Miller v. AT & T Network Systems

• Citation: 850 F.2d 543
• Decision Date: 24 August 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-4074,86-4074
• Parties: 128 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2987, 129 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2220, 54 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1734, 46 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,076, 57 USLW 2021, 109 Lab.Cas. P 10,582, 3 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1248, 3 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 966 Daryl A. MILLER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. AT & T NETWORK SYSTEMS, an AT & T Technologies, Inc. Group, Defendants- Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Page 543

850 F.2d 543

128 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2987, 129 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2220,

54 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1734,

46 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,076, 57 USLW 2021,

109 Lab.Cas. P 10,582,

3 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1248,

3 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 966

Daryl A. MILLER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. AT & T NETWORK SYSTEMS, an AT & T Technologies, Inc. Group,

Defendants- Appellees.

No. 86-4074.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted March 7, 1988.

Decided June 24, 1988.

As Amended on Denial of Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Aug. 24, 1988.

James M. Brown, Enfield, Guimond & Brown, Salem, Or., and Michael J. Tedesco, Tedesco & Wilson, Portland, Or., for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard N. Van Cleave, Michael J. Brown, and Raymond A. Ledogar, Spears, Lubersky, Campbell, Bledsoe, Anderson & Young, Portland, Or., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.

Before GOODWIN, NELSON and LEAVY, Circuit Judges.

ORDER

The opinion filed June 7, 1988 is hereby VACATED.

OPINION

NELSON, Circuit Judge:

Daryl Miller worked as an installer for AT & T for more than twenty years. His working conditions were governed by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which included provisions concerning work assignments, transfers, and discharges. It also contained an exclusive grievance procedure that included binding arbitration.

Because heat affects Miller's heart rate, sometimes causing him to faint at temperatures above ninety degrees, AT & T had always assigned him to work in cool climates. In May 1985, however, AT & T assigned Miller to work for thirteen weeks in Mesa, Arizona, where temperatures often exceed ninety degrees. As a result, Miller lost consciousness while working. When Miller refused to return to Mesa, AT & T fired him. Miller was willing to continue working elsewhere if temperatures were lower.

Miller sued AT & T in Oregon state court, alleging discrimination based on physical handicap, in violation of Oregon Revised Statutes sections 659.121, 659.405, and 659.425. He also alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress. AT & T removed the action to federal court based both on diversity and on the existence of a federal question under section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). AT & T obtained summary judgment by arguing that federal labor laws preempted Miller's state-law claims. We reverse dismissal of the discrimination claim because it is based on a nonnegotiable, independent state right. We affirm the grant of summary judgment on the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The district court's grant of summary judgment is reviewable de novo. Scott v. Machinists Automotive Trades Dist. Lodge No. 190, 827 F.2d 589, 591 (9th Cir.1987).

DISCUSSION

I. Section 301 Preemption of the Discrimination Claims

Section 301 of the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a), creates a federal cause of action for breach of collective bargaining agreements. Federal laws govern suits brought for breach of a collective bargaining agreement, even if brought in state court. Textile Workers Union v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 456, 77 S.Ct. 912, 917, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957). Applying federal law to these cases ensures a uniform interpretation of labor contract terms, a goal that the Supreme Court has described as particularly compelling. "The possibility that individual contract terms might have different meanings under state and federal law would inevitably exert a disruptive influence." Local 174, Teamsters Union v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U.S. 95, 103, 82 S.Ct. 571, 577, 7 L.Ed.2d 593 (1962). In order to preserve this uniformity, even suits based on torts, rather than on breach of collective bargaining agreements, are governed by federal law if their evaluation is "inextricably intertwined with consideration of the terms of [a] labor contract." Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 213, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 1912, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985). Section 301 preempts all state-law causes of action evaluation of which requires interpretation of a labor contract's terms. See, e.g., Allis-Chalmers, 471 U.S. at 214-20, 105 S.Ct. at 1912-15 (finding preempted a state tort based on the duty to act in good faith and deal fairly, because the meanings of "good faith" and "fair dealing" were derived from the particular labor contract); Lucas Flour, 369 U.S. at 104, 82 S.Ct. at 577 (finding preempted a state breach-of-contract suit based on the collective bargaining agreement).

Although its scope is substantial, section 301 does not preempt every suit concerning employment. If a court can uphold state rights without interpreting the terms of a CBA, allowing suit based on the state rights does not undermine the purpose of section 301 preemption: guaranteeing uniform interpretation of terms in collective bargaining agreements. Therefore, "nonnegotiable state-law rights ... independent of any right established by contract" are not preempted. Allis-Chalmers, 471 U.S. at 213, 105 S.Ct. at 1912. A contrary rule would permit unions and employers to exempt themselves from state labor standards. Congress never intended "to preempt state rules that proscribe conduct, or establish rights and obligations, independent of a labor contract." Id. at 212, 105 S.Ct. at 1912; see, e.g., Paige v. Henry J. Kaiser Co., 826 F.2d 857, 863 (9th Cir.1987) (holding that a wrongful discharge claim based on violation of a state public policy is not preempted, because it is a nonnegotiable independent state-law right), cert. denied, June 13, 1988.

In this case, plaintiff seeks to pursue state-law claims that he contends rest on independent, nonnegotiable state-law rights. Defendants argue that these are rights evaluation of which is inextricably intertwined with the terms of a labor contract. This dispute requires interpretation of the discussion of "nonnegotiable, independent state-law right" in Allis-Chalmers. The concept "nonnegotiable" is clear. A right is nonnegotiable if the state law does not permit it to be waived, alienated, or altered by private agreement.

The concept "independent of any right established by the contract," however, causes some difficulty. In particular, the parties disagree about the significance of overlap between the particular labor contract and the state law. Defendants contend that the state statute is preempted because the CBA contains provisions that offer relief similar to that available in the state court. We disagree. Both Supreme Court precedent and the policies underlying section 301 preemption directly rebut this position.

A. The Meaning of "Independent State-Law Rights"

The Supreme Court's definition of "independent rights" makes clear that we cannot accept defendants' claim that parallel protection in collective bargaining agreements mandates preemption. Independent rights are those state-law rights that can be enforced without any need to rely on the particular terms, explicit or implied, contained in the labor agreement. In Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 2425, 2431, 96 L.Ed.2d 318 (1987), the Supreme Court found not preempted a suit for breach of an individual employment contract established independently of plaintiffs' collective bargaining agreement. The Court found the state-law contract rights independent even though the collective bargaining agreement provided similar substantial rights on the basis of which plaintiffs might have sued. Mere similarity between state-law protections and contractual provisions did not require preemption. See also Paige, 826 F.2d at 863 (stating that mere incorporation of state-law torts into a collective bargaining agreement does not preempt the state-law tort under section 301).

Rather, preemption in the Supreme Court requires that the dispute could be resolved under the CBA, and that the state law did not establish a criterion for deciding the case that permits application of state law without reference to the terms of the CBA. In Allis-Chalmers, the Court noted that Wisconsin's tort of bad-faith dealing on disability claims overlapped with an implied duty of good-faith in the collective bargaining agreement. 471 U.S. at 216, 105 S.Ct. at 1913. However, the Court did not find the tort preempted based on this overlap. Rather, the Court explained that Wisconsin law did not articulate a mandatory, independent standard of bad faith. Because Wisconsin did not intend to prevent private parties from establishing contractual definitions for reasonable performance of this duty, it permitted contractual modification of the state-tort standard. Therefore, a court could not grant plaintiff relief unless the defendant's behavior fell below both the state standard and any contractual modification to that standard set out in the CBA. Such a finding, of course, would require interpretation of the terms of the CBA. This analysis provides a clear indication that mere similarity between a state law and the terms of a collective bargaining agreement will not preempt the state law. See also Franchise Tax Bd. v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 25 n. 28, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 2854 n. 28, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983) (stating that "a state battery suit growing out of a violent strike would not [be preempted by] section 301 simply because the strike may have been a violation of an employer-union contract").

The Supreme Court's interpretation of "independent rights" better serves the policy underlying section 301 preemption than would preempting every statute that offers similar protections to a collective bargaining agreement. Section 301 requires uniform interpretation of the terms of labor contracts because permitting multiple meanings for particular contract terms would disrupt collective bargaining. See Lucas Flour, 369 U.S. at 103, 82 S.Ct. at 576. The danger of varied interpretation of contract terms arises even if the state claim alleges a tort, rather than a breach of contract. See All...