Ewing v. Koppers Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1987
• Docket Number: No. 33,33
• Citation: 312 Md. 45,537 A.2d 1173
• Parties: , 56 USLW 2533, 108 Lab.Cas. P 10,391 Lawton Edward EWING v. KOPPERS COMPANY, INC. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 45

312 Md. 45

537 A.2d 1173, 56 USLW 2533, 108

Lab.Cas. P 10,391

Lawton Edward EWING v. KOPPERS COMPANY, INC.

No. 33, Sept. Term, 1987.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

March 7, 1988.

Motion for Reconsideration Denied April 6, 1988.

William F. Gosnell, Baltimore, for appellant.

Anthony W. Kraus and Gil A. Abramson (Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE and ADKINS, JJ., and JAMES F. COUCH, JR., Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland (retired), Specially Assigned.

McAULIFFE, Judge.

Resolution of this appeal requires consideration of the scope of federal pre-emption in the field of labor law, as well as consideration of the doctrine of mutual collateral estoppel.

The Petitioner, Lawton Edward Ewing, was hired by Koppers Company, Inc. (the employer) in 1961. He was a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Lodge 1784 (the Union), and the terms and conditions of his employment were fixed by a collective bargaining agreement. His employment was terminated on March 28, 1983, and his employer assigned a number of reasons for that action, including his attendance record and his physical inability to work. Petitioner promptly filed a grievance, alleging that he had been terminated without just cause ¹, and seeking reinstatement, back pay, and restoration of fringe benefits. The required pre-arbitration procedures did not produce a resolution of the dispute, and the grievance was ultimately submitted to an arbitrator selected through the procedures of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Following two days of hearings and the submission of briefs by each party, the arbitrator filed, on May 11, 1984, a 28 page opinion and award, finding that the employer had just cause to terminate the Petitioner, and denying the grievance. Shortly thereafter, on May 29, 1984, Petitioner filed a civil action against the employer in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, alleging that he had been terminated in retaliation for an earlier filing of a worker's compensation claim. He sought compensatory damages for past and future loss of wages, pension rights, and fringe benefits, and punitive damages for the alleged abusive discharge.

The employer filed a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, contending that: 1) a statute making it a criminal offense to discharge an employee solely because he files a worker's compensation claim ² was intended by the Legislature to provide an exclusive remedy; 2) no cause of action exists under Maryland law for abusive discharge of an employee whose rights are protected by contract; and 3) the pre-emptive effect of § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act ³ foreclosed the bringing of the action, or in the alternative, its successful prosecution.

Initially denied, the motion was reconsidered after the Supreme Court decided Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.s. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985). Judge Thomas Ward held that a cause of action for abusive discharge was available to a contract employee, but that under the facts of this case the state claim was pre-empted by § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act. Judge Ward entered summary judgment in favor of the employer. An appeal followed, and we issued the writ of certiorari on our own motion before consideration by the Court of Special Appeals.

In addressing the question of whether a tort claim for abusive discharge may be brought by one who enjoys the protection of an employment contract, the employer points out that in Adler v. American Standard Corp., 291 Md. 31, 432 A.2d 464 (1981), we discussed the recognition of this cause of action only in the context of an at will employee. We there concluded that:

Maryland does recognize a cause of action for abusive discharge by an employer of an at will employee when the motivation for the discharge contravenes some clear mandate of public policy....

Id. at 47, 432 A.2d 464.

The employer suggests that there is no need to recognize a tort in favor of those employees who are fortunate enough to enjoy contractual or other protection. It is true that we noted in Adler the particular vulnerability of at will employees, and further noted that the last census had disclosed that a majority of American workers do not have the job security provided by collective bargaining agreements or civil service regulations. Id. at 42, 432 A.2d 464. But that was only one of the factors considered by the Court. As Chief Judge Murphy pointed out for the Court, "society as a whole has an interest in ensuring that its laws and important public policies are not contravened." Id. The tort action as we have recognized it is not intended to reach every wrongful discharge. It is applicable only where the discharge contravenes some clear mandate of public policy. Thus, the public policy component of the tort is significant, and recognition of the availability of this cause of action to all employees, at will and contractual, will foster the State's interest in deterring particularly reprehensible conduct. Moreover, it would be illogical to deny the contract employee access to the courts equal to that afforded the at will employee. We hold that a cause of action for abusive discharge exists in favor of employees who serve under contract as well as those who serve at will.

Discharging an employee solely because that employee filed a worker's compensation claim contravenes the clear mandate of Maryland public policy. The Legislature has made a strong statement to that effect in making such conduct a criminal offense, and our perception of the magnitude of the public interest in preserving the full benefits of the worker's compensation system to employees, and deterring employers from encroaching upon those rights, is equally strong. The question, then, is not whether a cause of action for abusive discharge generally exists in favor of union employees--it does. The question we must resolve is whether federal pre-emption principles preclude recovery in this case.

Several different forms of pre-emption may be applicable in the area of labor law. ⁴ We are concerned here with the pre-emptive effects of § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act. Section 301, in pertinent part, states:

Suits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees in an industry affecting commerce ... may be brought in any district court of the United States having jurisdiction of the parties ...

29 U.S.C. § 185(a).

In Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 450-51, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957), the Supreme Court held that § 301 accomplishes more than simply conferring jurisdiction on federal courts to hear suits claiming violations of collective bargaining agreements. In IBEW, AFL-CIO v. Hechler, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 2161, 2165, 95 L.Ed.2d 791 (1987), the Court, quoting from Lincoln Mills, supra, 353 U.S. at 456, 77 S.Ct. at 917-18, stated:

Congress, through § 301, ... authorized federal courts to create a body of federal law for the enforcement of collective-bargaining agreements--law "which the courts must fashion from the policy of our national labor laws."

The pre-emptive effect of § 301 was first addressed in Teamsters Local v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U.S. 95, 104, 82 S.Ct. 571, 577, 7 L.Ed.2d 593 (1962), where the Court held that federal law, and not state law, must govern in adjudicating § 301 claims. "The dimensions of § 301 require the conclusion that substantive principles of federal labor law must be paramount in the area covered by the statute." Id. at 103, 82 S.Ct. at 576. The Lucas Flour Court went on to explain the need for this uniformity:

The possibility that individual contract terms might have different meanings under state and federal law would inevitably exert a disruptive influence upon both the negotiation and administration of collective agreements. Because neither party could be certain of the rights which it had obtained or conceded, the process of negotiating an agreement would be made immeasurably more difficult by the necessity of trying to formulate contract provisions in such a way as to contain the same meaning under two or more systems of law which might someday be invoked in enforcing the contract. Once the collective bargain was made, the possibility of conflicting substantive interpretation under competing legal systems would tend to stimulate and prolong disputes as to its interpretation.

Id. at 103-104, 82 S.Ct. at 576.

In Allis-Chalmers, supra, 471 U.S. at 209-13, 105 S.Ct. at 1910-12, the Supreme Court recently defined the area covered by § 301 and referred to in Lucas Flour. While the ordinary § 301 case is one in which a party expressly asserts that a provision in the collective bargaining agreement has been violated, Allis-Chalmers involved a state-law tort action brought by an employee against his employer for bad faith handling of disability benefit payments due under the collective bargaining agreement.

The interests in interpretive uniformity and predictability that require that labor-contract disputes be resolved by reference to federal law also require that the meaning given a contract phrase or term be subject to uniform federal interpretation. Thus, questions relating to what the parties to a labor agreement agreed, and what legal consequences were intended to flow from breaches of that agreement, must be resolved by reference to uniform federal law, whether such questions arise in the context of a suit for breach of contract or in a suit alleging liability in tort. Any other result would elevate form over substance and allow parties to evade the requirements of § 301 by re-labeling their contract claims as claims for tortious breach of contract.

Id. at 211, 105 S.Ct. at 1911.

The Court went on to point out that if state law were allowed to determine the...