McLaughlin v. Mosher Steel Co., Div. of Trinity Industries, Inc.
| Decision Date | 11 July 1989 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 87-3566,87-3864,88-7152 and 88-7502,87-3835,s. 87-3566 |
| Parties | 14 O.S.H. Cas.(BNA) 1081, 1989 O.S.H.D. (CCH) P 28,605 In the Matter of Application to Adjudge TRINITY INDUSTRIES, INC. In Civil Contempt. (Two Cases) UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. TRINITY INDUSTRIES, INC., Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. TRINITY INDUSTRIES, INC., Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee. Ann MCLAUGHLIN, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MOSHER STEEL COMPANY, DIVISION OF TRINITY INDUSTRIES, INC., and Roger Love, Plant Manager, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Robert E. Rader, Jr. and Frederick W. Addison, Rader, Addison & Story, P.C., Dallas, Tex., Peter Reed Corbin, Corbin & Dickinson, Jacksonville, Fla., and John J. Coleman, Jr., Bradley, Arant, Rose & White, Birmingham, Ala., for defendants-appellants.
Dorthea Beane, Asst. U.S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., Michael F. Hagan, Office of the Sol., U.S. Dept. of Labor, Atlanta, Ga., John Shortall, Office of the Sol., U.S. Dept. of Labor, and Ann Rosenthal, Appellate Litigation, Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs-appellees.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Before KRAVITCH and COX, Circuit Judges, and MORGAN, Senior Circuit Judge.
These consolidated cases are on appeal from final orders of district courts for the Northern District of Alabama and the Middle District of Florida finding Mosher Steel Company (Mosher) and Trinity Industries, Inc. (Trinity) in contempt of court for failure to honor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection warrants. Concluding that the district courts did not abuse their discretion in holding Mosher and Trinity in contempt, we affirm in part and reverse in part.
In 1983, two federal magistrates issued the Secretary of Labor (Secretary) two separate warrants, one authorizing a health and safety inspection of Trinity's Jacksonville, Florida plant, which manufactures propane gas cylinders, and the other, a safety inspection of Mosher's Birmingham, Alabama plant, which manufactures fabricated structural steel, for possible violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 651-78 (1982) (the OSH Act). The warrants were not based on specific complaints; instead, they were issued pursuant to OSHA plans of programmed inspections.
Trinity and Mosher refused to permit the inspections. Thereafter, the Secretary petitioned the district courts for the Middle District of Florida and the Northern District of Alabama, respectively, to hold Trinity and Mosher in civil contempt for failure to honor the warrants. In the contempt proceedings, Trinity and Mosher filed answers contesting the validity of the warrants, and counterclaims for declaratory judgments alleging that the warrants were invalid because the Secretary had not established probable cause and because OSHA's administrative plans for scheduling programmed inspections were invalid. Trinity and Mosher each sought a subpoena duces tecum to order production of certain OSHA documents relating to the plan. The Secretary moved to quash the subpoenas and asked the district courts for protective orders, arguing that Trinity and Mosher could not engage in discovery beyond the "four corners" of the warrant applications. Trinity and Mosher responded with motions to compel discovery under Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a).
The district court for the Northern District of Alabama decided in Mosher's favor, ordering discovery and thereafter denying the Secretary's motions to stay discovery and dismiss Mosher's counterclaim. The Secretary refused to comply with the discovery order and asked the district court to certify the discovery and warrant issues for interlocutory appeal. The district court granted the request, but this Court denied the Secretary's petition. Thereafter, the district court again ordered the Secretary to comply with its discovery order and, once again, the Secretary refused to do so. Subsequently, the court imposed discovery sanctions against the Secretary, dismissing the contempt action with prejudice, entering judgment by default on Mosher's counterclaim, quashing the inspection warrant, enjoining further inspection of Mosher pursuant to OSHA's administrative plan, and awarding attorneys' fees to Mosher. The Secretary appealed.
On appeal, this Court held that the district court abused its discretion in ordering discovery and, therefore, vacated the court's order imposing sanctions and remanded the case for a decision on the merits of the Secretary's contempt complaint and Mosher's motion to quash the inspection warrant. Donovan v. Mosher Steel Co., 791 F.2d 1535, 1536 (11th Cir.1986). Additionally, this Court instructed the district court to dismiss Mosher's counterclaim, rejecting the argument that OSHA's inspection plan underlying the warrant "is somehow separable from the warrant application and may be independently attacked in a proceeding to enforce the warrant." Id. at 1537.
On remand, cross-motions for summary judgment were filed by the parties. The district court determined, based on the information contained in the warrant application, that there was probable cause for the issuance of the warrant and, accordingly, held Mosher in civil contempt for failure to honor the warrant. The court ordered Mosher to comply with the warrant and imposed a $1,000 per day fine--to commence ten days thence--for each day Mosher refused to permit the inspection. On the ninth day following the date of the court's order, Mosher filed a motion for stay of judgment pending appeal. On the tenth day following the order--the day on which Mosher became obligated to pay the $1,000 per day fine--the motion for stay was denied. Thereafter, Mosher permitted the inspection and appealed (No. 88-7152).
Subsequent to Mosher's appeal, the Secretary filed a motion to amend the district court's judgment to include an award of costs and attorneys' fees. The court summarily denied that motion, and the Secretary appealed (No. 88-7502).
Pursuant to Trinity's motion to compel, the district court for the Middle District of Florida ordered discovery relative to OSHA's inspection plan. Thereafter, the Secretary filed a motion to stay discovery pending this Court's decision in Donovan, which motion was granted.
Following Donovan and on cross motions, the district court granted the Secretary summary judgment, holding Trinity in civil contempt for dishonoring the Secretary's inspection warrant. Trinity was ordered to permit the inspection and pay the Secretary's litigation costs. The court retained jurisdiction to determine the propriety of awarding attorneys' fees to the Secretary. Trinity appealed (No. 87-3566).
Pursuant to its reservation of jurisdiction over the issue and following Trinity's appeal of the summary judgment order, the district court granted a partial award of attorneys' fees to the Secretary. 674 F.Supp. 337. Both parties appealed (No. 87-3835).
Subsequent to the district court's first two orders, the Secretary again tried to inspect Trinity's facilities. Trinity refused to cooperate. The Secretary again initiated civil contempt proceedings against Trinity. Holding Trinity in contempt, the district court ordered Trinity to permit the inspection and imposed a $10,000 per day fine for each day that Trinity refused to do so. Trinity delayed the inspection for one day, incurred a $10,000 fine, and appealed the district court's order (No. 87-3864).
Four major issues are presented on appeal. First, both Mosher and Trinity contend that because OSHA did not establish probable cause for issuing the OSHA inspection warrants, the district courts abused their discretion in holding them in civil contempt for failing to honor the warrants. Second, Trinity asserts that the district court abused its discretion in imposing sanctions against it after adjudging Trinity in contempt for failing to honor the inspection warrant. Third, with respect to the Trinity litigation, the Secretary maintains that the district court abused its discretion in excluding from its attorneys' fees award certain costs it incurred in connection with the litigation. Finally, with regard to the Mosher litigation, the Secretary contends that the district court abused its discretion in denying the Secretary's application for attorneys' fees. These issues are discussed seriatim.
As noted, the district courts held Mosher and Trinity in civil contempt for failing to honor the OSHA inspection warrants. On appeal, Mosher and Trinity challenge the orders as improper, asserting that the warrants, since not based on probable cause, should have been quashed. More specifically, they contend that the warrant applications in question did not contain sufficient information from which the magistrates could make a probable cause determination. In contrast, the Secretary contends that sufficient information was contained in the applications from which the magistrates could make a probable cause determination, that there was probable cause to support issuance of the warrants, and that Mosher and Trinity properly were held in contempt for their contumacious refusal to honor the warrants. We must review the district courts' civil contempt determinations for an abuse of discretion. Afro-American Patrolmen's League v. City of Atlanta, 817 F.2d 719, 723 (11th Cir.1987) (citing In re Newton, 718 F.2d 1015 (11th Cir.1983)).
To determine whether the district courts abused their discretion in holding Mosher and Trinity in civil contempt, we initially must consider whether the federal magistrates acted on probable cause in issuing the warrants...
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