Foy v. Giant Food Inc.

• Decision Date: 25 July 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-1448.,01-1448.
• Citation: 298 F.3d 284
• Parties: William D. FOY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GIANT FOOD INCORPORATED; Ralph Dodd; David Larsen; Stephen Neal, Vice President, Giant Food, Incorporated; Theodore R. Garrett, Jr., Fair Employment Administrator, Giant Food, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 284

298 F.3d 284

William D. FOY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GIANT FOOD INCORPORATED; Ralph Dodd; David Larsen; Stephen Neal, Vice President, Giant Food, Incorporated; Theodore R. Garrett, Jr., Fair Employment Administrator, Giant Food, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 01-1448.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued June 4, 2002.

Decided July 25, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: Marc D. Loud, Loud & Loud, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiff-Appellant. Connie Nora Bertram, Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellees.

Before KING and GREGORY, Circuit Judges, and BEEZER, Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by published opinion. Senior Judge BEEZER wrote the opinion, in which Judge KING and Judge GREGORY joined.

OPINION

BEEZER, Senior Circuit Judge.

William D. Foy ("Foy") appeals the district court's dismissal of his claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and malicious prosecution. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

Foy's complaint was dismissed at the pleading stage. We state the facts as alleged by the complaint.

Foy worked for Giant Food Inc. ("Giant") at its dairy plant in Landover, Maryland. He was a member of Milk Drivers and Dairy Employees Local Union No. 246. The union and Giant have entered into a collective bargaining agreement governing the terms of Foy's employment.

Foy was involved in a workplace altercation with a co-employee named Ralph Dodd ("Dodd"). Dodd spat in Foy's face during the altercation. Foy responded by grabbing and pushing Dodd away to defend himself. Dodd made an assault complaint against Foy. Giant terminated Foy for his actions in the altercation but took no action against Dodd. The assault complaint against Foy was later dismissed. Giant refused to initiate a new investigation into the altercation and refused to reinstate Foy to his former position despite learning that the assault complaint had been dismissed.

Foy filed suit in Maryland state court against Giant, three of its managers and Dodd. He alleged wrongful termination, breach of the collective bargaining agreement, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress and employment discrimination. The defendants removed the action to federal court and moved to dismiss the complaint. Foy voluntarily dismissed the claim of breach of the collective bargaining agreement but opposed defendants' motion as to all other claims.

The district court held that the complaint fails to state a claim and that, in any event, all of the claims are preempted by § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act ("the Act"), 29 U.S.C. § 185(a). Applying a six-month statute of limitations, the district court held that Foy was time-barred from refiling his claims under the Act. The district court dismissed the complaint with prejudice.

Foy timely appealed. He challenges the dismissal of the claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and malicious prosecution.¹ We review de novo the district court's dismissal for failure to state a claim and legal determination that the claims are preempted. See Brooks v. City of Winston-Salem, 85 F.3d 178, 181 (4th Cir.1996) (reviewing de novo grant of motion to dismiss); Meekins v. United Transp. Union, 946 F.2d 1054, 1057 (4th Cir.1991) (reviewing de novo district court's determinations of law).

I

Foy alleges that Giant committed an intentional infliction of emotional distress by reason of terminating him for defending himself in the altercation and then refusing to reinitiate an investigation and affirming the termination after learning that the assault complaint made by Dodd had been dismissed.² The district court dismissed this claim for failure to state a claim and on preemption grounds. We agree that the claim is preempted.

A.

Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act establishes federal subject matter jurisdiction over employment disputes covered by a collective bargaining agreement and directs federal courts to fashion a uniform body of federal common law applicable to such disputes. Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 209, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985). The "preemptive force of § 301 is so powerful as to displace entirely any state cause of action for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization." Franchise Tax Bd. v. Constr. Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 23, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983) (internal quotation marks omitted).

A state law claim is preempted when resolution of the claim "requires the interpretation of a collective-bargaining agreement," Lingle v. Norge Div. of Magic Chef, Inc., 486 U.S. 399, 405-06, 108 S.Ct. 1877, 100 L.Ed.2d 410 (1988), or is "inextricably intertwined with consideration of the terms of the labor contract." Lueck, 471 U.S. at 213, 105 S.Ct. 1904; see also IBEW, AFL-CIO v. Hechler, 481 U.S. 851, 863 n. 5, 107 S.Ct. 2161, 95 L.Ed.2d 791 (1987) (noting that a state law claim is preempted when "[t]he nature and scope of the duty of care owed Plaintiff is determined by reference to the collective bargaining agreement"). "[T]he bare fact that a collective bargaining agreement will be consulted in the course of state-law litigation plainly does not require [preemption]." Livadas v. Bradshaw, 512 U.S. 107, 124, 114 S.Ct. 2068, 129 L.Ed.2d 93 (1994).

B.

A claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress requires proof that the defendant engaged in conduct that is extreme and outrageous. See Tavakoli-Nouri v. State, 139 Md.App. 716, 779 A.2d 992, 999 (Md.Ct.Spec.App.2001). Foy alleges that Giant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct when it terminated him for defending himself and later refused to reinstate him after learning that the assault complaint had been dismissed.

Foy essentially alleges that the termination and Giant's actions underlying the termination are wrongful and unauthorized. Giant's conduct could not otherwise be extreme and outrageous conduct. "[W]hether an actor's behavior is `outrageous and intolerable,' and therefore punishable as intentional infliction of emotional distress, requires an inquiry into whether the actor was legally entitled to act as he or she did." McCormick v. AT&T Techs., Inc., 934 F.2d 531, 537 (4th Cir.1991); see also Childers v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., 881 F.2d 1259, 1267 (4th Cir.1989) (holding employer did not commit extreme and outrageous conduct when its actions in disciplining employee were authorized). Whether an employer's actions in dealing with and terminating an employee are wrongful is determined not in the abstract but necessarily by reference to the collective bargaining agreement which governs the employment relationship. We stressed this point in McCormick, where a former employee alleged that AT&T, his employer, committed intentional infliction of emotional distress by disposing of the employee's personal belongings after terminating him. McCormick, 934 F.2d at 533. We observed that, to demonstrate extreme and outrageous conduct, the employee must "demonstrate not that [AT&T's] conduct was wrongful in some abstract sense, but wrongful under the circumstances." Id. at 535-36. "The circumstances that must be considered in examining management's conduct are not merely factual, but contractual, and the collective bargaining agreement is a crucial component of these circumstances." Id. at 536; see also Douglas v. Am. Info. Techs. Corp., 877 F.2d 565, 572 (7th Cir.1989) (holding that employer's actions in terminating an employee did not constitute extreme and outrageous conduct because collective bargaining agreement authorized employer's actions).

As in McCormick, whether Giant's actions are wrongful can be determined only by interpreting the collective bargaining agreement. Article IV of the collective bargaining agreement authorizes Giant to terminate an employee for cause subject to certain guidelines and procedures. Article XII establishes that Giant has a right to manage and control its work force. These articles determine whether Giant was authorized to terminate Foy and not Dodd for their respective actions in the altercation. They also determine whether Giant properly refused to reinstate Foy after learning that the assault complaint had been dismissed. Foy's claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress requires interpreting the collective bargaining agreement.³

Our conclusion comports with that of other courts faced with similar state law claims. In Burgos v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 20 F.3d 633, 634 (5th Cir.1994), a former employee sued Southwestern Bell for intentional infliction of emotional distress based on Southwestern Bell's conduct leading up to and including termination. The Fifth Circuit reasoned that, "[i]n order to determine whether Southwestern Bell acted wrongfully in the way it ... effectuated [the plaintiff's] termination, an analysis of Southwestern Bell's obligations under the collective bargaining agreement is necessary." Id. at 636; see also Brown v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 901 F.2d 1250, 1255 (5th Cir.1990) (holding preempted claim that employer's actions in discharging employee amounted to intentional infliction of emotional distress because claim required evaluating propriety of employer's conduct under collective bargaining agreement to determine if the conduct was extreme and outrageous); Miller v. AT&T Network Sys., 850 F.2d 543, 550-51 (9th Cir.1988) (same).

The district court properly held that Foy's claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress is preempted.

II

Foy maintains that both Dodd and Giant are liable for malicious prosecution. Foy alleges that Dodd is liable for malicious prosecution by making a false complaint of assault and that Giant is liable by reason of adopting and ratifying the complaint. The district court...