International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. Hechler

• Decision Date: 26 May 1987
• Docket Number: No. 85-1360,AFL-CIO,85-1360
• Citation: 95 L.Ed.2d 791,107 S.Ct. 2161,481 U.S. 851
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS,, et al., Petitioners v. Sally HECHLER
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

481 U.S. 851

107 S.Ct. 2161

95 L.Ed.2d 791

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL-CIO, et al., Petitioners

v Sally HECHLER.

No. 85-1360.

Argued Jan. 20, 1987.

Decided May 26, 1987.

Syllabus

Respondent, an electrical apprentice employed by Florida Power and Light Company (Florida Power), was injured while assigned to a job that required her to perform tasks allegedly beyond the scope of her training and experience. She brought suit in a Florida court against petitioner unions (collectively referred to as the Union), alleging that "pursuant to contracts and agreements" between the Union and Florida Power, "to which . . . [she] was a third-party beneficiary," and "pursuant to the relationship by and between" the Union and her, the Union had a duty of care to ensure her a safe workplace, which it had breached by allowing her to be assigned to work in a dangerous location. The Union removed the action to federal court on the grounds that its alleged duty arose solely from the collective-bargaining agreement, and therefore that any breach of its duty was actionable solely under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947. The Union then moved to dismiss the complaint as untimely under the applicable federal statute of limitations. Respondent argued that the basic nature of her action was a state common-law "suit in tort," and prayed that the case be remanded to the state court. The District Court granted the Union's motion to dismiss, holding that the Union's alleged duty flowed from the collective-bargaining agreement, and that respondent's claim thus was pre-empted by § 301 and was untimely under federal law. The Court of Appeals reversed.

Held:

1. Respondent's claim is not sufficiently independent of the collective-bargaining agreement to withstand § 301's pre-emptive force. Pp. 855-862.

(a) The interests in interpretive uniformity and predictability that require that labor-contract disputes be resolved by reference to federal common law also require that the meaning given a contract phrase or term be subject to uniform federal interpretation, whether the question arises in the context of a suit for breach of contract or in a suit alleging liability in tort. Thus, an employee's state-law tort action that necessarily rests on an interpretation of terms in the collective-bargaining agreement is pre-empted by § 301. Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206. Pp. 855-859.

(b) Under Florida law, the employer, not the labor union, owes employees a duty to furnish a reasonably safe workplace. A union may assume a responsibility to employees by accepting a duty of care through a contractual arrangement, and, under Florida law, if a party breaches a contractual duty, the aggrieved party may bring either an action for breach of contract or a tort action for the injury suffered as a result of the contractual breach. However, the threshold inquiry for determining if a cause of action exists is an examination of the contract to ascertain what duties were accepted by each of the parties and the scope of those duties. Respondent's complaint alleges precisely this type of tortious breach-of-contract claim, and her allegations of negligence are significant only if the Union, under the collective-bargaining agreement, assumed the duty of care that it allegedly breached. Thus, questions of contract interpretation underlie any finding of tort liability, and respondent is precluded from evading § 301's pre-emptive force by casting her claim as a state-law tort action. Pp. 859-862.

2. If respondent's suit is treated as a § 301 claim, it must be determined whether the claim is time barred by the applicable statute of limitations under federal law. Because the Court of Appeals erroneously concluded that respondent's claim was not pre-empted, it is appropriate for that court to consider, in the first instance, whether the period of limitations adopted by the District Court is applicable to respondent's claim. Pp. 863-865.

772 F.2d 788 (CA 11 1985) vacated and remanded.

BLACKMUN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and BRENNAN, WHITE, MARSHALL, POWELL, O'CONNOR, and SCALIA, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, post, p. 865.

Laurence Gold, Washington, D.C., for petitioners.

Joel S. Perwin, Miami, Fla., for respondent.

Justice BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.

In Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985), this Court held that "when resolution of a state-law claim is substantially dependent upon analysis of the terms of an agreement made between the parties in a labor contract," the plaintiff's claim is pre-empted by § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (LMRA), 61 Stat. 156, 29 U.S.C. § 185. 471 U.S., at 220, 105 S.Ct., at 1916. The question presented by this case is whether a state-law tort claim that a union has breached its duty of care to provide a union member with a safe workplace is sufficiently independent of the collective-bargaining agreement to withstand the pre-emptive force of § 301.

I

At all times relevant to this case, plaintiff-respondent Sally Hechler was employed by Florida Power and Light Company (Florida Power) as an electrical apprentice. Petitioners, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and its Local 759 (collectively referred to as the Union), are the exclusive bargaining representatives for the bargaining unit in which respondent was employed. On January 11, 1982, Florida Power assigned respondent to a job in an electrical substation that required her to perform tasks she alleges were beyond the scope of her training and experience. Shortly after commencing her new assignment, respondent was injured when she came into contact with highly energized components at the substation.

Two years later, respondent sued the Union in state court in Broward County, Fla. In her complaint, she alleged that "pursuant to contracts and agreements entered into by and between" the Union and Florida Power, and "pursuant to the relationship by and between" the Union and respondent, the Union had a duty to ensure that respondent "was provided safety in her work place and a safe work place," and to ensure that respondent "would not be required or allowed to take undue risks in the performance of her duties which were not commensurate with her training and experience." App. 4. The Union, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441, removed the lawsuit to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on the grounds that the "alleged duty arises solely from the alleged collective bargaining agreement between [the Union] and Florida Power," and therefore that any breach of this duty was actionable under § 301. 1 Record 3. Respondent at that time raised no objection to the removal.

In federal court, the Union moved to dismiss the complaint. It argued that respondent's claim arose solely under federal labor law and was untimely under the applicable federal statute of limitations. Id., at 66-70. Respondent conceded: "The nature and scope of the duty of care owed [her] is determined by reference to the collective bargaining agreement." Id., at 98. She argued, however, that the basic nature of her action was a state common-law "suit in tort" for the Union's negligence in failing to provide her a safe workplace. Id., at 100-102. Respondent prayed that the case be remanded to the state court.

The District Court granted the Union's motion to dismiss. The court observed that the gravamen of the complaint was that the Union had breached a duty of care to respondent to provide her a safe workplace. "Significantly, the duty allegedly owed to [Hechler] flows from the collective bargaining agreement, which imposes a duty on the [Union] to monitor the safety and training of its members." App. to Pet. for Cert. 3a. The court concluded that because respondent had failed "to demonstrate that the [Union's] allegedly negligent activity was unrelated to the collective bargaining agreement or beyond the scope of the employee-union fiduciary relationship," her claim was pre-empted by federal labor law. Id., at 4a. Having found that respondent's suit was governed by federal law, the court then held that the 6-month statute of limitations adopted in DelCostello v. Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983), applied to Hechler's case, and dismissed the suit as untimely.

The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed. 772 F.2d 788 (1985). It ruled that the complaint "on its face states a common law negligence claim that may be cognizable in state court and is not preempted by the federal labor laws." Id., at 790-791. The court concluded: "Though the [collective-bargaining] contract may be of use in defining the scope of the duty owed, liability will turn on basic negligence principles as developed by state law." Id., at 794. Finding that "federal labor law was not invoked in plaintiff's complaint," id., at 799, the court directed that the District Court remand the case to the state court for adjudication on the merits.

Because the Eleventh Circuit's decision appeared to conflict with the decision of the Sixth Circuit in Michigan Mutual Ins. Co. v. Steelworkers, 774 F.2d 104 (1985), we granted certiorari. 476 U.S. 1113, 106 S.Ct. 1967, 90 L.Ed.2d 652 (1986).

II

A.

In Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985), we reviewed the pre-emptive scope of § 301.¹ We think it useful, at the outset, to repeat briefly the background outlined in the opinion in Allis-Chalmers. In Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957), the Court held that § 301 does more than simply confer jurisdiction on federal courts to hear suits charging violations of collective-bargaining agreements. Id., at 450-451, 77 S.Ct., at 914-915. The Court concluded...