Hetzel v. Bethlehem Steel Corp.

• Decision Date: 24 April 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-20377,94-20377
• Citation: 50 F.3d 360
• Parties: James G. HETZEL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BETHLEHEM STEEL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 360

50 F.3d 360

32 Fed.R.Serv.3d 400

James G. HETZEL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BETHLEHEM STEEL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 94-20377.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

April 24, 1995.

Joe A. Izen, Jr., Bellaire, TX, for appellant.

M.C. Carrington, Mehaffey & Weber, Beaumont, TX, for appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before WISDOM, DUHE and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges.

DUHE, Circuit Judge:

Appellant James G. Hetzel (Hetzel) appeals from the district court's grant of summary judgment finding that Appellant's claims under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act are preempted by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA or Act). We affirm.

I. FACTS

Appellant sued in state court seeking recovery on various grounds from his employer, Bethlehem Steel Corporation (Bethlehem or Appellee) and from the ship owner, Marine Transport Lines, Inc. (MTL), for personal injuries allegedly sustained while repairing the M/V Federal Lakes at Bethlehem's Port Arthur, Texas shipyard. Appellant also sought and obtained benefits under the LHWCA.

Appellant's suit was removed by MTL under the court's diversity jurisdiction. MTL and Bethlehem separately moved for summary judgment. The district court granted both motions, and entered final judgment for the Defendants. On motion for reconsideration, the district court affirmed its rulings on Appellant's negligence and strict liability claims, but reinstated Appellant's claim against Bethlehem under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (DTPA). ¹ The court remanded the DTPA claim to state court, apparently under the mistaken impression that its jurisdiction arose under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1331 (admiralty and maritime claims) rather than 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1332 (diversity of citizenship).

Upon motions for reconsideration filed by Appellant and Appellee, the district court affirmed its dismissal of MTL. The court also found that its remand of the DTPA claim was improper, but concluded that it was without jurisdiction to vacate its order of remand. Bethlehem then removed the DTPA claim, and the matter was assigned a new cause number.

Appellee mistakenly filed a motion for summary judgment under the previous cause number. Appellant moved for extension of time (also under the old cause number) to respond until March 14, 1994. The court, in effect granted the motion for extension of time by entering an order allowing Appellee to refile its motion under the correct cause number by March 7, 1994, and further allowing Appellee to file its response by March 14, 1994. Appellee did not refile its motion for summary judgment until March 8th.

According to Appellant, he assumed that Appellee's motion was not timely filed, and therefore that he would not be required to respond unless notified by the court. Nonetheless, on March 15th Appellant again moved for enlargement of time to respond, and requested a new filing date of April 3rd. The district court denied the motion citing potential conflict with its April 6th calendar on which the matter had been set. The court further stated that Appellant had seven weeks to prepare its response to the motion, ² and had, in fact, selected the March 14th date on which its response had been due.

The court granted Appellee's motion for summary judgment on alternative grounds. First, in accordance with the local rule, the court granted the motion as unopposed. ³ Second, the court addressed the merits of Appellee's motion, and granted summary judgment on the basis that Appellant's DTPA claim was preempted by the LHWCA. Appellant timely appealed, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291.

Two issues are before us on appeal. First, Appellant contends that his DTPA claim is not preempted by the LHWCA. Second, Appellant contends that the district court abused its discretion by 1) accepting Appellee's motion after the filing deadline; and 2) denying his motion for enlargement of time. We will address these issues seriatim.

II. THE LHWCA

A. Standard of Review

Summary judgment is appropriate if the record discloses "that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In reviewing the summary judgment, we apply the same standard of review as did the district court. Waltman v. International Paper Co., 875 F.2d 468, 474 (5th Cir.1989); Moore v. Mississippi Valley State Univ., 871 F.2d 545, 548 (5th Cir.1989). However, when this Court finds "an adequate, independent basis" for the imposition of summary judgment, the district court's judgment may be affirmed "regardless of the correctness of the district court's rulings." Schuster v. Martin, 861 F.2d 1369, 1371 (5th Cir.1988); accord Degan v. Ford Motor Co., 869 F.2d 889, 892 (5th Cir.1989).

B. Choice of Law

Despite the fact that the district court entertained this claim under its diversity jurisdiction, we apply federal law to determine questions of preemption. See Grantham v. Avondale Indus., Inc., 964 F.2d 471, 473-74 (5th Cir.1992).

The Erie doctrine does not apply ... in matters governed by the federal Constitution or by acts of Congress. It is beyond cavil that we are not bound by a state court's interpretation of federal law regardless of whether our jurisdiction is based on diversity of citizenship or a federal question.... The issue of whether the state immunity rule is preempted by the LHWCA is ... an issue of federal law.

(citations omitted).

C. The Preemption Doctrine

The Supreme Court has stated the parameters of the so-called "preemption" doctrine. Fidelity Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. De La Cuesta, 458 U.S. 141, 152-53, 102 S.Ct. 3014, 3022, 73 L.Ed.2d 664 (1982).

The pre-emption doctrine, which has its roots in the Supremacy Clause, U.S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2, requires us to examine congressional intent. Pre-emption may be either express or implied, and "is compelled whether Congress' command is explicitly stated in the statute's language or implicitly contained in its structure and purpose." Absent explicit pre-emptive language, Congress' intent to supersede state law altogether may be inferred because "[t]he scheme of federal regulation may be so pervasive as to make reasonable the inference that Congress left no room for the States to supplement it," because "the Act of Congress may touch a field in which the federal interest is so dominant that the federal system will be assumed to preclude enforcement of state laws on the same subject," or because "the object sought to be obtained by federal law and the character of obligations imposed by it may reveal the same purpose."

Even if Congress has not completely displaced state regulation in a specific area, state law is nullified to the extent that it actually conflicts with federal law. Such a conflict arises when "compliance with both federal and state regulation is a physical impossibility, or when state law "stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress."

Thus, state law can be preempted in three ways: 1) Where Congress expresses an explicit intent to preempt state law; 2) Where the sheer comprehensiveness of the federal scheme implies congressional intent to preempt state regulation in the area; 3) Where the state law either directly conflicts with the federal law or interferes with the regulatory program established by Congress.

As discussed more fully below, although the LHWCA's exclusivity language would seem to express congressional intent to preempt state law, the Supreme Court has found that total preemption was not intended. Therefore, we are left to determine whether the DTPA is preempted under the third prong of the Fidelity Federal test.

D. The Muddy Waters of LHWCA Preemption

Our starting point must be the language of the LHWCA. Under the terms of the Act,

The liability of an employer prescribed in section 904 of this title shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer to the employee, his legal representative, husband or wife, parents, dependents, next of kin, and anyone otherwise entitled to recover damages from such employer at law or in admiralty on account of such injury or death, except that if an employer fails to secure payment of compensation as required by this chapter, an injured employee, or his legal representative in case death results from the injury, may elect to claim compensation under the chapter, or to maintain an action at law or in admiralty for damages on account of such injury or death.

33 U.S.C. Sec. 905(a). The preemptive effect of the LHWCA has been addressed in other contexts. ⁴ Of concern to our present inquiry are those cases which created, and then purported to delineate, the so-called "twilight zone" of concurrent jurisdiction between the LHWCA and state law workmen's compensation statutes. Because the LHWCA only partially preempts state law, we must briefly explore the history of the Act to determine congressional intent in this context. ⁵ We begin our inquiry with Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205, 37 S.Ct. 524, 61 L.Ed. 1086 (1917).

In Jensen, the Supreme Court found that the State of New York could not constitutionally provide worker's compensation to a worker killed on a gangplank between ship and shore. Even though the decedent was not a seaman, the Court determined that he was acting as a stevedore, over navigable waters, at the time of the accident and therefore determined that his claim fell "clearly within the admiralty jurisdiction." Id. at 217, 37 S.Ct. at 529. In cases that followed, the Supreme Court made clear that its concern for uniform maritime law ended at the water's edge, and therefore found that state worker's compensation schemes covered injuries to worker's injured on land, no matter how close the link to maritime commerce. ⁶

The Court next created...