Island Creek Coal Co. v. District 28, United Mine Workers of America
| Decision Date | 06 July 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-2305,93-2305 |
| Citation | 29 F.3d 126 |
| Parties | 146 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2773, 63 USLW 2064, 128 Lab.Cas. P 11,130 ISLAND CREEK COAL COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DISTRICT 28, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, Defendant-Appellant, and Local Union 2232, United Mine Workers of America; International Union, United Mine Workers of America, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
ARGUED: Susan Debra Oglebay, Kobak & Oglebay, Pound, VA, for appellant. David J. Laurent, Polito & Smock, P.A., Pittsburgh, PA, for appellee. ON BRIEF: Daniel L. Fassio, Pittsburgh, PA, for appellee.
Before WILKINS and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges, and ELLIS, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge HAMILTON wrote the opinion, in which Judge WILKINS and Judge ELLIS joined.
District 28, United Mine Workers of America (District 28), appeals the district court's decision vacating the penalty portion of an arbitration award. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm.
The National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1978, 1984, and 1988 (NBCWA) prohibits the performance of "classified work" 1 by supervisory personnel. 2 Island Creek Coal Company (Island Creek) and the International Union, United Mine Workers of America; District 28, United Mine Workers of America; and Local Union 2232, United Mine Workers of America (collectively UMWA) have a history of disputes dating to 1981 over Island Creek's performance of classified work. In that year Arbitrator Marlyn E. Lugar (Lugar) arbitrated a grievance concerning the performance of classified work at the Virginia Pocahontas Number 5 Mine (the Mine). 3 Finding that Island Creek violated the NBCWA's prohibition on classified work, Arbitrator Lugar ordered Island Creek to cease and desist. He intimated that "punitive damages" might be appropriate in the event of future violations.
In 1988, the parties settled the same type of grievance. Island Creek agreed that it would stop its supervisory employees from performing classified work and would abide by Arbitrator Lugar's 1981 decision. The issue arose again in 1990 at the Mine. Arbitrator Peter J. Judah (Judah) restated Arbitrator Lugar's cease and desist order and imposed punitive damages of $2,000. 4 Arbitrator Judah emphasized that the punitive damages were based on the 1988 settlement agreement rather than on the NBCWA itself.
On February 1, 1988, Island Creek and UMWA entered into the present version of the NBCWA. The 1988 NBCWA contained a mandatory means for resolving disputes arising under that agreement: a three-step grievance procedure followed, if necessary, by final and binding arbitration. The NBCWA does not expressly provide for an award of punitive damages.
On or about November 13, 1991, one of Island Creek's employees filed a grievance alleging that a foreman had violated the 1988 NBCWA by performing classified work. The parties ultimately submitted the matter to arbitration pursuant to the terms of the NBCWA. Arbitrator Bernard H. Cantor (Cantor) reviewed the history of disputes at the Mine. Determining that there had been similar violations and an earlier cease and desist order, he stated:
If there is something more than a straight forward violation, if there is a pattern of repeated violations, then there can and should be a mandate to cease and desist. A cease and desist order itself, however, must be enforceable. It does not require the existence of a new contract, even though Arbitrator Judah reached for that further support for his decision. The straightforward fact that the Company had been ordered to stop it is sufficient to authorize the arbitrator standing in the stead, as he does, of courts of general jurisdiction for the purpose of dealing with this contract, to lay down a reasonable amount as a rule constituting the imposition of a penalty for violation of a prior order of quasi-judicial body.
This is not "punitive damages" in the tort sense. The application of that term to damages given in this situation is absolutely inappropriate. It is an enforcement penalty and it stands as such and is justified by the long history within the Bituminous Coal Industry contract. The contract has grown over time as a way of life. To those who live by it, there must be no wrong without a remedy. Frustrations have led to Cease and Desist orders. Such an order means nothing unless it can be enforced. The contract contemplates effective enforcement.
(J.A. 71). Arbitrator Cantor then issued the following award:
(1) Grievant is allowed compensation for one-half a shift pay at straight time.
(2) The Cease and Desist order applicable to this mine entered by Arbitrator Lugar, restated by Arbitrator Judah, is here restated.
(3) A penalty for failure to obey the Cease and Desist order, based on the experience since the Judah order is hereby imposed in the amount of $1,000 to be paid to the Union.
(J.A. 74-75) (Emphasis added).
After Arbitrator Cantor's award, Island Creek brought an action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia for declaratory and injunctive relief against the UMWA. Island Creek sought to vacate the "enforcement penalty" of $1,000 imposed by Arbitrator Cantor. The UMWA filed a counterclaim seeking to enforce the penalty. Finding that Arbitrator Cantor exceeded the scope of his authority in imposing the penalty, the district court vacated that portion of the award. The district court enforced the other portions of the arbitration award. District 28 appeals from that portion of the order vacating the penalty part of Arbitrator Cantor's decision. 5
The question of whether a labor arbitrator exceeded the scope of his authority is a question of law. Upshur Coals Corp. v. United Mine Workers of Am., Dist. 31, 933 F.2d 225, 228 (4th Cir.1991) Therefore, in the instant case, we review the district court's ruling de novo. Id. We are required to "stand in the shoes of the district court" in determining whether Arbitrator Cantor exceeded the scope of his authority. Id.
An arbitrator's award is entitled to special judicial deference on judicial review. Accordingly, a federal court's review of an arbitrator's award under Sec. 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185, is very limited. United Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 581-82, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1352-53, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960); Cannelton Indus., Inc. v. District 17, United Mine Workers of Am., 951 F.2d 591, 593 (4th Cir.1991). The parties to a collective bargaining agreement bargained for the arbitrator's interpretation, and "so far as the arbitrator's decision concerns construction of the contract, the courts have no business overruling him because their interpretation ... is different from his." United Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 599, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 1362, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960). The arbitrator's decision, however, "must draw its essence from the contract and cannot simply reflect the arbitrator's own notions of industrial justice." United Paperworkers Int'l Union v. Misco, Inc., 484 U.S. 29, 38, 108 S.Ct. 364, 371, 98 L.Ed.2d 286 (1987); Upshur Coals, 933 F.2d at 229. Consequently, "[a]n award may be overturned only if the arbitrator must have based his award on his own personal notions of right and wrong, for only then does the award fail to 'draw its essence from the collective bargaining agreement.' " Upshur Coals, 933 F.2d at 229 (quoting E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. v. Grasselli Employees Indep. Assoc., 790 F.2d 611, 614 (7th Cir.1986) (citations omitted)).
Absent an express provision in the collective bargaining agreement, the law of this circuit does not permit an arbitrator to impose a punitive award or punitive damages. Cannelton Indus., 951 F.2d at 594; Norfolk & W. Ry. Co. v. Brotherhood of Ry., Airline and Steamship Clerks, 657 F.2d 596, 602 (4th Cir.1981); Westinghouse Elec. Corp., Aerospace Div. v. International Bhd. of Elec. Workers, 561 F.2d 521, 523-24 (4th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1036, 98 S.Ct. 771, 54 L.Ed.2d 783 (1978). We first addressed the issue of punitive awards in Westinghouse. There, the arbitrator found that the employer had breached the agreement by failing to provide sufficient time for the parties to negotiate a vacation shutdown arrangement. Although no employees suffered an economic loss as a result of that breach, the arbitrator ordered the employer to pay three additional days of vacation. The contract did not contain language permitting punitive damages. On appeal, we vacated that portion of the award, reasoning that Id. at 523.
Likewise, we refused to uphold a punitive award not provided for in the collective bargaining agreement in Baltimore Regional Joint Bd. v. Webster Clothes, 596 F.2d 95 (4th Cir.1979). In that case, the arbitrator found that the employer had breached a subcontracting restriction and ordered the employer to pay $80,000 to the grievants even though they had been working full-time and suffered no actual loss as a result of the breach. Vacating the $80,000 payment portion of the award, we reasoned that
[t]he award of damages in the present case does not draw its essence from the bargaining agreement, for the agreement's essence does not contemplate punitive, but only compensatory awards.... In the absence of any provision for punitive awards, and of any substantiating proof of willful or wanton conduct, an arbitrator may not make an award of punitive damages for breach of a collective bargaining agreement.
Baltimore Regional Joint Bd., 596 F.2d at 98. 6
In Cannelton Industries, 951 F.2d at 591, the collective bargaining agreement did not provide for...
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