Int'l Longshoremen's Ass'n v. Davis

• Decision Date: 27 May 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85–217.,85–217.
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, AFL–CIO, Appellant v. Larry DAVIS.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

106 S.Ct. 1904

90 L.Ed.2d 389

INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, AFL–CIO, Appellant

v.Larry DAVIS.

No. 85–217.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued Feb. 25, 1986.

Decided May 27, 1986.

Charles R. Goldburg argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs was Thomas W. Gleason.

Bayless E. Biles argued the cause and filed a brief for appellee.*

* Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Council of State Governments et al. by Benna Ruth Solomon, Beate Bloch, Zachary D. Fasman, and Clifton S. Elgarten; and for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc., by Glenn M. Taubman.

Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

The opinion in San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 79 S.Ct. 773, 3 L.Ed.2d 775 (1959), set forth a general standard for determining when state proceedings or regulations are pre-empted by the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act), see 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. (1982 ed. and Supp. II): Subject to exception only in limited circumstances, "[w]hen an activity is arguably subject to § 7 or § 8 of the Act [ 29 U.S.C. § 157 or § 158 ], the States as well as the federal courts must defer to the exclusive competence of the National Labor Relations Board if the danger of state interference with national policy is to be averted." 359 U.S., at 245, 79 S.Ct., at 780. This general standard has been applied in a multitude of cases decided since Garmon, and it must be applied again today. Before addressing that question, however, we must consider the very nature of such pre-emption—whether Garmon pre-emption is in the nature of an affirmative defense that must be asserted in the trial court or be considered forever waived or whether it is in the nature of a challenge to a court's power to adjudicate that may be raised at any time.

I

Appellee Larry Davis was formerly employed by Ryan-Walsh Stevedoring Co. in Mobile, Alabama. At the times relevant to the events that gave rise to this suit, he was a ship superintendent or trainee ship superintendent. The ship superintendents apparently served as the immediate superiors of the longshoremen employed by Ryan-Walsh. They were on salary, however, and their compensation was generally lower than that received by the longshoremen, who worked on an hourly basis.

In early 1981, Ben Trione, one of the ship superintendents who worked for Ryan-Walsh, contacted appellant International Longshoremen's Association (ILA or Union), a union that represents longshoremen and other employees on the waterfront, to discuss the possibility of organizing the superintendents and affiliating with the Union. Although the parties here dispute the content of the conversations that occurred at this stage between Trione and the ILA representatives regarding the ship superintendents and their eligibility for union membership, it is undisputed that a meeting of the superintendents was organized by Trione and attended by Benny Holland, an ILA official from Houston, Texas.

At this meeting, several of the superintendents expressed a fear of being discharged for participating in union-related activities. According to Davis' witnesses, Holland's response to this was to reassure them that the Union would get them their jobs back with backpay if that happened. According to Holland, however, Holland's response was that they would be protected in that manner only if they were determined not to be supervisors under the Act and that he did not know whether or not they would be considered supervisors.¹ Holland further testified that he had submitted this issue to the Union's lawyers and had not received a definitive opinion from them by the time of the meeting. The meeting, according to all witnesses, resulted in a number of the ship superintendents, including Davis, signing pledge cards and a union charter application with the ILA.²

On the day following the organizational meeting, Ryan-Walsh fired Trione. Trione contacted the ILA, which supplied him with an attorney. The attorney filed an unfair labor practice charge against Ryan-Walsh with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Trione was an employee under the Act and that Ryan-Walsh had violated § 8(a)(1) and § 8(a)(3) of the Act by discharging him for participating in union activities. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1), (3).³ The NLRB's Regional Director, however, determined that Trione was a supervisor under the Act and declined to issue a complaint.⁴ Trione did not, as he had a right to do, appeal this determination to the NLRB General Counsel. See 29 CFR § 102.19 (1985). Shortly thereafter, Davis was also discharged by Ryan-Walsh, apparently for his continued efforts to organize the ship superintendents and to join the Union.

In response to his discharge, Davis filed this suit against the ILA in the Circuit Court of Mobile County, alleging fraud and misrepresentation under Ala.Code § 6–5–101 (1975).⁵ The case proceeded to trial, and a jury entered a verdict in Davis' favor in the amount of $75,000. Throughout the trial, the Union defended the suit on the merits, raising no issue that the suit was pre-empted by the NLRA. In its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, however, the ILA raised for the first time a claim that the state court lacked jurisdiction over the case because the field had "been preempted by federal law and federal jurisdiction." App. 96a. The Circuit Court denied the Union's motion without opinion and entered judgment on the jury's verdict.

On appeal to the Supreme Court of Alabama, the ILA argued that pre-emption was not a waivable defense and that the state fraud and misrepresentation action was pre-empted under Garmon. Although acknowledging that other state courts had adopted the ILA's position that NLRA pre-emption was nonwaivable,⁶ the Alabama court held that "[i]t is not the circuit court's subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate a damage claim for the tort of fraud—even if it arises in the context of a labor-related dispute—that is pre-empted. Rather, it is the state court's exercise of that power that is subject to preemption." 470 So.2d 1215, 1216 (1985). The court's view was that as a state court of general jurisdiction the Circuit Court had had subject-matter jurisdiction over this ordinary tort claim for damages. As a waivable defense, the pre-emption claim was required under Alabama law to be affirmatively pleaded. Since it was not so pleaded, it was deemed waived.⁷

The Alabama Supreme Court, although holding that the ILA's pre-emption claim had been waived, stated in a footnote that if it had had occasion to reach the merits, it would have found no pre-emption:

"The instant facts fall squarely within the ‘peripheral concern’ exception to federal preemption of state jurisdiction of labor-related disputes. San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 243–44 [79 S.Ct. 773, 778–79, 3 L.Ed.2d 775] (1959). The National Labor Relations Board has already determined that an employer's supervisors are not protected by the Labor Management Relations Act. Thus, in this case, [Davis] has no remedy before the NLRB, and this dispute, although somewhat labor-related, is, at most, only of ‘peripheral concern’ to the NLRB. See, e.g., Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers Local 114, 383 U.S. 53 [86 S.Ct. 657, 15 L.Ed.2d 582] (1966)." Id., at 1216–1217, n. 2 (citations omitted).

The Alabama Supreme Court accordingly affirmed the judgment against the Union. The Union appealed to this Court; Davis moved to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the decision below rested on an adequate and independent state ground because the Alabama Supreme Court's decision was based on an application of a state procedural rule. The ILA's submission, however, raised a substantial question whether reliance on the procedural rule rested on an erroneous view of the scope of Garmon pre-emption, a matter of federal law, and hence whether the procedural ground relied on was adequate and independent. We noted probable jurisdiction, 474 U.S. 899, 106 S.Ct. 224, 88 L.Ed.2d 223 (1985).⁸

II

A

Given the reliance of the Alabama Supreme Court on its procedural rule governing the presentation of affirmative defenses, we first decide whether that rule in this case represents an independent and adequate state ground supporting the judgment below. If it does, our review is at an end, for we have no authority to review state determinations of purely state law. Nor do we review federal issues that can have no effect on the state court's judgment. See, e.g., Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., 433 U.S. 562, 566, 97 S.Ct. 2849, 2852, 53 L.Ed.2d 965 (1977) ; Herb v. Pitcairn, 324 U.S. 117, 125–126, 65 S.Ct. 459, 462–463, 89 L.Ed. 789 (1945) ; Fox Film Corp. v. Muller, 296 U.S. 207, 210, 56 S.Ct. 183, 184, 80 L.Ed. 158 (1935). The inquiry into the sufficiency of the asserted state ground, however, is one that we undertake ourselves. See Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1038, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 3474, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983) ; Abie State Bank v. Bryan, 282 U.S. 765, 773, 51 S.Ct. 252, 255, 75 L.Ed. 690 (1931).

In concluding that the Union's pre-emption claim was procedurally barred, the Alabama Supreme Court first held that because the Mobile County Circuit Court, as a state court of general jurisdiction, had subject-matter jurisdiction over the simple tort claim of misrepresentation, there could be no pre-emption of that court's actual jurisdiction. Only the exercise of that jurisdiction could be pre-empted.

This explanation has a certain logic to it; but the point is not whether state law gives the state courts jurisdiction over particular controversies but whether jurisdiction provided by state law is itself pre-empted by federal law vesting exclusive jurisdiction over that controversy in another body. It is clearly within Congress' powers to establish an exclusive federal forum to adjudicate issues of federal law in a particular area that Congress has the authority...