Federacion De v. Junta De Relaciones

• Decision Date: 27 May 2005
• Docket Number: No. 03-1979.,03-1979.
• Parties: FEDERACIÓN DE MAESTROS DE PUERTO RICO, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. JUNTA DE RELACIONES DEL TRABAJO DE PUERTO RICO, Defendant, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

410 F.3d 17

FEDERACIÓN DE MAESTROS DE PUERTO RICO, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. JUNTA DE RELACIONES DEL TRABAJO DE PUERTO RICO, Defendant, Appellee.

No. 03-1979.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard September 13, 2004.

Decided May 27, 2005.

Godwin Aldarondo-Girald, with whom Aldarondo-Girald Law Office was on brief, for appellant.

Carlos E. López López, with whom Llovet, Zurinaga, & López, P.S.C. was on brief, for appellee.

Before SELYA, LIPEZ, and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

This case requires us to decide whether the Rooker-Feldman doctrine applies to an interlocutory jurisdictional decision of the Puerto Rico appellate courts. While this case was under advisement, the Supreme Court unanimously decided Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005), which substantially altered our understanding of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. We must now apply that altered understanding for the first time.

The present case is not itself complex. Appellant Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico ("Federación") is the target of an unfair labor practices grievance before appellee Junta de Relaciones del Trabajo de Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Labor Relations Board ("Board"). The Board denied the Federación's motion to dismiss the grievance on the ground of federal labor law preemption. The Federación appealed that denial on an interlocutory basis to the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals and then to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. After losing the preemption argument in the Puerto Rico courts, the Federación filed an action for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Board in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. The district court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction over the Federación's claim because resolving that claim would require the court to review the decision of the Puerto Rico courts that the Board had jurisdiction over the labor dispute, in contravention of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Consequently, the district court dismissed the complaint. We affirm, and explain how Exxon Mobil affects some of our prior Rooker-Feldman cases.

I.

The relevant facts and procedural history are undisputed. In 1990, the Federación Puertorriqueña de Trabajadores, a labor union, filed an unfair labor practices charge before the Board against the appellant Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico.¹ In 1995, the Board issued a grievance (administrative complaint) against the Federación. The Federación then moved to dismiss the grievance on the grounds that the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") had exclusive jurisdiction over the dispute.² It contended that Puerto Rico labor law was preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169, because the Federación's activities affected interstate commerce.³

In early 1996, an administrative judge issued an "Interlocutory Report" concluding that Puerto Rico labor law was preempted by federal law, and that the Board therefore lacked jurisdiction. However, the Board rejected the Interlocutory Report and denied the Federación's motion to dismiss.

After unsuccessfully requesting that the Board reconsider its decision, the Federación filed an interlocutory appeal to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. That court referred the appeal to the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals. In 1997, the Court of Appeals, in a lengthy opinion and resolution, concluded that the Federación's activities did not affect interstate commerce, affirmed the Board's jurisdictional decision, and remanded for further proceedings.

The Federación moved for reconsideration, which was denied after some delay. It then petitioned the Puerto Rico Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, which, too, was denied. The Federación twice requested reconsideration of the denial of certiorari, and both requests were denied.

In November 1999, the Board issued a resolution ordering the continuation of the proceedings. In these proceedings, the Federación continued to argue that the Board lacked jurisdiction.

In March 2003, the Federación filed a complaint against the Board in federal district court, requesting declaratory relief and an injunction ordering the Board to terminate its proceedings for lack of jurisdiction. The Board moved to dismiss the federal complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) on the basis that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review a decision of the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals. The district court granted the motion, and the Federación timely appealed.

II.

Where no evidentiary hearing has been held, we review de novo the district court's dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Wang v. N.H. Bd. of Registration in Med., 55 F.3d 698, 700 n. 3 (1st Cir.1995). "[W]e construe the Complaint liberally and treat all well-pleaded facts as true, according the plaintiff the benefit of all reasonable inferences." Murphy v. United States, 45 F.3d 520, 522 (1st Cir.1995).

Under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, federal district courts lack jurisdiction over "federal complaints ... [that] essentially invite[] federal courts of first instance to review and reverse unfavorable state-court judgments." Exxon Mobil, 125 S.Ct. at 1521; D.C. Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983); Rooker v. Fid. Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923). At first glance, this case appears to present a relatively straightforward Rooker-Feldman issue. The Puerto Rico Court of Appeals held that the Board has jurisdiction over the underlying labor dispute, and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court declined to disturb that judgment. The Federación's federal complaint, however, asks the court to declare that the Board did not have jurisdiction over the labor dispute. Thus, the Federación's complaint asked the district court "to review and reverse [an] unfavorable state-court judgment[]," Exxon Mobil, 125 S.Ct. at 1521.

However, the Federación argues that the Puerto Rico court's decision was interlocutory, and that Rooker-Feldman therefore does not apply. This argument draws some support from certain of our pre-Exxon Mobil precedents. In order to understand this argument, and why we now ultimately reject it, we must first describe the roots of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, the somewhat uncertain path that our jurisprudence has taken, and finally the clarification provided by Exxon Mobil.⁴

A. Rooker and Feldman

The jurisdictional statute providing for Supreme Court review of state court judgments states that "[f]inal judgments or decrees rendered by the highest court of a State in which a decision could be had, may be reviewed by the Supreme Court by writ of certiorari" when certain federal questions are presented. 28 U.S.C. § 1257;⁵ see also id. § 1258 (same for Puerto Rico Supreme Court).⁶ Rooker held that Congress, by the terms of that statute, granted the United States Supreme Court, and only the United States Supreme Court, jurisdiction over appeals from state courts:

If the constitutional questions stated in the [federal complaint] actually arose in the [state case], it was the province and duty of the state courts to decide them; and their decision, whether right or wrong, was an exercise of jurisdiction.... Under the legislation of Congress, no court of the United States other than this Court could entertain a proceeding to reverse or modify the judgment for errors of that character. To do so would be an exercise of appellate jurisdiction. The jurisdiction possessed by the District Courts is strictly original.

263 U.S. at 415-16, 44 S.Ct. 149 (internal citation omitted). In other words, Rooker is based on a negative inference: because Congress only provided for review of state court judgments by the Supreme Court, Congress therefore intended to preclude lower federal courts from exercising such review. Feldman repeated this reasoning: "[A] United States District Court has no authority to review final judgments of a state court in judicial proceedings. Review of such judgments may be had only in this Court." 460 U.S. at 482, 103 S.Ct. 1303.

B. Our Pre-Exxon Mobil Cases

1. Relevance of Availability of Supreme Court Review

The close nexus between the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and Supreme Court review prompts an obvious question: what if the Supreme Court could not have reviewed the particular state court decision at issue? Our pre-Exxon Mobil cases suggested that Rooker-Feldman would not apply in this context. See Cruz v. Melecio, 204 F.3d 14, 21 n. 5 (1st Cir.2000) (stating, in dictum, that "denying jurisdiction based on a state court judgment that is not eligible for review by the United States Supreme Court simply would not follow from the jurisdictional statute that invigorated the Rooker-Feldman doctrine in the first place");⁷ Hill v. Town of Conway, 193 F.3d 33, 40 (1st Cir.1999) (because "Rooker-Feldman is keyed to § 1257," it therefore requires a judgment reviewable by the Supreme Court). Under this logic, the scope of Rooker-Feldman would be limited to state court judgments susceptible to Supreme Court review — in particular, final judgments, not interlocutory orders. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1257 (providing for review of "[f]inal judgments or decrees" rendered by highest state courts), 1258 (same for Puerto Rico Supreme Court). Arguably, then, under Cruz and Hill, Rooker-Feldman would not apply to interlocutory orders. That is the argument that the Federación makes here.

2. Relevance of Preclusive Effect Under State Law

Our pre-Exxon Mobil case law also recognized, albeit not uniformly, an alternative conception of "final judgment." The law of claim and issue preclusion (also known as res judicata and collateral estoppel) provides a notion of "final judgment" that is related to, but distinct from, finality for purposes of Supreme Court review.⁸ We have suggested, in some of our cases, that "[o]nly a state court adjudication that itself has...