Ferris v. General Dynamics Corp.

• Citation: 645 F. Supp. 1354
• Decision Date: 08 October 1986
• Docket Number: C.A. No. 85-0669 S.
• Parties: David W. FERRIS, O.D., David G. Wright, O.D., Mark Blasbalg, O.D., and David Mills, O.D., individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated; Rhode Island Optometric Association; and John W. Tardiff, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. GENERAL DYNAMICS CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island

645 F. Supp. 1354

David W. FERRIS, O.D., David G. Wright, O.D., Mark Blasbalg, O.D., and David Mills, O.D., individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated; Rhode Island Optometric Association; and John W. Tardiff, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. GENERAL DYNAMICS CORPORATION, Defendant.

C.A. No. 85-0669 S.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

October 8, 1986.

Mosca & Mosca, Angelo A. Mosca, Jr., Aisenberg & Jones, Martin W. Aisenberg, Providence, R.I., for plaintiffs.

Edwards & Angell, Matthew F. Medeiros, Judith C. Savage, Providence, R.I., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

SELYA, District Judge.

After it became apparent that the instant parties could not see eye to eye as to the meaning and intendment of a state statute and its impact (if any) upon the operations of General Dynamics Corporation (GDC), this civil action was commenced in the state court on September 23, 1985. GDC thereafter seasonably removed the case to this court in pursuance of 28 U.S.C. § 1441. The removing defendant claimed to have a double toehold on the slippery slope of federal jurisdiction; its removal petition adverted to both diversity jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1332, and federal question jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

Although no immediate motion to remand was filed, the plaintiffs raised the question of this court's subject matter jurisdiction, ergo the propriety of the removal, at a Fed.R.Civ.P. 16 status/scheduling conference held before the district judge to whom the case was originally assigned in this court. The judge, quite properly, ordered that all matters be held in abeyance pending resolution of the threshold issues as to jurisdiction.

The plaintiffs promptly moved to remand the case to the state superior court. The defendant objected. Following the filing of exegetic briefs, the litigation was coincidentally transferred to the calendar of the undersigned district judge as part of a reorganization of assignments ancillary to the installation of a newly-appointed district judge. This court heard oral argument on August 21, 1986 and thereafter entertained supplemental briefing. This rescript comprises the court's findings and conclusions as to the issues sub judice.

I. AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT

The starting point for this analysis rests in a more precise description of the case which confronts the court. The instant action seeks equitably to enforce, via injunctive relief, a state statute, R.I.Gen. Laws § 40.1-3-15, which provides in pertinent part:

Notwithstanding any provisions of a policy or contract of group accident, group health, group accident and health insurance or the provisions of any private accident and health insurance policy, whenever such policy or contract provides for reimbursement for any optometric service which is within the lawful scope of practice of a duly licensed optometrist, a subscriber to such group accident, group health, group accident and health, or the provisions of any private accident and health insurance policy or contract shall be entitled to reimbursement for such service, whether the said service is performed by a physician or duly licensed optometrist.

The plaintiffs allege that GDC has discriminated against optometrists—and continues so to discriminate—in blatant disregard of what the Rhode Island General Assembly, in the passage of § 40.1-3-15, has ordained. The defendant has worked this wrong, the plaintiffs say, by incorporating certain benefit restrictions in both (i) the collective bargaining agreement (Agreement) entered into between the defendant and the Metal Trades Council (the labor organization representing many of the workers at the defendant's Groton, Connecticut facility), and (ii) the self-funded health and welfare plan (Plan) applicable to defendant's non-union employees at Groton and at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.¹ The defendant, it should be noted, employs approximately 20,000 persons at Groton (many of whom are Rhode Island residents and many of whom routinely avail themselves of Rhode Island providers for the furnishing of health care) and roughly 5000 or more at its Quonset Point site.

The instant plaintiffs purport to represent two separate classes. More particularly, the plaintiffs Ferris, Wright, Blasberg, and Mills are all optometrists; they seek to represent a class consisting of all optometrists licensed by, and practicing in, Rhode Island. Plaintiff Tardiff toils in the defendant's vineyard. He offers himself as the representative of a further class, comprising all employees of GDC who are patients of Rhode Island optometrists. The remaining plaintiff, the Rhode Island Optometric Association, is a trade association of Rhode Island optometrists. The plaintiffs complain jointly that the actions of the defendant, though undertaken pursuant to the letter of the Agreement and Plan, see ante n. 1, transgress the clear mandate of R.I.Gen.Laws § 40.1-3-15 by reimbursing employees in substantial part for the costs of bi-annual eye examinations performed by ophthalmologists or oculists, but not those performed by optometrists.

It is undisputed that, in the first quarter of 1986, employees at defendant's Quonset Point facility submitted eye care claims totalling $9,920.96. GDC disclaimed responsibility for over 35% of these claims— $3781.40—as being beyond the coverage of the Plan. On the basis of standard sampling techniques (the accuracy of which has not been challenged), it is estimated that some 98% of the dollar value of the disallowed claims can be attributed to charges for optometric services, the bulk of which originated in Rhode Island. It is likewise clear that GDC spurned these claims solely because the Plan precluded reimbursement for any expense associated with eye care examinations conducted by optometrists.

II. EYEING THE ISSUES

In response to the bifocal nature of GDC's outlook on federal jurisdiction, the motion to remand has two faces. The first issue posed by the competing contentions of the parties is whether or not the plaintiffs' complaint "arises under" the laws of the United States, notwithstanding the fact that, when filed in the state superior court (and now), it complained only of the supposed violation of a state statute.

If such "federal question" jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, does not exist, GDC nonetheless sees itself as remaining in the hunt. The defendant has alternatively invoked this court's diversity jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1332, and the parties are admittedly citizens of different states for diversity purposes.² Yet, the motion to remand posits a nice question concerning the appropriate computation of the amount in controversy, a necessary integer of the diversity equation. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a).

The court will examine these issues separately, recognizing that if either "federal question" or "diversity" jurisdiction is found to exist, then the analysis need proceed no further and the plaintiffs' remand initiative must be rejected. It is only in the absence of any sort of federal jurisdiction that the case may be, as the plaintiffs prefer, returned to the state tribunal.

III. JURISDICTIONAL REDEMPTION BY FEDERAL PREEMPTION

On its face, the plaintiffs' complaint in this matter is a model of straightforwardness. It contains one count and one count only. That count is simple, direct, and unequivocal: it seeks specific enforcement of R.I.Gen.Laws § 40.1-3-15 in respect to GDC's implementation of both the Plan and the Agreement. In short, the thrust of the complaint is fashioned solely on state law grounds.

Nothing daunted, the defendant urges that things are not always what they seem. GDC contends that, notwithstanding the austere language and stripped-down nature of the complaint, this court possesses federal question jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331, on the thesis that the cause of action asserted is one "arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." And, as the defendant correctly observes, the court must look behind and beyond the plaintiffs' selfserving characterization of their ostensible cause of action in determining whether or not the claim "arises under" federal law. The jurisdiction of the federal district courts cannot be manipulated by the simple expedient of creative labelling.

The traditional taproot for any federal question jurisdictional analysis is the "well pleaded complaint" rule. This dogma holds that a claim "arises under" federal law, so as to establish federal question jurisdiction, only when the plaintiffs' own statement of their cause of action demonstrates that it is based upon federal law. See Gully v. First National Bank, 299 U.S. 109, 112-13, 57 S.Ct. 96, 97-98, 81 L.Ed. 70 (1936); Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Mottley, 211 U.S. 149, 153, 29 S.Ct. 42, 43, 53 L.Ed. 126 (1908). The well pleaded complaint rule is not, however, to be applied in a rigid and inflexible manner. Most importantly, the rule is not blind to the need to take a host of possibilities into account—possibilities which run the gamut from lack of pleading artistry, to oversight, and on to deviousness. As the Supreme Court has noted, "it is an independent corollary of the well pleaded complaint rule that a plaintiff may not defeat removal by omitting to plead necessary federal questions in a complaint." Franchise Tax Board v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 22, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 2853, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983).

Yet, the prophylaxis of the rule is double edged. Although plaintiffs cannot factitiously avoid federal jurisdiction by the simple expedient of remaining silent in place of acknowledging necessary ingredients of their statements of claim, neither can defendants artificially confer federal jurisdiction by verbalizing elements of their response and labelling those elements as a part of the plaintiffs' cause of action. In this case, GDC runs afoul of this cutting edge: it attempts...