Reich v. Local 89, Laborers' Intern. Union of North America, AFL-CIO, AFL-CI

Citation36 F.3d 1470
Decision Date03 October 1994
Docket NumberNo. 92-55762,D,AFL-CI,92-55762
Parties147 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2462, 129 Lab.Cas. P 11,192 Robert REICH, Secretary of Labor; United States Department of Labor, * Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. LOCAL 89, LABORERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA,efendant-Appellant.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Theodore T. Green, Washington, DC, Ray Van der Nat, Los Angeles, CA, Laurence E. Gold, Connerton Ray & Simon, Washington, DC, for defendant-appellant.

Michael E. Quinton, Asst. U.S. Atty., San Diego, CA, Daniel Teehan, Regional Sol., San Francisco, CA, James McQuade, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, DC, for plaintiffs-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

Before: FLETCHER and D.W. NELSON, Circuit Judges, and WILL, ** Senior District Judge.

WILL, Senior District Judge:

Lynn Martin, the then Secretary of Labor ("Secretary"), sued Local 89, Laborers' International We affirm the district court's order granting summary judgment and ordering a new election for the offices in question.

Union of North America ("Local 89") pursuant to section 402(b) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 ("LMRDA"), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 482(b). Pursuant to LMRDA Sec. 401(e), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 481(e), the Secretary challenged Local 89's June 1990 election of six of its officers, contending that Local 89 had failed to allow the nomination of certain members in good standing when nominations were reopened after previous nominees had been disqualified. The Secretary alleged that this violation affected the outcome of the election and sought a judgment declaring the election void. Local 89 filed a motion for summary judgment, which the district court denied. Subsequently, the Secretary filed a motion for summary judgment. The parties agreed that there were no genuine issues of material fact and that the case presented issues of law which the district court could decide on the basis of the record before it. The district court granted the Secretary's motion, ordered a new election for the offices of Recording Secretary, Executive Board Member, and Delegate under the supervision of the Secretary and further ruled that the Secretary did not have to defer to the renomination provisions set forth in Local 89's amended constitution. Local 89 appeals the district court's order.

BACKGROUND

In April 1990, prior to its local triennial election, Local 89 held a special meeting to nominate candidates for the election, in accordance with Article VI, Section 1 of the Laborers' Uniform Local Union Constitution. This special nomination meeting is the principal, and sometimes only, opportunity to nominate candidates for local union office. There was no limit on the number of nominations for any office at this meeting. Nominations for each office were closed when no further nominations for that office were made.

Nominations were made for President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Secretary-Treasurer/Delegate, Business Manager/Delegate, Sergeant-at-Arms, three auditors, two Executive Board Members and three Delegates to the Laborers' District Council. Robert Ross, a member of Local 89, did not attend this meeting and was not nominated for any office at the meeting. Despite his absence, Ross could have been nominated at that meeting had he been "excused for just cause by a vote of the membership." Ross, however, had not asked to be excused.

After the April meeting, Local 89's Judges of Election examined the qualifications of the nominees to determine if they were eligible to hold office. If the Judges had found all the nominated candidates qualified, no further nominations would have been permitted and only those nominees' names would have appeared on the election ballot. However, the Judges determined that six of the candidates for three offices were not qualified because they did not meet the constitutional requirements for eligibility. The disqualified candidates included one candidate for Recording Secretary, two of the four candidates for Executive Board Member, and three of the six candidates for Delegate to the District Council.

At the next regular membership meeting, held on May 18, 1990, union members were allowed to nominate new candidates to replace the disqualified candidates pursuant to Article VI, section 2(f) of the Laborers' Local Constitution. At that time, Article VI, section 2(f) stated:

If the Judges of Election have disqualified any candidate, the Chairman of the meeting shall then call for further nomination for each office or position where disqualification occurs. If any such nominations are made, the Judges of Election shall immediately examine the new nominees and report on same at said meeting.

The International Union and its affiliates, including Local 89, have consistently interpreted this provision to limit the number of further nominations to the number of individuals disqualified for the particular office.

The incumbent president and candidate for re-election chaired the second meeting. He recognized only three union members and only those three members were allowed to nominate candidates for the six positions. At When the number of additional nominations equal to the number of disqualifications was reached for each of the offices, the chairman closed the nominations, even though several other members still had their hands raised in order to nominate additional candidates. Several of these members wanted to nominate Ross. The election was held in June 1990. All of the candidates nominated at the first nomination meeting and found qualified by the Judges of Election and none nominated at the second meeting were elected.

that meeting, Joseph Hyatt nominated James McNelly to the position of Recording Secretary, Gerry Spredute nominated Joseph Hyatt and Henry Norbrok to the Executive Board, and Richard Scannel, already an incumbent candidate for both the Executive Board and delegate positions, nominated Joseph Hyatt, Henry Norbrok and James McNelly to the delegate positions. As a result, only three individuals were nominated to replace the six who had been disqualified.

Ross filed an internal union protest against the nominations at the second meeting. The General Executive Board conducted a hearing on his protest, which it denied, finding that Local 89 properly limited the further nominations to the number of candidates who had been disqualified, even though six candidates were disqualified and only three individuals were nominated to the six vacancies, none of whom was elected.

The Secretary filed this lawsuit on December 20, 1990. At its September 1991 convention, the Laborers' International Union amended Article VI, section 2(f) of the Local Constitution. Article VI, section 2(f) now reads as follows:

If the Judges of Election have disqualified any candidate, the Chairman of the meeting shall then call for further nominations if, but only if, the disqualification results in there being no candidate for that office or, in the case of Executive Board Members, in there being fewer candidates than there are positions to be elected, but limited to the number of those disqualified for that office. If this renomination process is declared unlawful, this subsection (f) will be rendered null and void and deleted from this Constitution entirely. If any such nominations are made, the Judges of Election shall immediately examine the new nominees and report on same at said meeting.

DISCUSSION

Our review of a district court's grant of summary judgment is de novo. Saul v. United States, 928 F.2d 829, 832 (9th Cir.1991). Because there were no genuine issues of material fact presented to the district court, we need only decide whether the substantive law was properly applied. United Food and Commercial Workers and Employers Arizona Health and Welfare Trust v. Pacyga, 801 F.2d 1157, 1159 (9th Cir.1986). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291.

The "special function" of Title IV, of which Sec. 401 is a part, "is to insure 'free and democratic' elections." Wirtz v. Hotel, Motel & Club Employees Union, Local 6, 391 U.S. 492, 496, 88 S.Ct. 1743, 1746, 20 L.Ed.2d 763 (1968), quoting Wirtz v. Local 153, Glass Bottle Blowers Ass'n, 389 U.S. 463, 470, 88 S.Ct. 643, 647, 19 L.Ed.2d 705 (1968). The goal is "to protect the rights of rank-and-file members to participate fully in the operation of their union through processes of democratic self-government, and, through the election process, to keep the union leadership responsive to the membership.... Title IV, and particularly Sec. 401, was the vehicle by which Congress expressed its policy." Hotel Employees Union, Local 6, 391 U.S. at 497-98, 88 S.Ct. at 1747. This goal is to be balanced against a "long-standing policy against unnecessary governmental intrusions into internal union affairs." Id. at 496, 88 S.Ct. at 1746.

A congressional compromise allows unions the freedom to run their own elections so long as those elections conform to the democratic principles written into Sec. 401. See id. at 496-97, 88 S.Ct. at 1746-47. Thus, "although Congress emphatically gave unions the primary responsibility for enforcing compliance with the Act, Congress also settled enforcement authority on the Secretary of Labor to insure that serious violations would not go unremedied and the public interest go In order to prevail in an enforcement action under Sec. 401, the Secretary must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a violation of that section occurred and that the violation may have affected the outcome of the election. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 482(c). If a violation which may have affected the election's outcome is found, the district court is to declare the election void and order a new election under the supervision of the Secretary. Id. A district court order directing a new election "shall be appealable in the same manner as the final...

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