Brown v. Trans World Airlines

• Decision Date: 06 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-1912,96-1912
• Citation: 127 F.3d 337
• Parties: 156 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2481, 74 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1675, 71 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,012, 134 Lab.Cas. P 10,069 Carol A. BROWN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TRANS WORLD AIRLINES; Donald Oldt; Trudy Rousch-Heywood, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 337

127 F.3d 337

156 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2481, 74 Fair

Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1675,

71 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,012,

134 Lab.Cas. P 10,069

Carol A. BROWN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TRANS WORLD AIRLINES; Donald Oldt; Trudy Rousch-Heywood,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 96-1912.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued July 8, 1997.

Decided Oct. 6, 1997.

ARGUED: Sandra Martin Rohrstaff, Cohen, Dunn & Curcio, P.C., Alexandria, VA, for Appellant. Elliot H. Shaller, Washington, DC, for Appellees.

Before NIEMEYER, MICHAEL, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion, in which Judge MICHAEL and Judge MOTZ joined.

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

We are presented with the question of whether a collective bargaining agreement, which is governed by the Railway Labor Act and which requires arbitration of "disputes between the Union, employee, and the Company growing out of the interpretation or application of any of the terms of this Agreement," mandates arbitration of an employee's claim for sexual harassment and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and for violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act. Relying on our decision in Austin v. Owens-Brockway Glass Container, Inc., 78 F.3d 875 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 432, 136 L.Ed.2d 330 (1996), the district court concluded that the collective bargaining agreement mandated arbitration of the employee's claims and therefore the employee was "precluded from filing suit in this Court." Because we believe that the district court misapplied Austin and erroneously interpreted the collective bargaining agreement to compel the arbitration of statutory claims, we reverse and remand the Title VII claim for further proceedings. For other reasons, however, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the claim under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

I

Carol Brown, a customer service agent in the Trans World Airlines baggage office at Washington National Airport, filed suit against Trans World Airlines ("TWA") and two of its supervisory employees, alleging that she had been sexually harassed and retaliated against for reporting the harassment, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and of the Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq. Brown's complaint also alleged pendent state law claims for unlawful discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In her complaint, Brown alleged that the defendants harassed her through "unwanted touching, sexually offensive comments, and unwanted personal phone calls." Brown also alleged that when she complained about the harassment, her supervisor retaliated against her by ordering her to return to work or resign. When she did not return to work after several requests to do so, TWA terminated her employment.

During her employment, Brown was a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (the "Union"), which had entered into a collective bargaining agreement with TWA. The collective bargaining agreement, which was governed by the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 151 et seq., provides in its preamble:

No employee covered by this Agreement will be interfered with, restrained, coerced, or discriminated against by the Company, its officers, or agents, because of membership in or lawful activity on behalf of the Union, nor shall either the Company, its officers, or agents, or the Union, its officers, or agents, discriminate against any employee or member on account of race, color, creed, religion, sex (sexual harassment ), age, handicap, national origin, or veteran status including veteran, Vietnam era veteran or special disabled veteran status. This paragraph reaffirms the long standing mutual practice of both of the parties to this Agreement.

(Emphasis added). The agreement also provides for a contractual dispute resolution procedure. Article 11 establishes a multi-step procedure for grievances, stating that "the procedure for presentation and adjustment of grievances that may arise between the Company and the Union with reference to interpretation or application of any provisions of this agreement shall be as set forth below." Article 12 provides that, following exhaustion of the grievance procedure steps, the parties are entitled to appeal to a board of arbitrators, "the System Board of Adjustment," which was created "for the purpose of adjusting and deciding disputes or grievances which may arise under the terms of this Agreement." It further gives the System Board of Adjustment jurisdiction "over disputes between the Union, employee, and the Company growing out of the interpretation or application of any of the terms of this Agreement," and it declares the decisions of the System Board of Adjustment to be "final and binding."

Arguing that the collective bargaining agreement required Brown to submit her claim to the grievance procedure and the System Board of Adjustment, TWA filed a motion for summary judgment. It maintained that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction or, alternatively, that Brown's complaint failed to state a state-law claim upon which relief could be granted. In addition, with respect to Brown's Family and Medical Leave Act claim, TWA contended that the undisputed facts demonstrated that she had exceeded the maximum leave time provided by the Act.

The district court agreed with TWA and granted its motion for summary judgment, requiring that the case be resolved pursuant to the dispute resolution mechanisms of the collective bargaining agreement. The court also dismissed the individual defendants on the federal claims and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state claims. In granting TWA's motion, the district court stated:

Having reviewed the briefs submitted by counsel, the Court finds that the Fourth Circuit's opinion in Austin v. Owens-Brockway Glass Container, 78 F.3d 875 (4th Cir.1996) controls this case and requires dismissal of the counts brought under Title VII and the FMLA. The issues underlying these counts are directly addressed by the Collective Bargaining Agreement ("CBA") which governs the terms and conditions of plaintiff's employment with defendant Trans World Airlines. The CBA requires arbitration of disputes which arise from the agreement, and, therefore, the plaintiff is precluded from filing suit in this Court.

This appeal followed.

II

Brown argues that the district court erred in relying on our decision in Austin because Austin was decided under the National Labor Relations Act, and not the Railway Labor Act. Because the collective bargaining agreement in this case was negotiated under the Railway Labor Act, she contends that the provisions of that Act and the Supreme Court's decision in Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. Norris, 512 U.S. 246, 114 S.Ct. 2239, 129 L.Ed.2d 203 (1994), require that statutory claims not be submitted to arbitration for resolution.

TWA argues, on the other hand, that Hawaiian Airlines decided only when a claim is preempted by the Railway Labor Act and not when a statutory claim may be submitted to arbitration. It contends that the enforcement of arbitration agreements is controlled by the Supreme Court's decision in Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20, 111 S.Ct. 1647, 114 L.Ed.2d 26 (1991), where the Court held that statutory claims may be the subject of an enforceable arbitration agreement. Id. at 26, 111 S.Ct. at 1652. TWA maintains that our decision in Austin is a proper extension of Gilmer and controls the disposition of this case.

The Railway Labor Act, which covers the airline industry and, in particular, the collective bargaining agreement in this case, prescribes a mandatory arbitral mechanism for the settlement of disputes "growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions." 45 U.S.C. § 153 First (i). In Hawaiian Airlines, the Supreme Court defined the scope of that arbitral mechanism, holding that the Railway Labor Act's mandatory arbitration pertains only to "disputes involving the application or interpretation of a [collective bargaining agreement]." 512 U.S. at 255, 114 S.Ct. at 2245. In concluding that the Railway Labor Act did not preempt claims "independent of the collective bargaining agreement," the Court permitted a fired airline employee to pursue independent state law-based rights not to be fired in violation of public policy or in retaliation for whistle-blowing. Thus, Hawaiian Airlines instructs that the Railway Labor Act's arbitral mechanism does not mandate the arbitration of state-law claims that exist independently of the collective bargaining agreement.

Even if statutory claims exist independently of a collective bargaining agreement, however, those claims may be made the subject of an enforceable arbitration by agreement. In Gilmer, the Court held that congressional policy favors arbitration and that the arbitral forum is adequate for resolving statutory claims. The Court concluded that agreements to arbitrate statutory claims should be enforced unless the plaintiff demonstrates that Congress intended to preclude the waiver of a judicial forum for claims under a particular statute, either expressly or because of inherent incompatibility between the statute's goals and the arbitral forum. See Gilmer, 500 U.S. at 35, 111 S.Ct. at 1656-57 (holding that nothing in the ADEA indicates a congressional intent to preclude the arbitration of ADEA claims); see also Shearson/American Express, Inc. v. McMahon, 482 U.S. 220, 238, 242, 107 S.Ct. 2332, 2343-44, 96 L.Ed.2d 185 (1987) (holding that agreement to arbitrate statutory claims under Securities Exchange Act and RICO should be enforced since nothing in those statutes precludes the arbitration of claims); Mitsubishi Motors...