Lingle v. Norge Div. of Magic Chef, Inc., s. 85-2971

Citation823 F.2d 1031
Decision Date23 June 1987
Docket Number86-1763,Nos. 85-2971,s. 85-2971
Parties125 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2855, 56 USLW 2021, 106 Lab.Cas. P 12,447, 2 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 353 Jonna R. LINGLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NORGE DIVISION OF MAGIC CHEF, INC., Defendant-Appellee. Pamela S. MARTIN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CARLING NATIONAL BREWERIES, INC., a foreign corporation, G. Heileman Brewing Company, Inc., a foreign corporation, d/b/a Carling National Breweries, John Snyder, and Charles Rhein, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

Paul Alan Levy, Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, D.C., Ralph T. Stenger, Law Office of Ralph T. Stenger, Belleville, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Daniel R. Begian, McMahon, Berger, Hanna, Linihan, Cody & McCarthy, St. Louis, Mo., P. Michael Kimmel, Gilbert, Kimmel, Huffman & Prosser, Ltd., Carbondale, Ill., for defendants-appellees.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, and CUMMINGS, WOOD, Jr., CUDAHY, POSNER, COFFEY, FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE, and MANION, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

These cases present issues of extreme importance affecting workers covered by collective bargaining agreements. We must decide whether a claim of retaliatory discharge, a claim of intentional interference with an employment contract, and a claim that certain discharge procedures are defective, are preempted by Sec. 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a) (1982). 1 We conclude that Sec. 301 preempts these state claims, and therefore affirm the judgments of the district court.

I.
A.

The facts underlying Lingle are not disputed. The plaintiff, Lingle, was an employee of the defendant Norge Division of Magic Chef, Inc., and was covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The agreement was effective during the period in which Lingle's dispute arose.

On December 5, 1984, Lingle notified her employer that she had sustained an injury while employed at its facility in Herrin, Illinois. The plaintiff, relying on the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act, requested that Norge pay her medical bills. On December 11, 1984, Norge fired the plaintiff on the ground that she had filed a false worker's compensation claim. Lingle asserts that she was discharged solely in retaliation for exercising her worker's compensation rights.

Article 26 of the collective bargaining agreement provided that an employee could not be discharged except for just cause. 2 The agreement also contained, in Article 8.5, mandatory arbitration and grievance procedures that were to be the exclusive remedy for all disputes. The same day that Lingle was fired, the union filed a grievance on plaintiff's behalf, denying Norge's assertion that her worker's compensation claim was false. She has successfully arbitrated that claim, and received reinstatement and back pay.

On July 9, 1985, Lingle filed suit in the Circuit Court for Williamson County, Illinois. In her complaint, she alleged that she had been discharged in violation of Illinois law.

On August 21, 1985, Norge removed the case to federal court on the basis of diversity. On September 16, 1985, Norge moved to stay the proceedings in the district court or, in the alternative, to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Norge's theory was that the claim was preempted. The plaintiff argued that her claim was independent of any rights or remedies contained in the collective bargaining agreement.

The district court, relying on Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985), held that Lingle's retaliatory discharge claim was preempted by Sec. 301, because it was inextricably interwined with the collective bargaining agreement. The district court, conduding that her claim was a Sec. 301 claim, dismissed the case for failure to exhaust the grievance and arbitration procedures provided by the collective bargaining agreement. See Lingle v. Norge Division of Magic Chef, Inc., 618 F.Supp. 1448 (S.D.Ill.1985).

B.

The facts underlying Martin are somewhat in dispute. The plaintiff was an employee of the defendant Carling National Brewery, and was covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The collective bargaining agreement was negotiated between the Teamsters Local Union No. 50 and G. Heileman Brewing Company, and was effective from August 4, 1979, through November 27, 1983.

On June 26, 1983, the plaintiff was injured in Cellar No. 7 at the Carling National Brewery located in Belleville, Illinois. The injury occurred in the course of her employment. Thereafter, on June 28, 1983, the plaintiff was discharged. Martin alleges that she was discharged for expressing her intent to file a worker's compensation claim. Subsequently she did file such a claim. On June 30, 1983, a meeting was scheduled between the plaintiff and Charles Rhein, the industrial relations manager of the defendant G. Heileman Brewing Company, to discuss plaintiff's discharge. The plaintiff did not attend this meeting.

Article XVI of the collective bargaining agreement, the termination of seniority clause, provided that an employee could not be discharged or disciplined except for just cause. 3 Article XI contained mandatory arbitration and grievance procedures. Rather than follow these procedures, the plaintiff filed an eleven-count civil action on June 27, 1985, in the Circuit Court for St. Clair County, Illinois. In the first four counts she requested compensatory and punitive damages on the ground that she was discharged solely because she had stated her intention to exercise her rights under the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act. Count V was directed against an employee, John Snyder, for intentional interference with her employment contract with the G. Heileman Company. This count, like counts I through IV, made no reference to the collective bargaining agreement, but rather alleged that a contractual relationship beyond the collective bargaining agreement existed between plaintiff and the G. Heileman Company.

Counts VI and VII of the complaint were directed against defendant Rhein for negligently and willfully failing to correctly implement discharge procedures. Counts VIII and IX were against Carling National Brewery and the G. Heileman Company, respectively, alleging the same theory of liability as counts VI and VII on the ground that the two companies were responsible for the actions of their agent Rhein. Counts X and XI contained the same allegations as counts VIII and IX, but requested punitive damages. Counts VI through XI made no reference to the collective bargaining agreement.

On August 14, 1985, the defendants removed the case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, alleging that the plaintiff's claim was based upon Sec. 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a) (1982). Removal was asserted under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1441, on the basis that the district court had original jurisdiction pursuant to 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a).

Plaintiff filed a motion to remand pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1445(c), which provides that:

A civil action in any State court arising under the workmen's compensation laws of such State may not be removed to any district court of the United States.

Martin argued that none of the counts in her complaint were removable, or in the alternative, that counts I through IV should be severed and remanded as required by Sec. 1445(c).

On January 21, 1986, the district court denied the plaintiff's motion to remand. Relying on his prior decision in Lingle v. Norge Division of Magic Chef, Inc., 618 F.Supp. 1448 (S.D.Ill.1985), Judge Foreman found that all eleven counts were preempted by Sec. 301, because they were "inextricably intertwined with considerations of the terms of [the] collective bargaining agreement and its provisions which provide for termination only upon just cause." Martin v. Carling National Breweries, Inc., No. 85-3321 (S.D.Ill. Jan. 21, 1986) (order denying remand). On April 11, 1986, the district court dismissed the plaintiff's lawsuit because of, inter alia, the plaintiff's failure to exhaust the grievance and arbitration machinery provided by the collective bargaining agreement.

II.

On these appeals we must decide whether the plaintiffs' claims were removable, and if so, whether they were preempted by Sec. 301. In order to determine removability we must examine, as a matter of federal law, the nature of the plaintiffs' claims. We briefly discuss the development of the tort of retaliatory discharge in Illinois to aid our determination of whether federal law encompasses the plaintiffs' claims.

The Supreme Court of Illinois first announced the tort of retaliatory discharge in Kelsay v. Motorola, Inc., 74 Ill.2d 172, 23 Ill.Dec. 559, 384 N.E.2d 353 (1978). The Illinois court established this cause of action, which it labeled as a "tort," 23 Ill.Dec. at 564, 384 N.E.2d at 358, for those workers who were fired because they filed worker's compensation claims. The court limited the application of its decision to at-will employees who, the court felt, were otherwise subject to an employer's absolute power to terminate. Id., 73 Ill.Dec. at 563, 384 N.E.2d at 357. The court stated that the purpose of this tort was to uphold and implement the public policy of the Workers' Compensation Act of Illinois, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 48, paragraphs 138.1-138.30 (1986). 4 Kelsay, 23 Ill.Dec. at 563, 384 N.E.2d at 357. The court did not, however, characterize this new cause of action as an addition to the worker's compensation laws.

"The dual emphasis in Kelsay upon the public policy underlying the Workers' Compensation Act, and the plight of the at will employee created uncertainty about the scope of the retaliatory discharge tort." Comment, Retaliatory Discharge--Illinois' Extension of Retaliatory Discharge Tort Actions to Employment Relationships Governed...

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