Hobbs v. Hawkins

• Decision Date: 13 August 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-4122,91-4122
• Citation: 968 F.2d 471
• Parties: 141 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2026, 61 USLW 2123, 122 Lab.Cas. P 10,309 Alice HOBBS, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Clarence HAWKINS, etc., et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 471

968 F.2d 471

141 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2026, 61 USLW 2123,

122 Lab.Cas. P 10,309

Alice HOBBS, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Clarence HAWKINS, etc., et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 91-4122.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Aug. 13, 1992.

Louis L. Robein, Jr., Nancy Picard, Gardner, Robein & Urann, Metairie La., Max Zimny, Gen. Counsel, I.L.G.W.U., New York City, AFLCIO, Walter Kamiat, Assoc. Gen. Counsel, Washington, D.C., James R. Goldberg, ILGWU Southeast Region, Atlanta, Ga., for Hobbs, et al.

William R. D'Armond, Gregg R. Kronenberger, Kean, Miller, Hawthorne, D'Armand, McCowan & Jarman, Baton Rouge, La., for Hawkins, et al.

Kenneth C. Fonte, Golden & Fonte, Metairie, La., for Wilson & Gewin.

R.L. Davis, Jr., Theus, Grisham, Davis & Leigh, Monroe, La., Arthur Chinski, Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger, Los Angeles, Cal., Dermot S. McGlinchey, McGlinchey, Stafford, Cellini & Lang, New Orleans, La., for Ditto Apparel of California, Inc.

A. Richard Gear, Cook, Yancey, King & Galloway, Shreveport, La., for Morehouse Economic Development Corp.

Appeal from the United States District Court For the Western District of Louisiana.

Before THORNBERRY, GARWOOD, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.

W. EUGENE DAVIS, Circuit Judge:

Alice Hobbs, three of her coworkers, and her union appeal the district court's dismissal of their § 1983 class action against Hobbs's employer and various public officials for alleged violations of their statutory and constitutional rights. We conclude that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over alleged violations of rights secured by the federal labor laws, and that plaintiffs have stated a cause of action for deprivation of their First Amendment right to free speech, but not of association. We therefore affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand for further proceedings.

I.

This dispute arose out of a union certification election campaign. In August 1989, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, AFL-CIO (ILGWU or Union) sought to organize the approximately one thousand employees at the Bastrop, Louisiana plant of Ditto Apparel of California, Inc. (Ditto). Ditto opposed the employees' attempt to organize. The Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) scheduled a certification election for March 16, 1990.

In February and early March 1990, the Union, Ditto, local business leaders, and public officials actively promoted their respective positions on the election. On February 7, the mayor of Bastrop, Clarence Hawkins, met with certain state officials and local business leaders at the Bastrop City Hall Courtroom to discuss the potential unionization of Ditto. On February 24, Hawkins met at City Hall with thirteen Ditto employees who supported the Union in attempt to dissuade them from organizing. Plaintiffs allege that Hawkins threatened them with loss of their jobs if the Union were selected, alluded to a financial relationship between the City and Ditto, and promised to help establish a city-run grievance procedure if the workers rejected unionization.

On March 5, an assembly was held at the Bastrop Municipal Center, a city facility. The meeting was advertised at the Ditto plant and on the front page of Bastrop's only newspaper, and was open to all Ditto employees and their families. The meeting was financed by the Morehouse Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO), a nonprofit corporation organized to encourage business development in Morehouse Parish. ¹ The complaint alleges that approximately 200 employees attended the March 5 meeting. John Bonds, a former mayor of Bastrop and an officer of MEDCO, chaired the meeting and told the crowd that he was representing Mayor Hawkins. Also attending and participating at the meeting were all five of Bastrop's city councilpersons; Lawrence Wilson, of the Louisiana Department of Employment and Training, Division of Employment Security; Sue Gewin, of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Eligibility Determination; and Ivory Smith, a state official in charge of the local Head Start program and a member of MEDCO's board of directors. The complaint also alleges that certain Ditto employees known to oppose unionization were seated prominently and featured as speakers at the meeting.

All of the speakers at the March 5 meeting spoke out against unionization. The speakers warned of strikes, plant closure, and loss of jobs and other benefits such as welfare and unemployment compensation, if the Union were elected. The complaint alleges that plaintiff Hobbs and other Union supporters "were prohibited from speaking and all requests to address the assembly or the officials were denied."

The employees rejected Union representation at the March 16 election, 443-317.

The Union filed unfair labor practice charges with the Board and asked that the election results be set aside. Although the Regional Director refused to issue a complaint on the unfair labor practice charges, the hearing officer found that a coercive environment had so tainted the election process that a new election was warranted. The NLRB endorsed the hearing officer's recommendation and ordered a new election.

Meanwhile, in June 1990, plaintiffs brought this suit in federal court against Ditto, the City of Bastrop, Hawkins, three city councilpersons, Wilson, Gewin, and MEDCO. Count 1 of the complaint seeks relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of the plaintiff's rights under sections 7 and 9 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act), 29 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 159. Count 2 seeks relief under § 1983 for violations of plaintiffs' First Amendment rights of speech and association. ² Count 3 seeks pendent relief under Louisiana constitutional and statutory law. Plaintiffs request declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory damages of $1 million, punitive damages of $2 million, and attorney's fees. The district court granted defendants' motions to dismiss Count 1 under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and Count 2 under Rule 12(b)(6). After dismissing the pendent state claims as well, the district court entered a final judgment in February 1991. Plaintiffs timely appealed against all defendants. ³

II.

The district court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction over Count 1 of the complaint because the conduct complained of fell within the NLRB's exclusive jurisdiction. We review de novo the district court's dismissal under Rule 12(b)(1). We will not affirm the dismissal "unless it appears certain that the plaintiff[s] cannot prove any set of facts in support of [their] claim which would entitle [them] to relief." Benton v. United States, 960 F.2d 19, 20 (5th Cir.1992).

Whether a § 1983 remedy lies for violations of NLRA rights committed during an organizing campaign is an issue of first impression. The Supreme Court's recent decision of Golden State Transit Corp. v. City of Los Angeles, 493 U.S. 103, 110 S.Ct. 444, 107 L.Ed.2d 420 (1989) (Golden State II), provides our starting point. The City of Los Angeles had conditioned the renewal of a taxicab franchise on the company's resolution of a labor dispute with its union. Ultimately, the Supreme Court held that the City was prohibited from conditioning the license in that way. Golden State Transit Corp. v. City of Los Angeles, 475 U.S. 608, 106 S.Ct. 1395, 89 L.Ed.2d 616 (1986) (Golden State I ) (relying on preemption doctrine of Machinists v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Comm'n, 427 U.S. 132, 96 S.Ct. 2548, 49 L.Ed.2d 396 (1976)). The company then sued the city for damages under § 1983. That suit culminated in Golden State II, wherein the Court addressed whether the NLRA grants rights enforceable under § 1983.

The Court began by noting that the remedy of § 1983 "encompasses violations of federal statutory as well as constitutional rights" and that § 1983's coverage "must be broadly construed." Golden State II, 493 U.S. at 105, 110 S.Ct. at 448. The Court then articulated a two-part test to determine whether a § 1983 remedy exists: (1) if plaintiff asserts the "violation of a federal right," then a § 1983 remedy exists unless (2) defendant can show that " 'Congress specifically foreclosed a remedy under § 1983' by providing a 'comprehensive enforcement mechanis[m] for protection of a federal right.' " Id. at 106, 110 S.Ct. at 448 (quoting Smith v. Robinson, 468 U.S. 992, 1003, 1005 n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 3457, 3463, 3464 n. 9, 82 L.Ed.2d 746 (1984)); see also Wilder v. Virginia Hospital Ass'n, 496 U.S. 498, 508, 110 S.Ct. 2510, 2517, 110 L.Ed.2d 455, 466 (1990). Thus once plaintiff has asserted the violation of a federal right, there is a presumption that a § 1983 remedy is available.

Plaintiffs allege the violation of sections 7 and 9 of the Act. We address each cause of action separately.

A.

We first address plaintiffs' § 1983 cause of action alleging a violation of their § 9 right to a free election. Assuming without deciding that § 9 grants a "right" cognizable under § 1983, we conclude that plaintiffs cannot maintain this cause of action because Congress has provided a comprehensive enforcement mechanism for protection of this right. We recognize that "[t]he issue is not the intent of Congress to permit a section 1983 action, but rather the intent of Congress to withdraw the existing section 1983 remedy." Victorian v. Miller, 813 F.2d 718, 721 (5th Cir.1987) (en banc). Although we do not lightly infer such intent, id., we find such intent here in the form of a congressional directive to vest in the Board exclusive authority over this issue.

Section 9 addresses the role and selection of representatives. 29 U.S.C. § 159. "Congress has entrusted the Board with a wide degree of discretion in establishing the procedure and safeguards necessary to insure the fair and free choice of bargaining representatives by employees." NLRB v. A.J. Tower Co., 329 U.S. 324, 330, 67 S.Ct. 324, 328, 91 L.Ed. 322 (1946). The Board defines the...