Robbins v. Iowa Road Builders Co.
| Decision Date | 07 December 1987 |
| Docket Number | 86-1399,Nos. 86-1347,s. 86-1347 |
| Parties | , 108 Lab.Cas. P 10,246, 9 Employee Benefits Ca 1640 Loran W. ROBBINS; Marion M. Winstead; Harold J. Yates; Earl L. Jennings, Jr.; Howard McDougall; Robert J. Baker; Thomas F. O'Malley; and R.V. Pulliam, Sr.; Trustees of the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund, and Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Health and Welfare Fund, Appellants, v. IOWA ROAD BUILDERS COMPANY, Appellee. Loran W. ROBBINS; Marion M. Winstead; Harold J. Yates; Earl L. Jennings, Jr.; Howard McDougall; Robert J. Baker; Thomas F. O'Malley; R.V. Pulliam, Sr.; Trustees of the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund and Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Health and Welfare Fund, Appellants, v. EASTER ENTERPRISES, INC., d/b/a Ace Lines, Inc., Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Russell Luplow and Diana L.S. Peters, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., for appellants.
John G. Black, Des Moines, Iowa, for appellee Easter Enterprises.
Thomas D. McMillen, Jr., Des Moines, Iowa for appellee Iowa Road Builders Co.
Before McMILLIAN and BOWMAN, Circuit Judges, and CONMY, * District Judge.
These cases have been consolidated for purposes of appeal. Appellants are the trustees of two large multiemployer employee benefit plans, the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund and the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Health and Welfare Fund (hereinafter collectively the funds), that operate as trusts for the purpose of providing certain health, welfare and pension benefits to employees covered by collective bargaining agreements negotiated between various employers and local Teamsters unions. The funds were established pursuant to Sec. 302(c)(5) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 186(c)(5), and are governed by the provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 et seq., as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1145.
Appellants appeal from two orders entered in the District Court for the Southern District of Iowa applying Iowa's two-year statute of limitations for actions under the Iowa wage payment collection law, Iowa Code Ann. Secs. 91A, 614.1(8) (West 1984 & Supp.1987). Robbins v. Easter Enterprises, Inc., 650 F.Supp. 199, 201 (S.D. Iowa 1985) (Easter Enterprises ); Robbins v. Iowa Road Builders Co., Civil No. 84-471-A, slip op. at 4 (S.D. Iowa Mar. 6, 1986) (Iowa Road Builders ). For reversal appellants argue the district court should have instead applied either Illinois's ten-year statute of limitations for actions for breach of written contracts, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 110, Sec. 13-206 (1985), pursuant to the choice of law provision in the trust agreements and conflicts of law analysis, or, alternatively, pursuant to the law of the forum state, Iowa's ten-year statute of limitations for actions for breach of written contracts, Iowa Code Ann. Sec. 614.1(5). For the reasons discussed below, we reverse and remand each case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Iowa Road Builders Co. (hereinafter IRB), an Iowa corporation engaged in the business of heavy construction, entered into a collective bargaining agreement with Teamsters Local 90 covering IRB employees at IRB's Ames plant, effective May 1979-April 1982. In 1981 IRB opened another plant in Des Moines; IRB and Local 90 entered into a separate collective bargaining agreement covering IRB's Des Moines employees, effective August 1981-July 1982, renewable every year. Each collective bargaining agreement required IRB to participate in the funds and to make monthly contributions to the funds at specified rates on behalf of its employees. The rate of contribution for IRB's Des Moines employees was higher than that for IRB's Ames employees. On August 1, 1981, IRB signed a "participation agreement" in which it agreed to be bound by the terms of the funds. In September 1981 IRB and Local 90 agreed that IRB's contributions for any Ames employees who were "temporarily" transferred to the Des Moines plant would be made at the lower rate for Ames employees.
Later appellants and IRB disagreed about the applicable rate of contributions to be made for certain IRB employees who worked at the Des Moines plant for several months during 1981. IRB treated these employees as only temporary transfers and thus argued that contributions to the funds for these employees were to be made at the lower Ames rate. Appellants, however, argued that these employees should have been treated as either permanent transfers or new hires, and therefore IRB should have made contributions to the funds for these employees at the higher Des Moines rate.
On June 22, 1984, appellants filed a complaint in federal district court against IRB pursuant to LMRA Sec. 301(a), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a), and ERISA Sec. 502, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1132 ( MPPAA Sec. 306, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1145), to recover the delinquent contributions. Appellants sought $4,667.00 in delinquent contributions to the pension fund, $1,652.50 in delinquent contributions to the health and welfare fund, plus interest, liquidated damages, and attorney's fees and costs. IRB moved for summary judgment, arguing that this dispute arose, and thus appellants' claim for delinquent contributions to the funds necessarily accrued, at some point before November 1981, when IRB ceased operations. Thus, IRB argued, because appellants' complaint was not filed until June 1984, more than two years later, it was barred by the two-year statute of limitations applicable to Iowa wage payment collection actions. The district court agreed with IRB's statute of limitations argument and granted summary judgment in favor of IRB. Iowa Road Builders, Civil No. 84-471-A, slip op. at 4. Appellants appealed.
Easter Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Ace Lines, Inc., an Iowa corporation engaged in the trucking business (hereinafter Ace Lines), entered into the following collective bargaining agreements with Teamsters Local 147: the 1976-1979 and 1979-1982 National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA), Central States Area Local Cartage Supplemental Agreement and the Central States Area Over-the-Road Supplemental Agreement. (Ace Lines also entered into similar collective bargaining agreements with Teamsters Local 544, which represented a small group of Ace Lines employees located in Minneapolis.) The supplemental agreements incorporated the trust agreements by reference and required Ace Lines to make monthly contributions on behalf of regular employees on the payroll for 30 days to the funds. Ace Lines also executed "participation agreements" in which it agreed to be bound by the terms of the trust funds.
Under the terms of the NMFA, subcontracting was prohibited except on an "overflow" basis. The NMFA also prohibited local unions and employers from entering into agreements or "riders" to modify the terms of the NMFA without the approval of the Conference Joint Area Committee or the National Grievance Committee. The NMFA further provided that any substandard riders or riders that had not been approved by either committee were null and void.
In December 1983 appellants filed an action in federal district court against Ace Lines pursuant to LMRA Sec. 301(a), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a), and ERISA Sec. 502, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1132 ( MPPAA Sec. 306, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1145), to recover delinquent contributions. Appellants sought $56,011.60 in delinquent contributions to the pension fund, and $32,671.59 in delinquent contributions to the health and welfare fund, through October 19, 1983, plus interest, liquidated damages, and attorney's fees and costs. In January 1984 Ace Lines filed an answer, specifically asserting, in addition to other defenses, that appellants' action was barred by either the six-month statute of limitations applicable to hybrid Sec. 301/breach of the duty of fair representation claims, citing DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 158, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2287, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983) (DelCostello ), or by the two-year statute of limitations applicable to Iowa wage payment collection actions, Iowa Code Ann. Sec. 614.1(8).
During the fall of 1984, by agreement of the parties, fund auditors were permitted to examine Ace Lines' books and records. The auditors discovered substantial additional delinquent contributions. In November 1984 appellants filed a motion for leave to amend their complaint to add claims for the newly discovered delinquent contributions. Most of the newly discovered delinquent contributions were due under the 1979-1982 agreements, but some were due under the earlier 1976-1979 agreements. In December 1984 appellants submitted, but did not file because the magistrate had not yet ruled on their motion for leave to amend, their first amended complaint seeking an additional $1,040,000, plus interest, in delinquent contributions to the pension fund, and $110,000, plus interest, in delinquent contributions to the health and welfare fund.
Appellants claimed that Ace Lines and Teamsters Local 147 had executed improper "riders" to the NMFA under which Ace Lines had stopped contributing to the pension fund on behalf of certain "company drivers" and "owner-operators" hired after April 1, 1979, and had instead established and contributed to non-Teamster pension funds for these employees, and had withheld contributions to the health and welfare fund until its employees had been employed for 60 days, instead of the 30 days provided in the NFMA. Appellants argued...
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