U.S. v. Campbell
| Decision Date | 21 October 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-80863.,02-80863. |
| Citation | 291 F.Supp.2d 547 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Jay CAMPBELL and Donny Douglas, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
Peter J. Kelley, Ann Arbor, MI, Laurence C. Burgess, Detroit, MI, Harold Z. Gurewitz, Southfield, MI, Harold Z. Gurewitz, Gurewitz & Raben, Detroit, MI, for Defendants.
ORDER AND OPINION GRANTING DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS THE INDICTMENT
This matter came before the Court on Defendants' motion to dismiss the three-count indictment against them. Defendants, union officials, are charged with violating various criminal statutes arising out of their actions during labor negotiations with the General Motors' truck plant in Pontiac, Michigan. The indictment fails to allege criminal offenses against the United States, and therefore Defendants' motion is GRANTED.
United Auto Workers ("UAW") Local 594 represents over 5,000 production and skilled trades employees at General Motors' Pontiac truck facilities ("Pontiac Truck"). The National Agreement between General Motors and the International UAW, as well as the Local Agreement between Pontiac Truck and Local 594, determine the terms of employment for Pontiac Truck employees. After General Motors and the International UAW execute the National Agreement, the management of Pontiac Truck and Local 594 officials negotiate the Local Agreement. The local negotiators on both sides do not have the authority to amend or alter the terms of the National Agreement. Additionally, the UAW Constitution states that no official or member "shall have the power or authority to counsel, cause, initiate, participate in, or ratify any action which constitutes a breach of any contract entered into by a Local Union or by the International Union or by a subordinate body thereof."
The National Agreement provides that employees may receive the designation of "skilled tradesman" and bid upon various "skilled trade positions." The positions pay in excess of $100,000 per year. The National Agreement provides various education and training requirements for skilled tradesman. Many General Motors employees meet these requirements, but have not yet received a skilled trades position. The National Agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding between General Motors and the International UAW specify the hiring preference system at Pontiac Truck when skilled positions become available. That hierarchy begins with laid-off skilled trades employees, and continues through current General Motors employees who are qualified under the National Agreement, other current General Motors employees, and so forth. Outside applicants who do not meet the requirements in the National Agreement are accorded no preference.
From 1995 to 1997, Defendants served as officials of Local 594 and were its chief negotiators with Pontiac Truck over several local agreements and memoranda. During that period, the government alleges that Defendants demanded that Pontiac Truck hire Gordon Campbell, son of Defendant Jay Campbell, and Todd Fante, nephew and son-in-law of former Local 594 officials, into skilled trade positions. Neither Campbell nor Fante were employees of Pontiac Truck or General Motors, and neither were qualified under the National Agreement to be skilled tradesmen. General Motors and UAW officials refused the demand and informed Defendants that Campbell and Fante were not qualified for the positions and that hiring them into the positions would violate the National Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding.
In 1996, General Motors and the International UAW reached a new three-year National Agreement. Local 594 and Pontiac Truck then began negotiations for their local agreement. The government alleges that Defendants again demanded that Pontiac Truck hire Campbell and Fante as skilled tradesmen.
In April 1997, Local 594 began a strike at Pontiac Truck. The government contends that by July 1997, all the issues of the strike had been settled except for the demand that Pontiac Truck hire Campbell and Fante. The government further contends that to avoid the continuation of the strike, General Motors agreed to hire Campbell and Fante into skilled trade positions.
The government also alleges that during the ratification of the new contract, Defendants actively concealed General Motors' promise to hire Campbell and Fante from Local 594 membership. Furthermore, the government alleges that Defendants actively concealed that Fante and Campbell were not qualified for the positions from Local 594 membership, and Defendants dismissed grievances by Local 594 members complaining of the hiring of Campbell and Fante, grievances which Defendants knew had merit.
On September 25, 2002, Defendants were indicted in a three-count indictment.1 Count One alleges that Defendants violated 18 U.S.C. § 371 — conspiring to violate the Labor-Management Relations Act. The indictment identifies the objects of the conspiracy as (1) the authority to amend the terms of the National Agreements, the Addenda, and Memoranda of Understanding; and (2) the employment and skilled trades designation for Gordon Campbell and Todd Fante. Count Two alleges that Defendants violated 18 U.S.C. § 1951 — conspiracy to extort. The objects of the conspiracy were jobs for Fante and Campbell. Count Three alleges that Defendants violated 18 U.S.C. § § 1341, 1346 and 2 — mail fraud and aiding and abetting. Count Three alleges that Defendants used a scheme and artifice to defraud members of Local 594 of their contractual right to obtain skilled trades positions and the honest services of Defendants.
Defendants move to dismiss all counts of the indictment for two reasons: the indictment fails to allege offenses and it is preempted by federal labor law. The Court finds the indictment does not allege offenses against the United States and should therefore be dismissed. Accordingly, the Court need not reach the preemption issue.2
At the outset, the Court notes that the rule of lenity appropriately colors the following analysis. The doctrine of lenity sets boundaries prohibiting the expansion of criminal statutes by means of defining essential terms or elements of wrongful conduct to include "constructive" offenses or offenses clearly not intended by Congress. A criminal statute must be strictly construed, U.S. v. Emmons, 410 U.S. 396, 411, 93 S.Ct. 1007, 35 L.Ed.2d 379 (1973), and constructive offenses should be avoided, McNally v. U.S., 483 U.S. 350, 360, 107 S.Ct. 2875, 97 L.Ed.2d 292 (1987). In this case, the indictment is only sufficient if the Court were to create numerous constructive offenses.
Count One of the indictment charges Defendants with conspiring to commit offenses against the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, which makes criminal a conspiracy to commit a crime against the United States or to defraud the United States. Count One identifies 29 U.S.C. § 186(a)(1), § 186(b)(1), and § 186(d)(2) as the specific offense Defendants conspired to commit. Section 186(a) provides that "it shall be unlawful for an employer to pay or deliver, or to agree to pay or deliver any money or other thing of value to any representative of any of his employees who are employed in an industry affecting commerce." Section 186(b)(1) makes it unlawful "for any person to request, demand, receive, or accept, or agree to receive or accept, any payment, loan or delivery of any money or other thing of value prohibited by subsection (a) of this section." Thus, in order to violate these sections, Defendants must have conspired to demand some "thing of value." Defendants argue that neither the authority to amend the National Agreement nor the procurement of jobs for third parties are things of value under the statute.
Count One alleges that one object of the conspiracy was to demand and receive, or to agree to demand and receive, "a thing of value," alleged to be "the authority to amend the terms of the National Agreements between GM and the UAW." Defendants contend that such authority is merely illusory because under no circumstances could Defendants exercise the authority. The National Agreement, as well as the UAW Constitution, prohibit local representatives from attempting to amend a National Agreement. Moreover, the UAW Constitution, Article 19 prohibits representatives of any local union from causing any breach of contract. Therefore, Defendants conclude that any purported amendment by a local union of the National Agreement would be unenforceable, and even if the authority could be obtained from General Motors in contravention of the National Agreement, the result would be a breach and a violation of the contract. Hence, Defendants contend that the grant of authority to amend the National Agreement was invalid and unenforceable, and such an agreement cannot be a "thing of value." The government admits that once the National Agreement has been executed, Defendants as negotiators for Local 594 may not deviate, renegotiate, or amend in any way. (Resp. Br. at 13.)
In deciding what "things of value" are in criminal statutes, courts include intangibles. United States v. Schwartz, 785 F.2d 673, 680 (9th Cir.1986). Nevertheless, even an intangible must have some value, and an agreement which could never be acted upon is not valuable to anyone. Therefore, the agreement to amend the National Agreement is not a thing of value.
Defendants also argue that § 186's prohibition against "payment, loan, and delivery of money and things of value" did not prohibit Pontiac Truck from hiring Campbell and Fante as skilled tradesman for two reasons: (1) the statute does not prevent an employer from delivering or agreeing to deliver a thing of value to third parti...
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...of an out-of-jurisdiction district court case which defendants cite in support of their argument. See, e.g., United States v. Campbell, 291 F.Supp.2d 547, 555 (E.D.Mich.2003) ("Accordingly, in order to be convicted under the honest services doctrine, (1) Defendants must have had a fiduciary......