Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 13 December 1988
• Docket Number: 85-2690,Nos. 85-2583,s. 85-2583
• Citation: 862 F.2d 491
• Parties: TEXAS EMPLOYERS' INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Leroy JACKSON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 491

862 F.2d 491

57 USLW 2399

TEXAS EMPLOYERS' INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Leroy JACKSON, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 85-2583, 85-2690.

United States Court of Appeals,

Fifth Circuit.

Dec. 13, 1988.

Richard Schechter, Schechter, Eiseman & Solar, Houston, Tex., for jackson.

Thomas C. Fitzhugh, III, Houston, Tex., for amicus curiae Highlands Ins. Co. and Delaware North.

W. Robins Brice, Houston, Tex., for amicus curiae West Gulf Maritime (on behalf of plaintiff-appellee).

Reagan Wm. Simpson, Steven Lynn Roberts, Fulbright & Jaworski, Houston, Tex., Arthur R. Miller, Cambridge, Mass., Stephen Pate, Houston, Tex., for Texas Employers' Ins. Assn.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Before CLARK, Chief Judge, BROWN, GEE, RUBIN, REAVLEY, POLITZ, JOHNSON, WILLIAMS, GARWOOD, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, JONES and SMITH, Circuit Judges. ^*

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

This case involves the authority of a federal district court to enjoin the prosecution of a previously filed state court civil suit and declare the purported state law causes of action therein asserted preempted by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA), 33 U.S.C. Secs. 901-950.

The state suit was brought by appellant Leroy Jackson (Jackson), a workman who had been injured in the course of his LHWCA-covered employment, against appellee, Texas Employer's Insurance Association (TEIA), his employer's LHWCA insurer, seeking damages for mental anguish, stress, and anxiety consequent on TEIA's alleged fraud and bad faith in having delayed payment of his LHWCA compensation benefits. Nearly a year later, TEIA filed this action against Jackson in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeking to enjoin Jackson's prosecution of the state suit and to declare that its claims were preempted by the LHWCA. Shortly before the state suit was scheduled to go to trial, the district court enjoined Jackson's prosecution of it and rendered the declaratory judgment that Jackson's state law claims were preempted by the LHWCA. Texas Employers' Insurance Association v. Jackson, 618 F.Supp. 1316 (E.D.Tex.1985). Jackson appealed and a panel of this Court set aside the injunction as contrary to the Anti-Injunction Act, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2283, ¹ but affirmed the grant of declaratory relief, which it held to be proper under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. Secs. 2201, 2202. ² Texas Employers' Insurance Association v. Jackson, 820 F.2d 1406 (5th Cir.1987). Agreeing with the former but not the latter determination, this Court en banc now holds that whether or not Jackson's claims were preempted by the LHWCA, the district court nevertheless lacked authority to issue the injunction by virtue of the Anti-Injunction Act, and that it and allied principles likewise prevented the declaratory relief sought and granted below. As the district court was not authorized to grant any of the relief sought by TEIA, we accordingly reverse the judgment below and order the case dismissed.

Context Facts and Prior Proceedings

In July 1978, Jackson injured his back and right ankle when he fell on a barge in navigable waters in the course of his employment as a shipfitter for Gulfport Shipbuilding Company (Gulfport) in Port Arthur, Texas. Jackson received medical treatment and returned to the same employment with Gulfport on October 30 of that year. Thereafter and until May 1982, Jackson continued his work as shipfitter for Gulfport, with intermittent absences from work and medical treatment on account of his July 1978 injury. On May 3, 1982, Jackson seriously reinjured his back in the course of the same employment with Gulfport, and he has not returned to work since. On July 6, 1982, Jackson filed a formal claim for total permanent disability benefits under the LHWCA. See 33 U.S.C. Sec. 908.

Throughout all this time, Gulfport was an employer subject to the LHWCA, TEIA was Gulfport's LHWCA compensation insurer, and Jackson was a Gulfport employee covered by the Act. See 33 U.S.C. Secs. 902(3), 902(4), 932(a)(1).

TEIA paid Jackson's medical expenses and temporary total LHWCA disability benefits until April 4, 1983, when it suspended payment. TEIA had previously, in late July 1982, filed a formal "controversion" of entitlement to benefits pursuant to 33 U.S.C. Sec. 914(d) on the ground that the amount of permanent disability "is uncertain at this point" because Jackson had "not yet reached maximum improvement." ³ Payment of benefits remained suspended from April 4, 1983 until shortly after a July 6, 1983 informal conference before a deputy commissioner, ⁴ at which time TEIA agreed to resume payments. Jackson was medically reexamined in August 1983, and on September 14, 1983, TEIA again suspended payment of benefits and filed another controversion, this time on the ground that Jackson had reached maximum recovery and that any disability he had was not due to his injury but to an arthritic condition. Following a settlement conference at which a Department of Labor claims examiner recommended payment, TEIA, on September 29, 1983, again filed another controversion objecting to that recommendation and continued to withhold benefits. Compensation remained unpaid until the final award was made in September 1984.

On May 3, 1984, Jackson's LHWCA claim was heard before a Department of Labor administrative law judge (ALJ) pursuant to 33 U.S.C. Secs. 919(c), (d), and (e). On September 14, 1984, the ALJ awarded Jackson disability benefits on account of his July 1978 and May 1982 injuries, holding that he had been totally and permanently disabled since May 3, 1982. Jackson was also granted preaward interest on accrued, unpaid benefits and attorneys' fees pursuant to 33 U.S.C. Sec. 928(a). ⁵ This award was filed in the office of the deputy commissioner on September 28, 1984 and, neither party having appealed to the Benefits Review Board, became final and unappealable thirty days thereafter. 33 U.S.C. Secs. 919(e), 921(a), 921(b) (appeal from the Benefits Review Board would have been to this Court; Sec. 921(c)). TEIA promptly paid the award in full.

Meanwhile, on June 7, 1984, after the ALJ hearing but before her formal award, Jackson sued TEIA in the 60th District Court of Jefferson County, Texas. Jackson filed a First Amended Original Petition in that suit on May 1, 1985 and a Second Amended Original Petition on May 24, 1985. The suit alleged Jackson's July 1978 and May 1982 injuries and that these were covered by the LHWCA, with TEIA being the LHWCA insurance carrier of Jackson's employer, Gulfport. It sought damages, actual and exemplary, on account of "mental anguish, stress, anxiety and humiliation" suffered by Jackson as a result of TEIA's allegedly fraudulent and bad faith suspension of Jackson's LHWCA compensation benefits commencing in April 1983. Jackson alleged that TEIA knowingly induced a doctor to file a false medical report concerning him on the basis of which TEIA suspended his LHWCA benefits, and that TEIA knew he was entitled to such benefits but suspended payment solely in an effort to force him to settle for far less than his claim was worth, which pressures were especially severe as Jackson's LHWCA benefits were then his and his family's sole support. There was no allegation that Jackson ever did settle, or that he did not ultimately receive all he was entitled to under the LHWCA; nor was any recovery sought of any amounts allegedly due under the LHWCA. Jackson's state court pleadings purported to assert a cause of action against TEIA in respect to these alleged facts under seven different theories of Texas law, viz.: a claim for false, misleading, unfair and/or deceptive acts under Article 21.21 of the Texas Insurance Code; a claim under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (Texas Business and Commerce Code, Secs. 17.41, et seq.); and claims under Texas common law theories of bad faith insurance practices, fraud, intentional infliction of severe emotional distress, negligent infliction of severe emotional distress, and willful and wanton lack of care and concern for the health, safety, and welfare of others.

TEIA filed a "plea in bar," plea in abatement, and answer in the state court action on July 19, 1984. The plea in bar asserted in substance that the LHWCA preempted Jackson's claims. The plea in abatement requested abatement until the LHWCA proceedings were final. In its answer, TEIA asserted, in addition to a general denial, that Jackson was not a consumer under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, that neither that statute nor the Texas Insurance Code applied to the handling of LHWCA claims, and that the LHWCA was Jackson's exclusive remedy.

On January 11, 1985, the state trial court entered an order denying TEIA's plea in bar. Extensive discovery, including the taking of several depositions, ensued in the state court suit. It was set for trial for August 12, 1985, and later reset for August 26, 1985.

On May 23, 1985, TEIA filed the instant action against Jackson in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The only relief sought was a preliminary and permanent injunction against Jackson's further prosecution of the state court suit, and declaratory judgment that the LHWCA preempts Jackson's state law claims asserted in his state court suit and that the ALJ's September 1984 award in the LHWCA proceeding had become final and constituted res judicata of those claims. A copy of the ALJ's September 14, 1984 opinion and award and of Jackson's First Amended Original Petition in the state court suit were attached as exhibits to TEIA's complaint.

On August 8, 1985, the court below held a nonevidentiary hearing on TEIA's requested injunction, and on August 21, 1985, issued a temporary injunction which enjoined Jackson from further prosecution of his state suit. Jackson timely appealed. On September 30, 1985, the district court permanently...