rather is a duty owed to Brown as an NFL player that exists solely because of the CBA. It would thus follow that determining the "precise nature and scope of those duties" necessarily requires interpretation of the CBA. (Def.'s Br. at 3.) Federal jurisdiction would therefore be available. Moreover, the NFL argues, since Brown, as an NFL player, is subject "to the terms of the CBA and its incorporated agreements," and since the CBA specifically states that "any dispute" concerning Brown's employment or the interpretation of the CBA and its related agreements must be sent to arbitration, the Court, after taking jurisdiction, must dismiss the case and order the dispute to be arbitrated. (Def.'s Br. at 2.)

DISCUSSION

I. Preemption and Removal

Complaints originally filed in state court may be removed by a defendant to federal court only if the case could have been filed, in the first instance, in federal court. 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a). Since both Plaintiffs and Defendant are considered, for diversity purposes, citizens of New York, removal here must be based upon the existence of a federal question. Ordinarily, of course, federal jurisdiction exists only where a federal question is presented on the face of a plaintiff's complaint. Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams, 482 U.S. 386, 392, 107 S.Ct. 2425, 96 L.Ed.2d 318 (1987). Generally, when a complaint alleges only state law causes of action, it cannot be removed to federal court from state court even if there is a federal defense, thus making the plaintiff "master of the complaint" and allowing a plaintiff to avoid federal jurisdiction by relying exclusively on state law if they so desire. Id. at 392-93, 107 S.Ct. 2425.

As with most general rules, however, there is an exception to this so-called "well-pleaded complaint" rule, known as the "complete preemption" doctrine. Under this doctrine, the Supreme Court has held that in certain instances the preemptive force of a statute is "so extraordinary" that it allows a straightforward state law complaint to "properly be removed to the federal courts, even when the plaintiff's complaint does not itself include a federal cause of action" for purposes of the well-pleaded complaint rule. Foy v. Pratt & Whitney:, 127 F.3d 229, 232-33 (2d Cir. 1997) (citing Shafii v. British Airways, PLC, 83 F.3d 566, 569 (2d Cir.1996); Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. Norris, 512 U.S. 246, 253-263, 114 S.Ct. 2239, 129 L.Ed.2d 203 (1994); El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. Neztsosie, 526 U.S. 473, 484 n. 6, 119 S.Ct. 1430, 143 L.Ed.2d 635 (1999)).

Section 301 of the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), cited by the NFL as the basis for federal jurisdiction in this case, is the statute most commonly associated with the complete preemption doctrine.³...