Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (Patco), In re

• Decision Date: 21 January 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-1445,82-1445
• Parties: In re PROFESSIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ORGANIZATION (PATCO). AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, Appellant, v. PROFESSIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ORGANIZATION (PATCO), et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 539

699 F.2d 539

226 U.S.App.D.C. 1

In re PROFESSIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ORGANIZATION (PATCO) AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, Appellant, v. PROFESSIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ORGANIZATION (PATCO), et al.

No. 82-1445.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Dec. 6, 1982.

Decided Jan. 21, 1983.

Mitchell J. Notis and James R. Rosa, Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for appellee, John Dwyer.

Robert O. Tyler, Washington, D.C., entered an appearance for appellee, Tyler, Trustee in Bankruptcy.

Allen R. Snyder, Washington, D.C., with whom George U. Carneal, Howard R. Moskof, and David A. Kikel, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for appellant.

Richard J. Leighton, Washington, D.C., for appellee, Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization.

Angelo V. Arcadipane, Washington, D.C., for appellees, Dist. No. 1--Pacific Coast Dist., et al.

Before GINSBURG and SCALIA, Circuit Judges, and McGOWAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge GINSBURG.

GINSBURG, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from an order of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia vacating the registration of three civil contempt judgments and quashing writs of attachment issued pursuant to the registration. 18 B.R. 894. The case involves the federal judgment registration statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1963, and presents a timing question: When does a judgment for the recovery of money entered in one federal district court become registrable in other federal district courts?

The judgments in question, totaling $4.5 million, were rendered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. They run in favor of the appellant here, Air Transport Association of America (ATA) and against appellee Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO). ATA is a trade association representing the nation's major scheduled air carriers; PATCO is the labor organization that represented air traffic controllers formerly employed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Most of PATCO's assets are located in the District of Columbia.

ATA registered the Eastern District of New York judgments, by filing certified copies with the clerk, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The registration occurred one day after entry of the last of the three judgments. Thereafter, ATA moved for execution of District of Columbia writs of attachment it had secured and delivered to the United States Marshal the day it registered the Eastern District of New York judgments. PATCO moved to vacate the registration as premature, citing the timely notice of appeal to the Second Circuit PATCO had filed from the Eastern District of New York judgments. While these cross-motions were pending, PATCO became a bankrupt. ¹ ATA thereupon removed the proceeding from the district court for the District of Columbia to the Bankruptcy Court. Bankr.D.C.R. X-1004.

The bankruptcy judge, ruling in favor of PATCO, held that under the federal judgment registration statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1963, registration must await expiration of the time for appeal or, if a timely notice of appeal is filed, final disposition of the appeal. As an additional holding, the bankruptcy judge declared the registration ineffective because it antedated expiration of the automatic ten-day stay of judgment specified in Rule 62(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. ² At stake for ATA in this appeal from the bankruptcy judge's decision is the position it will occupy in the line of PATCO's creditors. If the registration is effective, ATA will have the status of a secured judgment creditor. If it is ineffective, ATA will stand with several others as a general unsecured creditor. ³

For the reasons stated below, we conclude that the bankruptcy judge correctly read 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1963 to preclude registration of the Eastern District of New York judgments in other federal district courts until final disposition of PATCO's appeal to the Second Circuit. On that ground, and pretermitting the Rule 62(a) question, ⁴ we affirm the order vacating the registration and quashing the writs of attachment.

BACKGROUND

In 1970, in response to an ATA suit brought to stop a "sick-out" by air traffic controllers, the District Court for the Eastern District of New York permanently enjoined PATCO from engaging in strikes and ordered PATCO to pay ATA $25,000 per day should it violate the injunction. ATA v. PATCO, partially reported, 313 F.Supp. 181 (E.D.N.Y.), reversed in part sub nom. United States v. PATCO, 438 F.2d 79 (2d Cir.1970), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 915, 91 S.Ct. 1373, 28 L.Ed.2d 661 (1971). On August 3, 1981, PATCO called on its members to strike. ⁵ That same day the District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued an order to PATCO to show cause why it was not in violation of the 1970 permanent injunction.

On August 4, 1981, the District Court for the Eastern District of New York held PATCO in contempt for engaging in a strike on August 3 in violation of the 1970 injunction and ordered PATCO to pay ATA $25,000. The court further ordered PATCO to pay ATA $100,000 for each hour the strike continued, until PATCO's president could certify that the PATCO Executive Board had formally ordered termination of the strike. Follow-up contempt judgments were entered on August 5 and 6, 1981, as the strike continued.

The Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York certified the three contempt judgments on August 6. The monetary awards to ATA against PATCO for contempt of the 1970 anti-strike injunction then totaled $4.5 million: $100,000 for the August 3, 4, 5, and 6 violations of the 1970 permanent injunction at $25,000 per day; and $4.4 million for the $100,000 per hour toll imposed on August 4. ⁶

On August 7, 1981, ATA registered the August 4, 5, and 6 Eastern District of New York civil contempt judgments in the District Court for the District of Columbia, and obtained writs of attachment against described assets alleged to belong to PATCO. ⁷ As specified by 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1963, ATA simply filed the certified judgments in the District Court for the District of Columbia. No judge participated in the registration or attachment authorization. On the same day, August 7, the District Court for the Eastern District of New York ceased the imposition of civil contempt fines because the PATCO Executive Board could no longer terminate the strike; the Board's power to do so had been overtaken by the government's firing of all striking air traffic controllers, pursuant to presidential command. See United States v. PATCO, 524 F.Supp. 160, 164 (D.D.C.1981) ("When an employer has terminated employees and has stated that it will not permit them to return to work, there is, by definition, no longer a strike, for under such circumstances the employees cannot return to work, even if they are of a mind to do so.").

On August 21, 1981, PATCO, without posting a supersedeas bond or otherwise attempting to stay the execution of the civil contempt judgments, filed a timely notice of appeal to the Second Circuit from the August 4, 5, and 6 Eastern District of New York adjudications. ATA, on September 11, 1981, moved to execute the Eastern District of New York judgments in the District of Columbia; PATCO, on September 15, 1981, moved to vacate ATA's registration of those judgments as premature because of the pending appeal to the Second Circuit. On November 25, 1981, over ninety days after ATA registered its three civil contempt money judgments, ⁸ PATCO filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. ⁹ Less than four weeks later, on December 18, 1981, the Second Circuit affirmed the Eastern District of New York's contempt judgments. ATA v. PATCO, 667 F.2d 316 (2d Cir.1981). The Second Circuit's mandate issued on January 28, 1982. ATA and PATCO filed cross-motions for summary judgment in the Bankruptcy Court ¹⁰ and on March 23, 1982, that court granted PATCO's motion to vacate ATA's registration. On April 14, 1982, the parties agreed to a direct appeal to this court. See Act of November 6, 1978, Pub.L. No. 95-598, Sec. 405(c)(1)(B), 92 Stat. 2549, 2685 (1978) (currently reported in note preceding 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1471).

DECISION

The federal judgment registration statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1963, provides in relevant part:

A judgment in an action for the recovery of money or property now or hereafter entered in any district court which has become final by appeal or expiration of time for appeal may be registered in any other district by filing therein a certified copy of such judgment. A judgment so registered shall have the same effect as a judgment of the district court of the district where registered and may be enforced in like manner.

As earlier stated, ATA registered the three Eastern District of New York civil contempt money judgments in the District Court for the District of Columbia on August 7, 1981, one day after the last of the three judgments was entered, and some four weeks before expiration of the time for noticing an appeal from the judgments. ¹¹ PATCO in fact filed a timely notice of appeal on August 21, 1981, and the Second Circuit decided that appeal, in ATA's favor, on December 18, 1981. The Second Circuit's mandate issued on January 28, 1982. According the words "final by appeal" their "ordinary, usual, and natural interpretation," ¹² therefore, ATA's Eastern District of New York judgments did not become registrable "in any other district" until January 28, 1982, the date of the Second Circuit's mandate. ¹³

ATA emphasizes, however, that its contempt judgments became enforceable in the rendering forum, the Eastern District of New York, instantly. ¹⁴ Under Rule 62(d), (g) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, enforcement in the Eastern District pending appeal to the Second Circuit could have been blocked only by filing a...