Commissioner of Labor v. Talbert Mfg. Co., 37A03-9109-CV-00267

• Decision Date: 16 June 1992
• Docket Number: No. 37A03-9109-CV-00267,37A03-9109-CV-00267
• Citation: 593 N.E.2d 1229
• Parties: 143 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2477, 8 IER Cases 1781, 1992 O.S.H.D. (CCH) P 29,732 COMMISSIONER OF LABOR, Appellant-Plaintiff Below, v. TALBERT MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Appellee-Defendant Below.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 1229

593 N.E.2d 1229

143 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2477, 8 IER Cases 1781,

1992 O.S.H.D. (CCH) P 29,732

COMMISSIONER OF LABOR, Appellant-Plaintiff Below, v. TALBERT MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Appellee-Defendant Below.

No. 37A03-9109-CV-00267.

Court of Appeals of Indiana Third District.

June 16, 1992.

Karla A. Mantia, Indiana Dept. of Labor, Indianapolis, for appellant-plaintiff below.

Jack H. Rogers, Terry W. Dawson, Barnes & Thornburg, Indianapolis, for appellee-defendant below.

STATON, Judge.

Talbert Manufacturing Co. discharged Randle Bougher, an employee and a member of the United Steelworkers of America Local 6928, for allegedly violating several work rules. Before the discharge, Bougher had been suspended for five days. Later, Bougher filed a grievance contesting his suspension under the procedures set forth in the contract between Talbert and the Union. Under the terms of the contract, Talbert had the right to convert the suspension to a discharge. It did and Bougher was discharged.

On June 29, 1990, the Commissioner of Labor for the State of Indiana (Commissioner) filed a complaint on Bougher's behalf, alleging that Talbert discharged Bougher for filing a complaint under the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Act (IOSHA), in violation of IND.CODE 22-8-1.1-38.1 (1988). While this lawsuit was pending, the parties submitted the grievance to arbitration, in accordance with the terms of the contract. In a decision issued March 5, 1991, the arbitrator denied Bougher's grievance claim. Thereafter, the trial court granted Talbert's motion for summary judgment, ruling that the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel barred the Commissioner's claim by virtue of the binding decision entered against Bougher in arbitration. The Commissioner now appeals, contending that the entry of summary judgment in this case was improper.

We reverse.

On an appeal from a summary judgment, we must determine whether the record reveals a genuine issue of material fact and whether the trial court correctly applied the law. Shuamber v. Henderson (1991), Ind., 579 N.E.2d 452, 454. Summary judgment will be affirmed if it is sustainable upon any theory supported by the record. Kolczynski v. Maxton Motors, Inc. (1989), Ind.App., 538 N.E.2d 275, 276, trans. denied.

The Commissioner first argues that summary judgment was inappropriate in this case because his complaint is subject to a well-recognized exception to the doctrines of collateral estoppel and res judicata. In support of this position, the Commissioner cites to a trilogy of U.S. Supreme Court cases dealing with this issue: Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co. (1974), 415 U.S. 36, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 39 L.Ed.2d 147; Barrentine v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, Inc. (1981), 450 U.S. 728, 101 S.Ct. 1437, 67 L.Ed.2d 641; and McDonald v. City of West Branch, Mich. (1984), 466 U.S. 284, 104 S.Ct. 1799, 80 L.Ed.2d 302. Talbert contends that these cases are irrelevant because the Commissioner, by failing to challenge the factual findings of the arbitrator in the grievance proceeding, did not come forth with specific facts to establish a genuine dispute of material fact under Ind.Trial Rule 56(C).

In Gardner-Denver, the petitioner filed a racial discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act following his discharge by the respondent, his employer. Prior to filing this complaint, however, the petitioner filed a grievance under the collective-bargaining agreement between his union and the employer. The arbitrator found against the petitioner, ruling that the discharge was "for cause." Later, after the EEOC determination that there was no reasonable ground to believe that a violation had occurred, the petitioner sued the employer in federal district court, alleging that his discharge resulted from a racially discriminatory employment practice. The district court granted the employer's motion for summary judgment, concluding that the petitioner had no right to sue because he was bound by the prior arbitral decision, and the court of appeals affirmed.

A unanimous United States Supreme Court reversed, concluding that the anti-discrimination provisions of Title VII were designed to supplement, rather than supplant, existing laws relating to employment discrimination. The Court noted that Title VII vests federal courts with plenary powers to enforce statutory requirements, and that enactments in this area evinced a general intent to provide parallel or overlapping remedies against discrimination. Id. at 47-48, 94 S.Ct. at 1019. As the Court held, "Title VII's purpose and procedures strongly suggest that an individual does not forfeit his private cause of action if he first pursues his grievance to final arbitration under the nondiscrimination clause of a collective-bargaining agreement." Id. at 48-49, 94 S.Ct. at 1020. The Court further noted:

In submitting his grievance to arbitration, an employee seeks to vindicate his contractual right under a collective-bargaining agreement. By contrast, in filing a lawsuit under [the statute], an employee asserts independent statutory rights accorded by Congress. The distinctly separate nature of these contractual and statutory rights is not vitiated merely because both were violated as a result of the same factual occurrence. And certainly no inconsistency results from permitting both rights to be enforced in their respectively appropriate forums.

Id. at 49-50, 94 S.Ct. at 1020. In addition, the Court in Gardner-Denver observed that an arbitrator is generally without authority or the expertise to invoke or interpret statutes, but merely interprets the contract between the parties. This authority to resolve only questions of contractual rights remains regardless of whether these rights are similar to, or duplicative of, the rights accorded by statute. Id. at 53-54, 94 S.Ct. at 1022.

Similarly, in Barrentine, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that an arbitral decision precluded a subsequent suit based on the same underlying facts alleging a violation of the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Court reasoned that, while the Labor Management Relations Act encourages employees to promote their interests collectively (e.g., by entering into a collective-bargaining agreement), "the FLSA was designed to give specific minimum protections to individual workers[.]" 450 U.S. at 739, 101 S.Ct. at 1444 (emphasis in original). Thus, reasoned the court, the judiciary should defer to arbitration where the employee's claim is based on rights arising out of the collective-bargaining agreement, but different considerations apply where the claim is based on rights arising from a statute designed to provide minimum substantive guarantees to individual workers. Id. at 737, 101 S.Ct. at 1443. The Court also noted that the FLSA erects no procedural barriers nor creates an alternative forum for enforcement of such statutory rights, evincing an intent to grant individual employees broad access to the courts. Id. at 740, 101 S.Ct. at 1444.

Finally, in McDonald, the Supreme Court held that an unappealed arbitration determination, filed in accordance with the terms of a collective-bargaining agreement, had no preclusive effect in a civil rights suit filed under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Relying extensively on Gardner-Denver and Barrentine, the Court concluded that "according preclusive effect to arbitration awards in Sec. 1983 actions would severely undermine the protection of federal rights that the statute is designed to provide." 466 U.S. at 292, 104 S.Ct. at 1804.

Upon facts similar to those in the case before us, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a final arbitral decision is no bar to a subsequent lawsuit invoking the antidiscrimination provisions of the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Marshall v. N.L. Industries, Inc. (7th Cir.1980), 618 F.2d 1220. In Marshall, an employee filed a complaint with OSHA after being discharged for refusing to work in conditions he believed were unsafe. He also filed a grievance under the collective-bargaining agreement between his union and the employer. After arbitration had concluded, the Secretary of Labor commenced a lawsuit seeking an injunction against further OSHA violations, posting of notices, and back pay and vacation pay for the employee. The district court, acknowledging the holding in Gardner-Denver, nonetheless dismissed the suit, ruling that the employee waived the right to statutory relief.

The court of appeals reversed, holding that the Gardner-Denver case controlled despite the employee's partial waiver. The court further found that, like Title VII (at issue in Gardner-Denver ), OSHA was enacted "to mobilize the resources of the federal government in an effort to eradicate a specific group of problems confronting workers nationwide." 618 F.2d at 1222. The Marshall court observed that "OSHA legislation was intended to create a separate and general right of broad social importance existing beyond the parameters of an individual labor agreement and susceptible of full vindication only in a judicial forum." Id.

Similar policy considerations are demonstrated in the provisions of IOSHA. For instance, IC 22-8-1.1-2 mandates that employers establish and maintain work conditions that are "reasonably safe and healthful for employees," and free from recognized hazards that may cause death or serious physical harm to employees. This policy is similar to that of the FLSA, found compelling by the Court in Barrentine, which was enacted to protect all covered workers from "labor conditions [that are] detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers." 450 U.S. at 739, 101 S.Ct. at 1444 (quoting 29 U.S.C. Sec. 202(a)). In fact, Indiana has adopted all federal OSHA standards, unless replaced by a...