Independent Union of Flight Attendants v. Pan American World Airways, Inc.

• Citation: 923 F.2d 678
• Decision Date: 10 January 1991
• Docket Number: No. 89-15577,89-15577
• Parties: 136 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2217, 59 USLW 2433, 117 Lab.Cas. P 10,480 INDEPENDENT UNION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, INC., and Pan American Corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 678

923 F.2d 678

136 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2217, 59 USLW 2433,

117 Lab.Cas. P 10,480

INDEPENDENT UNION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, INC., and Pan American Corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 89-15577.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted June 7, 1990.

Decided Jan. 10, 1991.

Peter O. Shinevar, Bredhoff & Kaiser, Wash., D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.

Gilmore F. Dickmann, Jr., Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon, San Francisco, Cal., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Before D.W. NELSON and TROTT, Circuit Judges, and TASHIMA, ^* District Judge.

TASHIMA, District Judge:

Appellant (plaintiff) Independent Union of Flight Attendants (IUFA) brought this action to enforce an arbitration provision in its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with appellees (defendants) Pan American World Airways, Inc. (Pan Am), and Pan Am Corporation. That agreement, effective June 4, 1986, provided that Pan Am would use IUFA flight attendants on the Pan Am Flight Service System Seniority List for all present or future flying. By a letter agreement, this scope clause was made equally applicable to the operations of the parent, Pan Am Corp. Pan Am has used IUFA flight attendants on intra-European routes for at least 13 years and has entered into other agreements under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) for such all-foreign routes with pilots and other flight attendants' unions.

In November 1987, Pan American Express, Inc., a subsidiary of Pan Am Corp., began offering intra-European service from a base in Berlin ("Berlin Express"). None of these flights take off from or land in, or overfly, any state, territory, or possession of the United States. Berlin Express chose to operate with foreign national flight attendants represented by a German union. On January 6, 1988, IUFA filed a grievance alleging that defendants' failure to use IUFA flight attendants constituted a violation of the scope clause of the CBA. Pan Am denied the grievance on February 9, 1988, on the ground that the issue was not one of contract interpretation but a representational dispute over which the arbitral body provided for in the contract has no jurisdiction.

On defendants' motion, the district court dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the ground that the RLA does not apply extraterritorially. Plaintiff appealed ¹ and we affirm.

ISSUE

The sole issue on appeal is whether or not the district court had subject matter jurisdiction of this action. ²

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff seeks to establish subject matter jurisdiction on the ground that this action "arises under" the RLA. 45 U.S.C. Secs. 151 et seq. & 181 et seq.; 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1331 & 1337. Section 204 of the RLA, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 184 (1982), requires contracting parties to establish system boards of adjustment to resolve "minor disputes" ³ through arbitration. An action arises under federal law if either: (1) a federal statute creates the claim; or (2) a substantial question of federal law is a necessary element of the claim. E.g., Morongo Band of Mission Indians v. California State Bd. of Equalization, 858 F.2d 1376, 1383 (9th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1006, 109 S.Ct. 787, 102 L.Ed.2d 779 (1989).

Federal district courts have "arising under" jurisdiction to enforce such required arbitration provisions in contracts entered into under the RLA. International Ass'n of Machinists v. Central Airlines, 372 U.S. 682, 692, 83 S.Ct. 956, 962, 10 L.Ed.2d 67 (1963). Defendants argue, however, that their obligation to arbitrate this dispute cannot be enforced in federal court because

the RLA does not extend to purely foreign flying. We first determine the scope of the RLA, and then consider whether the provision may be enforced in federal court. ⁴

A. The Territorial Scope of the RLA

1. The presumption against extraterritoriality

The RLA does not expressly encompass or exclude purely foreign flying. On the "assumption that Congress is primarily concerned with domestic conditions," Foley Bros. v. Filardo, 336 U.S. 281, 285, 69 S.Ct. 575, 577, 93 L.Ed. 680 (1949), the Supreme Court has applied a presumption against extraterritoriality to federal statutes.

The canon of construction which teaches that legislation of Congress, unless a contrary intent appears, is meant to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, is a valid approach whereby unexpressed congressional intent may be ascertained.

Id.; see also Argentine Republic v. Amerada Hess Shipping Corp., 488 U.S. 428, 109 S.Ct. 683, 691, 102 L.Ed.2d 818 (1989) (limiting Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1603(c), "waters" to within 3-mile territorial sea); Grunfeder v. Heckler, 748 F.2d 503, 509 (9th Cir.1984) (en banc) (German reparation payments not intended to affect SSI eligibility); McKeel v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 722 F.2d 582, 589 (9th Cir.1983) (limiting FSIA to territorial jurisdiction), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 880, 105 S.Ct. 243, 83 L.Ed.2d 182 (1984). In Foley Bros., the Court held that the "Eight Hour Act" did not apply extraterritorially, since "nothing in the Act itself.... nor in the legislative history ... [led] to the belief that Congress entertained any intention other than the normal one." 336 U.S. at 285, 69 S.Ct. at 577.

This presumption has been attributed to the risk of "outright collisions between domestic and foreign law" which are "a potential This presumption creates a high threshold. In Benz, the Court considered whether the striking crew of a foreign vessel could invoke the protection of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) while in United States waters. In denying extraterritorial effect to the Act, the Court held that "to run interference in such a delicate field of international relations there must be present the affirmative intention of the Congress clearly expressed." Id.; see also McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras, 372 U.S. 10, 21-22, 83 S.Ct. 671, 677-78, 9 L.Ed.2d 547 (1963) (absent affirmative congressional intent, court cannot exercise jurisdiction despite preponderance of contacts with United States). ⁶ In Foley Bros., the Court reasoned Most courts of appeals have consistently required such a "clear expression" of congressional intent to apply legislation extraterritorially. E.g., CFTC v. Nahas, 738 F.2d 487, 493 n. 12 (D.C.Cir.1984) (clear evidence or unambiguous expression lacking; service of process statute not applied extraterritorially); Cleary v. United States Lines, Inc., 728 F.2d 607, 610 (3d Cir.1984) (affirmative evidence lacking; ADEA not applied extraterritorially); United States v. Mitchell, 553 F.2d 996, 1002 (5th Cir.1977) (denying extraterritorial effect to the Marine Mammal Protection Act). The Fifth Circuit applied this heightened standard in concluding that Congress did not intend extraterritorial application of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Boureslan v. ARAMCO, 857 F.2d 1014 (5th Cir.1988), aff'd en banc, 892 F.2d 1271 (5th Cir.1989), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 40, 112 L.Ed.2d 17 (1990).

                source of friction between the United States and foreign countries...."  Pfeiffer v. Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., 755 F.2d 554, 557 (7th Cir.1985) (denying extraterritorial effect to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act [ADEA]. 5  It has also been attributed to the deference of courts to Congress.  "It alone has the facilities necessary to make fairly such an important policy decision...."  Benz v. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, S.A., 353 U.S. 138, 147, 77 S.Ct. 699, 704, 1 L.Ed.2d 709 (1957) (denying extraterritorial effect to the NLRA)
                that Congress would not ordinarily apply domestic wage and hour provisions to aliens working abroad on United States public works projects and that the absence of a distinction in the Act between citizens and aliens was strong evidence of congressional intent not to do so.  336 U.S. at 286, 69 S.Ct. at 578.    "An intention so to regulate labor conditions which are the primary concern of a foreign country should not be attributed to Congress in the absence of a clearly expressed purpose."    Id
                

2. Interpretation of the RLA

The RLA does not expressly except purely foreign flying from its coverage. Nonetheless, virtually every court to consider the question has concluded that Congress did not intend the RLA to govern labor disputes in other countries. E.g., Air Line Dispatchers Ass'n v. National Mediation Bd., 189 F.2d 685, 690-91 (D.C.Cir.) (union applied to NMB to resolve representation dispute involving foreign dispatchers), cert. denied, 342 U.S. 849, 72 S.Ct. 77, 96 L.Ed. 641 (1951); Air Line Stewards & Stewardesses Ass'n v. Northwest Airlines, 267 F.2d 170 (8th Cir.) (union sued to overturn arbitration award precluding union representation of foreign national flight attendants on foreign flights), cert. denied, 361 U.S. 901, 80 S.Ct. 208, 4 L.Ed.2d 156 (1959); Air Line Stewards & Stewardesses Ass'n v. Trans World Airlines, 273 F.2d 69 (2d Cir.1959) (per curiam) (action to compel TWA to bargain with union on behalf of foreign flight attendants on foreign flights), cert. denied, 362 U.S. 988, 80 S.Ct. 1075, 4 L.Ed.2d 1021 (1960). None of these cases, however, concerned an attempt to enforce an agreement already entered into by the parties. ⁷

Our starting point in analyzing the scope of the RLA is its definition of "commerce." The RLA was amended to cover common carriers by air in 1936. Act of April 10, 1936, ch. 166, 49 Stat. 1189 (codified at 45 U.S.C. Secs. 181, et seq.). Except for the omission of a national board of adjustment, Congress simply "extended to ... every common carrier by air engaged in interstate or foreign commerce" those provisions relating to carriers by rail. 45 U.S.C. Sec. 181 (1982) (referring to 45 U.S.C. Secs. 151-163). At the time of the amendment, a [f]rom one State or Territory of the...