Teamsters Pension Trust Fund-Board of Trustees of Western Conference v. Allyn Transp. Co.

• Decision Date: 13 November 1987
• Docket Number: FUND-BOARD,85-6536,Nos. 84-6621,s. 84-6621
• Parties: , 9 Employee Benefits Ca 1097 TEAMSTERS PENSION TRUSTOF TRUSTEES OF the WESTERN CONFERENCE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ALLYN TRANSPORTATION CO., Defendant-Appellant. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the WESTERN CONFERENCE OF TEAMSTERS PENSION TRUST FUND, Plaintiff/Counterdefendants/Appellees, v. LANDY CORPORATION, et al., Defendants, and Landy Leasing, Inc., a Nevada corporation, Defendant/Counterclaimant/Appellant. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the WESTERN CONFERENCE OF TEAMSTERS PENSION TRUST FUND, Plaintiff/Counterdefendants/Appellees, v. LANDY CORPORATION, et al., Defendants, and Energy Carriers, Inc., Defendant/Counterclaimant/Appellant. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the WESTERN CONFERENCE OF TEAMSTERS PENSION TRUST FUND, Plaintiff/Counterdefendants/Appellees, v. LANDY CORPORATION, Defendant/Counterclaimant/Appellant, and Energy Carriers and Landy Leasing, Inc., Defendants. to 85-6538.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 502

832 F.2d 502

56 USLW 2301, 9 Employee Benefits Ca 1097

TEAMSTERS PENSION TRUST FUND-BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the

WESTERN CONFERENCE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ALLYN TRANSPORTATION CO., Defendant-Appellant.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the WESTERN CONFERENCE OF TEAMSTERS

PENSION TRUST FUND, Plaintiff/Counterdefendants/Appellees, v. LANDY CORPORATION, et al., Defendants, and Landy Leasing, Inc., a Nevada corporation,

Defendant/Counterclaimant/Appellant.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the WESTERN CONFERENCE OF TEAMSTERS

PENSION TRUST FUND, Plaintiff/Counterdefendants/Appellees, v. LANDY CORPORATION, et al., Defendants, and Energy Carriers, Inc., Defendant/Counterclaimant/Appellant.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the WESTERN CONFERENCE OF TEAMSTERS

PENSION TRUST FUND, Plaintiff/Counterdefendants/Appellees, v. LANDY CORPORATION, Defendant/Counterclaimant/Appellant, and Energy Carriers and Landy Leasing, Inc., Defendants.

Nos. 84-6621, 85-6536 to 85-6538.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Nov. 7, 1986.

Decided Nov. 13, 1987.

Michael H. Salinsky, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee.

Earl J. Imhoff, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant-appellant.

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

Before BROWNING, Chief Judge, GOODWIN and FARRIS, Circuit Judges.

JAMES R. BROWNING, Chief Judge:

We review and affirm separate judgments against Allyn Transportation Company and the Landy corporations under the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1381 et seq.

I

Appellant Allyn, a participating employer in a multiemployer defined benefits pension plan sponsored by appellee Teamsters Pension Trust Fund, laid off 122 of 123 employees covered by the plan, and restricted its covered operations accordingly. Under MPPAA an employer who withdraws from a defined benefits plan must pay the plan a proportionate share of the plan's unfunded vested benefits. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1381. The Fund determined Allyn's withdrawal liability and sent Allyn a formal notice and demand for payment. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1382. Allyn requested reconsideration (29 U.S.C. Sec. 1399(b)(2)(A)) claiming a "complete withdrawal" from the plan by Allyn had occurred before MPPAA's effective date and Allyn therefore had no withdrawal liability under the Act. 29 U.S.C. Secs. 1383, 1461(e). The Fund rejected Allyn's claim and advised Allyn it had 60 days to initiate arbitration. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(a)(1). ¹ Allyn took no action. The Fund sued Allyn to collect the withdrawal liability. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1451. The district court granted the Fund's motion for summary judgment, holding Allyn's liability as calculated by the Fund was due and owing because Allyn had failed to initiate arbitration within the statutory period. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(b)(1). ² Allyn's contention in the district court and in this court is that whether a "complete withdrawal," within the meaning of 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1383, occurred before the effective date of MPPAA, is a question for the court, not an arbitrator, to decide: (1) because the question is one of statutory construction--a pure question of law; and (2) because the question is whether Allyn was subject to MPPAA at the critical time and therefore under any duty to arbitrate at all.

A.

We follow the holding of I.A.M. Nat'l Pension Fund v. Clinton Engines Corp., 825 F.2d 415 (D.C.Cir.1987), that questions of statutory interpretation are not excepted from arbitration under MPPAA. ³ The court pointed out that by the express terms of Sec. 1401(a)(1) "[a ]ny dispute over withdrawal liability as determined under the enumerated statutory provisions shall be arbitrated." Id. at 417; see also id. at 418, 422, 426. The court noted that arbitration is the initial stage of the dispute resolution process established by the statute, that judicial consideration is to follow, and that it is to take the form of a proceeding "to enforce, vacate or modify the arbitrator's award." Id. at 417 (quoting Sec. 1401(b)(2)); see also id. at 417 n. 3, 421-22, 426-27. The court noted that Congress was dissatisfied with collection procedures that resulted in "lengthy, costly and complex litigation" (id. at 426 n. 20); provisions for informal, expeditious resolution of withdrawal liability disputes were at the heart of the MPPAA (id. at 426); and "the value of arbitration in fulfilling Congress' intent to provide an efficient, expeditious dispute resolution mechanism lies in initial resort to that mechanism." Id. at 427.

The court emphasized that exclusion from arbitration of "cases raising questions of statutory interpretation would 'drastically diminish the prime role Congress so plainly assigned to arbitration in the MPPAA dispute resolution scheme.' " Id. at 422 (quoting Grand Union Co. v. Food Employers Labor Relations Ass'n, 808 F.2d 66, 70 (D.C.Cir.1987)). Such an exclusion would also frustrate Congress' apparent assumption "that a substantial portion of disputes could be promptly and efficiently resolved through informal procedures[,]" and that there would be a more orderly development of the law and a better focused record for judicial review of disputes that remained. Id. In addition, exclusion of issues of statutory construction would require a case-by-case determination that would be wasteful of judicial resources, and, since few cases involve "no disputed facts," would produce little benefit. Id.

In Clinton Engines, as in the present case, the employer's argument that issues of statutory construction were not subject to arbitration under MPPAA rested primarily upon the D.C. Circuit's decision in I.A.M. National Pension Fund v. Stockton TRI Industries, 727 F.2d 1204 (D.C.Cir.1984). The opinion in Clinton Engines pointed out that Stockton had been characterized as "an exceptional case" in the Grand Union opinion, and had been limited, in effect, to cases in which the pension fund had waived arbitration of the statutory issues. Clinton Engines at 417-18, 424. ⁴

B.

We also reject Allyn's contention that whether Allyn withdrew before the effective date of MPPAA must be decided by the court before arbitration is initiated because the answer to that question determines whether Allyn had any duty to arbitrate at all.

Allyn relies principally upon John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Livingston, 376 U.S. 543, 84 S.Ct. 909, 11 L.Ed.2d 898 (1964) and AT & T Technologies, Inc. v. Communications Workers of America, 475 U.S. 643, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986). These cases involve arbitration clauses in collective bargaining agreements. Whether there is a duty to arbitrate under such an agreement depends upon the intention of the parties and general contract principles, supplemented by national labor policy. See Wiley, 376 U.S. at 550-51, 84 S.Ct. at 915. The question is usually submitted to the court rather than the arbitrator because it is regarded as unlikely that parties would agree to leave the question of what matters were arbitrable to the arbitrator. "The willingness of parties to enter into agreements that provide for arbitration of specified disputes would be 'drastically reduced' ... if a labor arbitrator had the 'power to determine his own jurisdiction ...' " AT & T Technologies, 106 S.Ct. at 1419-20 (quoting Cox, Reflections Upon Labor Arbitration, 72 Harv.L.Rev. 1482, 1509 (1959)). However, if the parties clearly intend to give the arbitrator such power, their intention will be enforced. Id. at 1418; International Bhd. of Teamsters v. Washington Employers, Inc., 557 F.2d 1345, 1349 (9th Cir.1977).

In this case, the duty to arbitrate arose not from an agreement of the parties, but from the statute. The matters to be resolved by arbitration are not to be determined by the parties' intention, but by the intention of Congress. As we have seen, the statute states unambiguously that "[a]ny dispute between an employer and the plan sponsor ... concerning a determination made under sections 1381 through 1399 ... shall be resolved through arbitration" (29 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(a)(1)), and Congress clearly intended exactly what those words import.

Several circuits have indicated that disputes as to whether and when an employer has withdrawn from a plan are subject to arbitration under MPPAA. See Clinton Engines, supra (whether withdrawal preceded effective date of MPPAA should have been arbitrated); Warner-Lambert Co., Inc. v. United Retail & Wholesale Employee's Teamsters Local No. 115 Pension Plan, 791 F.2d 283, 287-88 (3rd Cir.1986) (upholding referral to arbitration of dispute over whether the employer had withdrawn before the effective date of MPPAA); Woodward Sand Co. v. Western Conf. of Teamsters, 789 F.2d 691, 695-96 (9th Cir.1986) (criticizing lower court for not presuming correctness of arbitral finding that employer had not withdrawn until after MPPAA's effective date). In Shelter Framing Corp. v. Pension Ben. Guar. Corp., 705 F.2d 1502, 1509 (9th Cir.1983), rev'd on other grounds, 467 U.S. 717, 104 S.Ct. 2709, 81 L.Ed.2d 601 (1984), we determined that "the arbitration requirement does not apply where the constitutionality of the statute, not the establishment or amount of withdrawal liability, is at issue." Id. Since "the establishment ... of withdrawal liability" is the only issue in this case, Shelter Framing suggests, without deciding, that arbitration should be required here.

Allyn points out that section 1401(a)(1) requires arbitration only of disputes "concerning a determination made under sections 1381 through 1399," and argues that the dispute in this case arose out of section 1461(e)(2)(A), which fixes the effective date of the Act. However, it is not the effective date of the Act that is in dispute. The disagreement is over whether Allyn's conduct constituted a "complete withdrawal" from the pension plan within the meaning of section 1383.

Finally, Allyn contends that the Act, interpreted as Clinton Engines holds, denies Allyn the fair hearing guaranteed by the...