Higgins v. US Postal Service

• Decision Date: 11 February 1987
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 86-0318-P.
• Citation: 655 F. Supp. 739
• Parties: Brian HIGGINS and National Post Office Mail Handlers, Watchmen, Messengers, and Group Leaders Division of the Laborers' International Union of North America, AFL-CIO, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

655 F. Supp. 739

Brian HIGGINS and National Post Office Mail Handlers, Watchmen, Messengers, and Group Leaders Division of the Laborers' International Union of North America, AFL-CIO, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Defendant.

Civ. No. 86-0318-P.

United States District Court, D. Maine.

February 11, 1987.

John W. Chapman, Portland, Me., for plaintiffs.

David R. Collins, Asst. U.S. Atty., Portland, Me., Howard J. Kaufman, U.S. Postal Service, Washington, D.C., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SANCTIONS

GENE CARTER, District Judge.

Currently before the Court are a Motion to Dismiss or, in the alternative, Motion for Summary Judgment and a Motion for Sanctions, filed on December 10, 1986 by Defendant United States Postal Service. The motions were filed in response to an Application for Confirmation of the Arbitrator's Award of July 2, 1986, filed on October 3, 1986 by Plaintiffs Brian Higgins, a Postal Service employee, and the National Post Office Mail Handlers, Watchmen, Messengers and Group Leaders Division of the Laborers' International Union of North America, AFL-CIO (National Union).

The factual underpinnings of the dispute between Higgins and the Postal Service or its eventual resolution through the grievance-arbitration provisions of the collective bargaining agreements between the Postal Service and the National Union are not relevant to the motions currently before the Court. It is sufficient to state that the arbitration award that Plaintiffs seek to confirm has reinstated Higgins to his position with the Portland Post Office from which he had been dismissed in the summer of 1985. The parties agree that the Postal Service is presently in compliance with the award.

Defendant places three arguments before the Court in support of its motions: one, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to confirm the award; two, Plaintiff Higgins and the local union lack standing to request confirmation of the award;¹ and three, Plaintiffs' action is frivolous, rendering the imposition of sanctions appropriate under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

I.

The Court turns first to Defendant's argument regarding subject matter jurisdiction since a decision on that ground would be dispositive of the entire controversy. Defendant advances what is in effect a two-part argument under section 9 of the United States Arbitration Act (the Act), ch. 213, § 9, 43 Stat. 885 (1925), enacted by ch. 392, § 9, 61 Stat. 672 (1947) (codified at 9 U.S.C. § 9 (1982)).² Defendant argues that: one, section 9 prohibits confirmation of arbitration awards unless the parties have provided for court confirmation in their agreement; and two, Plaintiffs have not pleaded any basis of jurisdiction independent from section 9 inasmuch as any independent statutory basis for jurisdiction pleaded or advanced in argument by Plaintiffs fails to encompass a dispute between the parties. The Court is persuaded that Plaintiffs are not entitled to the relief requested under section 9 of the Act because they have not satisfied the necessary statutory prerequisite for that relief. Nevertheless, the Court believes that a discussion of both parts of Defendant's argument would best explain the Court's decision.

Section 9 of the Act empowers the Court to award relief in the form of confirmation. 9 U.S.C. § 9. This power to award relief under section 9 must not be confused, however, with the separate issue of subject matter jurisdiction.³ No less an authority than the United States Supreme Court has described the Act as "something of an anomaly in the field of federal-court jurisdiction. It creates a body of federal substantive law establishing and regulating the duty to honor an agreement to arbitrate, yet it does not create any independent federal-question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 or otherwise." Moses H. Cone Memorial Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 25 n. 32, 103 S.Ct. 927, 942 n. 32, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983) (citations omitted) (construing sections 3 and 4 of the Act). Plaintiffs concede that section 9 does not create any independent jurisdiction, and the Court agrees that this is the proper view of section 9 despite the differences in statutory language between section 9 and sections 3 and 4 of the Act. See, e.g., Dorn v. Dorn's Transp., 562 F.Supp. 822, 824 (S.D.N.Y.1983) (citing cases); 13B C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3569, at 171 (1984) (discussing the language of section 9); see also Weststar Assoc. v. Tin Metals Co., 752 F.2d 5, 8 (1st Cir.1985) (noting, in a discussion of personal jurisdiction over the parties, that independent basis for subject matter jurisdiction gave district court jurisdiction under section 9 of the Act to enforce the award); United Elec. Radio & Mach. Workers v. Worthington Corp., 236 F.2d 364, 371 (1st Cir.1956). The Court turns, therefore, to the grounds upon which Plaintiffs assert subject matter jurisdiction in this Court.

In their Complaint, Plaintiffs have alleged federal question jurisdiction based on the following statutory provisions: 9 U.S.C. § 9; 39 U.S.C. § 1206(b), and 28 U.S.C. § 1339. The theory of recovery apparently advanced by Plaintiffs is that 28 U.S.C. § 1339 gives the district courts original subject matter jurisdiction of civil actions arising under acts of Congress that relate to the Postal Service and that 39 U.S.C. § 1206, authorizing the collective bargaining agreement, is the act of Congress that creates an independent statutory basis of jurisdiction. Cf. O'Connor v. Yezukevicz, 589 F.2d 16, 18-19 (1st Cir.1978) (finding no independent statutory basis of jurisdiction where postal employee was not a permanent employee of the Postal Service within the protection of 39 U.S.C. § 1001(b)).

Recognizing, perhaps, that the Complaint fails to set forth sufficiently a federal issue as an essential element of their case, see, e.g., Gully v. First Nat'l Bank, 299 U.S. 109, 112, 57 S.Ct. 96, 97, 81 L.Ed. 70 (1936), Plaintiffs have alleged in their memorandum of law that the employment controversy between the parties is a violation of a labor contract within the meaning of 39 U.S.C. § 1208(b) or, in the alternative, of 29 U.S.C. § 185(a). In the interests of judicial economy and without specifically deciding the issue, the Court believes that given the opportunity to amend their pleadings, Plaintiffs could establish federal question jurisdiction. The Court prefers, however, not to devote substantial space to this analysis because it finds that even if it were to resolve the jurisdictional issue in Plaintiffs' favor, that resolution would not be dispositive given that Plaintiffs would not be entitled to the relief requested.⁴

II.

Defendant has focused its argument, quite properly in the Court's view, on the infirmities underlying the request for relief under section 9 of the Act. Section 9 empowers the Court to enter an order confirming an arbitration award. The order of confirmation, however, is merely a statutory procedure that gives the award the full force and effect of a judgment of the court. 9 U.S.C. § 13; see generally 5 Am. Jur.2d Arbitration & Award § 161 (1962). Because the right to confirmation is created by statute, "there must, of course, be compliance with the statute in order to authorize enforcement of the award by the entry of summary judgment." § 161, at 639 (footnote omitted). The right to confirmation does not, however, affect the validity of the award; it merely determines the method of any subsequent enforcement. Defendant argues that a prerequisite to the Court's ability to confirm the award is an agreement between the parties that a judgment of a court shall be entered on the award. Such is clearly the plain meaning of the statutory language. Defendant points out that the collective bargaining agreement between the parties is silent regarding possible confirmation of arbitration awards. Moreover, the affidavit of George S. McDouglad filed by Defendant asserts that court confirmation of awards has never been proposed, agreed to, or provided for by the parties. Plaintiffs' affidavit does not dispute this factual assertion. Consequently, the Court must find that there is no genuine issue of material fact as to the parties' intent regarding confirmation—the parties neither contemplated nor agreed to confirmation.

Despite the complete absence of any facts evidencing an agreement between the parties to have a judgment of any court entered upon the award, Plaintiffs nevertheless assert that the language in the parties' arbitration agreement that the arbitrator's decision "will be final and binding" is sufficient to confer upon the Court the power to award the relief requested. Plaintiffs rely on I/S Stavborg v. National Metal Converters, Inc., 500 F.2d 424, 426-27 (2d Cir.1974), and Marine Transit Corp. v. Dreyfus, 284 U.S. 263, 276, 52 S.Ct. 166, 169, 76 L.Ed. 282 (1932), for this assertion.

Stavborg and Dreyfus are, however, clearly distinguishable from the present case. In Dreyfus, the parties had not agreed to court confirmation. 284 U.S. at 276. Nevertheless, before the parties had submitted to arbitration, Dreyfus had begun an admiralty action under section 8 of title 9. Id. at 268, 52 S.Ct. at 167. Section 8 specifically provides that the court, once it has before it a claim otherwise justiciable in admiralty, has the power both to compel arbitration and to enter judgment on the award. 9 U.S.C. § 8. In fact, the Supreme Court noted that "the District Court entered its decree upon the award against that corporation under the authority expressly conferred by § 8." 284 U.S. at 276, 52 S.Ct. at 169 (emphasis added). This Court believes that the Supreme Court's reference to the parties' stipulation "that the award should be `final and binding,'" id., merely indicated that the Court found that the...