Meredith v. Louisiana Federation of Teachers
| Decision Date | 11 April 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-30763,98-30763 |
| Citation | 209 F.3d 398 |
| Parties | (5th Cir. 2000) SALLY A. MEREDITH, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross Appellant, v. LOUISIANA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS; ET AL, Defendants, LOUISIANA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, Defendant-Appellant-Cross Appellee, ST. TAMMANY FEDERATION OF TEACHERS AND SCHOOL EMPLOYEES; THE CHICAGO INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendants-Appellants |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
Appeals from the United States District Court For the Eastern District of Louisiana
Before HIGGINBOTHAM and SMITH, Circuit Judges, and FALLON, District Judge.*
This labor and contract case presents several questions about the relationship between two unions and a union employee. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers ("Louisiana Federation") and St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and School Employees ("St. Tammany Federation") appeal from a jury verdict in favor of Sally Meredith. We REVERSE in part and REMAND so the district court may determine a question of jurisdiction.
Sally Meredith was employed as a field representative for Louisiana Federation from October 1984 to August 1991. While she was employed with Louisiana Federation, her union was United Professional Staff, which was composed solely of employees of the Louisiana Federation.
In August, 1991, Meredith took a leave of absence from her position with Louisiana Federation and worked for St. Tammany Federation as a collective bargaining representative. Her leave of absence was to last until December 31, 1991. She negotiated with Fred Skelton, President of Louisiana Federation, and Elsie Burkhalter, Vice President of Louisiana Federation and President of St. Tammany Federation, to extend her leave at St. Tammany Federation under the same terms of employment that she enjoyed at Louisiana Federation. She left Louisiana Federation to help St. Tammany Federation win a union election and remained to help negotiate contracts after the union won the election.
St. Tammany Federation terminated her employment on June 13, 1994. The collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff had a three-year term and provided that covered employees could be terminated for just cause only. The St. Tammany Federation, which represents teachers in St. Tammany Parish in collective bargaining with the St. Tammany Parish School Board, does not have a collective bargaining agreement with its staff.
On losing her position with St. Tammany Federation, Meredith attempted to obtain reinstatement to her former position or a comparable one with Louisiana Federation. Unsuccessful, she tried to invoke the grievance procedures under the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff. United Professional Staff did not respond. Louisiana Federation took the position that she no longer worked for them. Meredith also sought to appeal her termination to St. Tammany Federation, pointing to the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff. The St. Tammany Federation denied this request, asserting that that collective bargaining agreement afforded no rights to employees of St. Tammany Federation.
Meredith sued both unions, alleging breach of employment contract, violation of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) for failure to give her hearings regarding her termination by St. Tammany Federation and Louisiana Federation's refusal to reinstate her, and breach of the collective bargaining agreement by Louisiana Federation.
A jury awarded Meredith $20,000 in punitive damages for violation of the LMRDA, $98,936 for breach of employment contract by Louisiana Federation and St. Tammany Federation, $5,000 in pain, suffering and mental anguish damages for bad faith breach of contract by Louisiana Federation and St. Tammany Federation, and $1 against Louisiana Federation for breach of the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff. Finally, the court awarded Meredith attorney's fees. The court also found that the policy issued by Chicago Insurance Company, insurer for Louisiana Federation and St. Tammany Federation, covered the judgment.
The unions appeal the award, the insurance company disputes coverage, and Meredith cross-appeals the district court's refusal to instruct the jury on non-pecuniary damages for breach of contract under Louisiana law.
Although Meredith pursued the first two steps of the grievance procedures in the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff, she did not take the third step, seeking to compel arbitration. Louisiana Federation argues that the district court lacked jurisdiction over Meredith's claim for breach of collective bargaining agreement because she did not exhaust her administrative remedies by seeking to compel arbitration.
We review de novo the legal question of subject matter jurisdiction. 1 Federal courts lack jurisdiction to decide cases alleging violations of a collective bargaining agreement under the Labor Management Relations Act 2 by an employee against his employer unless the employee has exhausted contractual procedures for redress.3 That rule does not bar jurisdiction when the union has wrongfully refused to process the grievance.4 When an employer refuses to use the procedure set forth in the collective bargaining agreement, the employee need not seek to compel arbitration.5
In Rabalais v. Dresser Industries, 6 we held that an employee had not exhausted his contractual remedies by failing to seek arbitration. 7 The employer and union in Rabalais had examined the grievance in preceding levels of the contractual procedure and considered the grievance one not covered by the collective bargaining agreement.8
The district court decided that Louisiana Federation was estopped from raising the defense of non-exhaustion of remedies because it repudiated the contractual procedures when it claimed that Meredith was not covered by the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff. We agree. Unlike the employer in Rabalais, Louisiana Federation claimed that Meredith was not covered by the collective bargaining agreement and did not consider her grievance.9 Under these circumstances, the district court properly determined that Louisiana Federation repudiated the contractual procedures.
A plaintiff must prove that the union breached its duty of fair representation to prevail in a suit against the employer for breach of a collective bargaining agreement.10 Louisiana Federation also argues the jury could not have found that United Professional Staff breached its duty of fair representation.11 Article VIII, Section C of the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff provides that members are entitled to a representative at each step in the grievance procedure. A union may not "arbitrarily ignore or give only perfunctory review to a grievance." 12 Since United Professional Staff ignored Meredith's grievance, a rational jury could find that United Professional Staff breached its duty of fair representation, as the jury found here.
Meredith claimed that she had identical contracts with Louisiana Federation and St. Tammany Federation: the former was the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff and the latter an individually negotiated contract incorporating identical terms. 13 She alleged that Louisiana Federation breached by failing to reinstate her employment and failing to process her grievance and that St. Tammany Federation breached by firing her without just cause. Just cause is required for termination under the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff.
Under Louisiana law, employment is at-will unless it is for a definite term. 14 When an employee is hired for a "certain time" and is terminated "without any serious cause," the employer is liable to the employee for the amount of salary due under the contract. 15 An oral contract for more than five hundred dollars may be proved by the testimony of "one witness and other corroborating circumstances."16 The requirement of "one witness" may be met by the plaintiff's own testimony, and the corroborating evidence may be the fact that the plaintiff left a secure position to work for the new employer.17
We are persuaded that the jury's finding of a contract is supported by substantial evidence.18 Meredith testified that she told Burkhalter that she demanded the same terms and "rights" that she had under the collective bargaining agreement between Louisiana Federation and United Professional Staff. She argues that this included the same three-year duration of employment and the same protection allowing termination only for cause on 30 days' notice. In addition, she left a secure position to work for St. Tammany Federation.
The unions argue that Meredith's state law breach of contract claims are preempted by 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act 19 (LMRA), which provides a cause of action for breach of a collective bargaining agreement. Preemption is a question of law, which we review de novo. 20 The unions argue that the state law claim is preempted because it depends on the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. When evaluation of a state law claim is "inextricably intertwined with consideration of the terms of [a] labor contract," the state law claim is preempted by federal labor contract law. 21 A state law contract claim is preempted by the LMRA when the resolution of the dispute requires the interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement.22
Meredith cannot base a claim for breach of employment contract under Louisiana law for breach of...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Murphy v. United Parcel Serv., Inc.
...by an employee against his employer unless the employee has exhausted contractual procedures for redress.’ Meredith v. La. Fed'n of Teachers , 209 F.3d 398, 402 (5th Cir. 2000)"). Although the Seventh Circuit does not appear to have addressed the question directly, it did consider the merit......
-
Adams v. Am. Fed'n of State, Cnty. & Mun. Emps. Int'l
...private sector employers on behalf of its members concerning the terms and conditions of employment”); see Meredith v. Louisiana Fed'n of Teachers , 209 F.3d 398, 405 (5th Cir.2000) (“If a union or any of its locals bargain with private sector employees, the union is governed by the LMRDA.”......
-
CleanCOALition v. TXU POWER
...in this case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, a decision of a legal question we review de novo. Meredith v. La. Fed'n of Teachers, 209 F.3d 398, 402 (5th Cir.2000). "A case is properly dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when the court lacks the statutory or constituti......
-
Nat'l Football League Players Ass'n ex rel. Elliott v. Nat'l Football League
...by an employee against his employer unless the employee has exhausted contractual procedures for redress." Meredith v. La. Fed'n of Teachers , 209 F.3d 398, 402 (5th Cir. 2000). The NFLPA argues, following the Supreme Court's decision in Arbaugh v. Y&H Corp. , 546 U.S. 500, 510–11, 126 S.Ct......