St. Thomas-St. John Hotel & Tour. v. Gov., U.S. VI

• Decision Date: 11 February 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-3621.,02-3621.
• Parties: THE ST. THOMAS — ST. JOHN HOTEL & TOURISM ASSOCIATION, INC.; the St. Thomas — St. John Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and the St. Croix Hotel & Tourism Association, Inc., Appellants v. GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS BY AND THROUGH THE VIRGIN ISLANDS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; Elecuteria Roberts in Her Official Capacity as Acting Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Department of Labor Esla Huggins, Ladiah Whyte, (Intervenor in D.C.)
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

357 F.3d 297

THE ST. THOMAS — ST. JOHN HOTEL & TOURISM ASSOCIATION, INC.; the St. Thomas — St. John Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and the St. Croix Hotel & Tourism Association, Inc., Appellants v. GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS BY AND THROUGH THE VIRGIN ISLANDS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; Elecuteria Roberts in Her Official Capacity as Acting Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Department of Labor Esla Huggins, Ladiah Whyte, (Intervenor in D.C.)

No. 02-3621.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued on April 28, 2003.

Opinion filed February 11, 2004.

Iver A. Stridiron, Attorney General, Elliott M. Davis, Solicitor General, Carol S Moore, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, St. Thomas, Kathleen Navin, Esquire (Argued), Legal Services of Virgin Islands, Saint Croix, VI, Counsel for Appellees.

Charles E. Engeman, Esquire (Argued), David J. Comeaux, Esquire, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, LLC, St. Thomas, VI, Counsel for Appellants.

Before: ROTH, McKEE and COWEN Circuit Judges.

OPINION

ROTH, Circuit Judge.

This appeal presents the question whether the Virgin Islands Wrongful Discharge Act (WDA), 24 V.I.Code Ann. §§ 76-79 is preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169, and, if not, whether the application of the WDA to supervisors is preempted by the NLRA. A prior panel of this Court addressed the first issue at the preliminary injunction phase and decided that the WDA was not preempted. We adhere to that decision. The prior panel left open the second issue. On remand, the District Court held that the NLRA does not preempt the application of the WDA to supervisors. This appeal followed.

I. Facts and Procedural History

In 1986, the Virgin Islands legislature enacted Section 76 of the WDA, which limited the grounds upon which an employer may terminate an employee. The statute provided, in relevant part, as follows:

(a) Unless modified by contract, an employer may dismiss an employee:

(1) who engages in a business which conflicts with his duties to his employer or renders him a rival of his employer;

(2) whose insolent or offensive conduct towards a customer of the employer injures the employer's business;

(3) whose use of intoxicants or controlled substances interferes with the proper discharge of his duties;

(4) who wilfully and intentionally disobeys reasonable and lawful rules, orders, and instructions of the employer; provided, however, the employer shall not bar an employee from patronizing the employer's business after the employee's working hours are complete;

(5) who performs his work assignments in a negligent manner;

(6) whose continuous absences from his place of employment affect the interests of his employer;

(7) who is incompetent or inefficient, thereby impairing his usefulness to his employer;

(8) who is dishonest; or

(9) whose conduct is such that it leads to the refusal, reluctance or inability of other employees to work with him.

* * * * * *

(c) Any employee discharged for reasons other than those stated in subsection (a) of this section shall be considered to have been wrongfully discharged; however, nothing in this section shall be construed as prohibiting an employer from terminating an employee as a result of the cessation of business operations or as a result of a general cutback in the work force due to economic hardship, or as a result of the employee's participation in concerted activity that is not protected by this title.

24 V.I.Code Ann. § 76 (1986). Any employee covered by the WDA and discharged in violation of Section 76 may file an administrative complaint with the Commissioner of Labor, who has the authority to order reinstatement and back pay. 24 V.I.Code Ann. § 77. In addition, an employee may file a lawsuit for compensatory and punitive damages. 24 V.I.Code Ann. § 79.

In 1996, the Virgin Islands legislature amended the first sentence of subsection (a) of the statute to state "[u]nless modified by union contract...." 24 V.I.Code Ann. § 76 (1996) (emphasis added). This amended provision has been interpreted to apply to all employees in the Virgin Islands, absent a collective bargaining agreement setting discharge terms to the contrary. See St. Thomas-St. John Hotel & Tourism Ass'n, Inc. v. Gov't of the U.S. Virgin Islands, 218 F.3d 232, 236 (3d Cir. 2000) (Hotel Association II).¹

On April 5, 1999, the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel & Tourism Association, Inc., the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce, Inc., and the St. Croix Hotel & Tourism Association, Inc. (collectively the "associations") filed this action in the District Court of the Virgin Islands against the Government of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Department of Labor, and the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Labor, seeking to restrain the enforcement of the WDA in any pending or future WDA wrongful discharge proceeding. Elsa Huggins and Ladiah Whyte, two employees who have WDA claims pending before the Department of Labor, intervened as additional defendants. The associations alleged that the WDA was preempted by the NLRA and deprived them of federal rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They sought declaratory and injunctive relief under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201, 2202, injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 and 5 V.I.Code Ann. § 541.

Following a hearing, the District Court concluded that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their preemption claim and issued a preliminary injunction. See St. Thomas-St. John Hotel & Tourism Ass'n, Inc. v. Gov't of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Civ. No.1999-54, 1999 WL 376873 (D.Vi. June 3, 1999) (Hotel Association I). We reversed, holding that:

the WDA is not preempted by the NLRA even though it provides an opt-out by express terms of union contract.... [T]he WDA does not force an employee to choose between collective bargaining and the protections of state law; rather, it protects all Virgin Island employees, but gives employees the option of relinquishing the territorial statutory protections through the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

Hotel Association II, 218 F.3d at 245. However, in Hotel Association II, the Court expressly left open the issue whether the WDA, as applied to supervisors, was preempted by the NLRA. In remanding the case to the District Court to grant summary judgment to the defendants on the issue of general preemption, we noted that "there remains for decision by the District Court the associations' claim that the WDA should not be applied to supervisors." Id. at 246.

On remand, the District Court denied the associations' motion for summary judgment on the question whether the NLRA preempts the WDA as applied to all employees. Following supplemental briefing, the District Court held that the NLRA does not preempt application of the WDA to supervisors and granted defendants' motion for summary judgment as to all claims. See St. Thomas-St. John Hotel & Tourism Ass'n, Inc. v. Gov't of the U.S Virgin Islands, 216 F.Supp.2d 460, 466-68 (D.Vi.2002) (Hotel Association III).² Plaintiffs timely appealed.³

II. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review

The District Court had jurisdiction over this federal question pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. We have jurisdiction over the District Court's final order pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We exercise plenary review over a grant of summary judgment. Chisolm v. McManimon, 275 F.3d 315, 321 (3d Cir.2001). Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

III. Discussion

1. Preemption of the WDA as Applied to all Employees:

We decline the associations' request that we reconsider the prior panel's holding in Hotel Association II regarding preemption of the WDA as applied to all employees. Under the law of the case doctrine, "one panel of an appellate court generally will not reconsider questions that another panel has decided on a prior appeal in the same case. The doctrine is designed to protect traditional ideals such as finality, judicial economy and jurisprudential integrity." In re City of Philadelphia Litig., 158 F.3d 711, 717-18 (3d Cir. 1998).

However, as this Court recognized in Council of Alternative Political Parties v. Hooks, "`while the law of the case doctrine bars courts from reconsidering matters actually decided, it does not prohibit courts from revisiting matters that are avowedly preliminary or tentative.'" 179 F.3d 64, 69 (3d Cir.1999). Preliminary injunctions are, by their nature, tentative and impermanent. See R.R. Yardmasters of Am. v. Pennsylvania R.R. Co., 224 F.2d 226, 229 (3d Cir.1955). Thus:

The purpose of a preliminary injunction is merely to preserve the relative positions of the parties until a trial on the merits can be held. Given this limited purpose, and given the haste that is often necessary if those positions are to be preserved, a preliminary injunction is customarily granted on the basis of procedures that are less formal and evidence that is less complete than in a trial on the merits. A party thus is not required to prove his case in full at a preliminary-injunction hearing, and the findings of fact and conclusions of law made by a court granting a preliminary injunction are not binding at trial on the merits.

Univ. of Texas v. Camenisch, 451 U.S. 390, 395, 101 S.Ct. 1830, 68 L.Ed.2d 175 (1981).

Nevertheless, under this standard for preliminary matters, the plaintiffs have pointed to no adequate reason for departing from the holding in Hotel Association II. There is no intervening new facts or law. See In re City of Philadelphia Litig., 158 F.3d at 718. Nor was the earlier decision so clearly erroneous that it would create a manifest injustice. See id. Finally, the plaintiffs have...