Fayer v. Town of Middlebury

• Decision Date: 16 January 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-9003,00-9003
• Citation: 258 F.3d 117
• Parties: (2nd Cir. 2001) RONALD E. FAYER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TOWN OF MIDDLEBURY, EDWARD ST. JOHN, First Selectman, and ERIC IANANTUONI, Administrative Assistant, Defendants-Appellees. Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 117

258 F.3d 117 (2nd Cir. 2001)

RONALD E. FAYER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TOWN OF MIDDLEBURY, EDWARD ST. JOHN, First Selectman, and ERIC IANANTUONI, Administrative Assistant, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 00-9003

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Argued: Jan. 16, 2001

Decided: July 24, 2001

James S. Brewer, West Hartford, CT, for plaintiff-appellant.

Kerry R. Callahan, Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C., Hartford, CT, for defendants-appellees.

Before: VAN GRAAFEILAND, NEWMAN, and LEVAL, Circuit Judges.

LEVAL, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Ronald E. Fayer brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against his former employer, the Town of Middlebury, Connecticut, and two individual Town officials. Fayer alleges violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, as well as breach of legal duties arising under state law, in connection with the Town's termination of his employment. Plaintiff contends he was unconstitutionally terminated by reason of his exercise of free speech rights protected by the First Amendment, consisting of his surreptitiously reporting the Town to the Department of Environmental Protection for an oil spill, and his vigorous representation of union interests against the Town as employer. The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Joan Glazer Margolis, Magistrate Judge), ruled that plaintiff was precluded by the Full Faith and Credit Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, from bringing this action because the union had disputed the circumstances of plaintiff's termination in two prior arbitrations pursuant to an arbitration clause in the collective bargaining agreement between plaintiff's union and the Town. The Magistrate Judge therefore granted summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's federal claims and declined to exercise jurisdiction over plaintiff's supplemental state law claims. Plaintiff appeals. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that plaintiff's First Amendment claims are not precluded. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

Defendant Edward St. John, First Selectman of the Town of Middlebury, Connecticut, hired plaintiff Ronald E. Fayer on July 1, 1986, as a mechanic in the Town's Vehicle Maintenance Department. Fayer became a member of Teamsters Local Union No. 677, and in his capacity as mechanic he was covered by the Union's collective bargaining agreement with the Town. The collective bargaining agreement provided, inter alia, that the Town had the right to discharge covered employees "for proper cause." Moreover, the agreement further provided that employees "shall be free from discrimination, coercion or intimidation... in all matters pertaining to Union activities or to Union membership."

Fayer was promoted to the position of Chief Mechanic in 1988. At some point thereafter, he became a Union Steward. In March 1995, St. John appointed defendant Eric Ianantuoni to a position that included supervisory responsibilities over Fayer and the Vehicle Maintenance Department. Relations between Fayer and Ianantuoni were bad almost from the start. In November, Fayer and Ianantuoni had a conflict over the processing of a Union grievance. In March 1996, Fayer and Ianantuoni had a run-in over Fayer's prioritization of work practices. Ianantuoni complained that Fayer was questioning Ianantuoni's authority, and told Fayer that "the ice is getting very thin." Moreover, Ianantuoni began in March 1996 to question Fayer about certain suspicious invoices charged to the Vehicle Maintenance Department. In particular, Ianantuoni's questions focused on invoices for parts for an "86 Chevy Camaro," a model that the Town did not own. Fayer explained that he owned the automobile for which the parts had been ordered, and thus that the supplier had mistakenly invoiced the Town. Ianantuoni also questioned Fayer about a long-distance telephone call placed from the Department's phone line to the Department of Environmental Protection, Oil and Chemical Spill Response Division ("DEP"). The call had been placed on the same day that an anonymous caller reported the Town to the DEP for an oil spill. Ianantuoni wrote to Fayer: "Perhaps someone can be man enough to take credit for his actions instead of sneaking around like a weasel."

Ianantuoni terminated Fayer on April 3, 1996, citing "intolerable" behavior, a "total lack of cooperation," and a "refusal to work with me." Fayer immediately filed a grievance with the Town, which the Town denied. Under authority of the collective bargaining agreement,¹ the Union then brought a complaint before the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration (the "SBMA"), an agency created by the Connecticut state legislature to arbitrate disputes over the interpretation or application of collective bargaining agreements involving state employees. See Conn. Gen. Stat. § 5-276(a). At the same time, Fayer filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations, pursuant to the state Municipal Employee Relations Act.

The SBMA held an arbitration hearing on August 9, 1996, and issued a decision in favor of Fayer and the Union on October 7, 1996. The arbitrators found that the "Town did not have just cause to terminate Ron Fayer," and ordered that the termination be converted to a suspension without pay accompanied by the reinstatement of Fayer to his position as Chief Mechanic. The Union filed an application to confirm the arbitration award in Connecticut state court, and the award was confirmed by the Connecticut Superior Court on December 16, 1996.

Despite the SBMA arbitrator's determination, the Town did not reinstate Fayer. Instead, the Town Attorney requested an investigation by the Middlebury Police Department of the Vehicle Maintenance Department's bookkeeping practices. The Police Department found three suspicious invoices from 1993 and 1994, totaling $93.14. Each invoice had been billed to Fayer but paid by the Vehicle Maintenance Department. In addition, the Police Department found approximately sixty invoices that could not be matched to work orders. Nonetheless, because of the age of the three problem invoices and the low monetary value involved, the Police Department decided not to proceed with a formal criminal investigation.

On December 11, 1996, the Town terminated Fayer's employment a second time, citing the three problem invoices and the sixty invoices that could not be matched to work orders. In discharging Fayer, the Town agreed to pay him back wages from the date of the October 7 arbitration award through December 11.

The Union again filed grievances on Fayer's behalf with the Town, and Fayer filed further unfair labor practice complaints with the State Board of Labor Relations. The Union charged that the plaintiff had been terminated without just cause; it did not raise the factual allegations that now underlie Fayer's First Amendment claims. The Town denied the Union's grievance, and the Union sought review under the SBMA arbitration process. At roughly the same time, counsel for the Union entered into a settlement of the unfair labor practices claims Fayer had filed with the Board of Labor Relations. The settlement provided that the dispute between Fayer and the Town "would be adequately addressed by the make whole remedy available in the Arbitration scheduled before the SBMA." The Town, in turn, agreed to compensate Fayer for vacation days that he had earned before April 3, 1996, as well as for vacation days that he would have earned between April 3, 1996, and December 11, 1996, and to make all health, welfare, and pension fund payments to which Fayer would have been entitled had he been employed between April 3 and December 11.

The SBMA arbitration panel held hearings April 16 and June 5, 1997. The panel decided in favor of the Town, concluding that "[t]he Town had just cause to terminate the Grievant." The Union then brought an action in Connecticut Superior Court to vacate the arbitration award. The Town moved to confirm, and on March 18, 1998, the Superior Court granted the Town's motion, confirming the panel's determination; the Connecticut Appellate Court affirmed the Superior Court judgment on April 4, 2000.

In the meantime, on October 2, 1998, after the Connecticut Superior Court's confirmation of the arbitration decision in favor of the Town, Fayer brought this action in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, naming the Town, St. John, and Ianantuoni as defendants, and claiming violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments in connection with his termination by the Town, as well as state law claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. The Magistrate Judge granted summary judgment to defendants, observing that 28 U.S.C. § 1738 required federal courts to grant state court judgments the preclusive effect that such judgments would be granted by the courts of the state issuing the judgment, and ruling that under Connecticut law a final arbitration award is "accorded res judicata or collateral estoppel effect in much the same manner as a judgment of a court." In the Magistrate Judge's view, the final arbitration award entitled defendants to judgment on Fayer's federal claims. The Magistrate Judge then declined to exercise jurisdiction over Fayer's state law claims. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

We begin by reviewing the lines of authority established by the Supreme Court dealing with the relationship between arbitration agreements and claims under federal law. The first line of cases concerns the preclusive effect of arbitrations conducted under collective bargaining agreements on subsequent litigation arising out of the same underlying facts. Beginning in 1974, with Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36 (1974), the Supreme Court ruled in a series of cases that the determinations of labor...