US POST. SERV. v. NATIONAL ASS'N OF LET. CAR., Civ. A. No. 85-2206.

• Decision Date: 04 April 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 85-2206.
• Citation: 631 F. Supp. 599
• Parties: UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, AFL-CIO, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

631 F. Supp. 599

UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, AFL-CIO, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 85-2206.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

April 4, 1986.

Lori Joan Dym, Office of Labor Law, U.S. Postal Service, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff.

Shaliah Stewart, New York City, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JACKSON, District Judge.

This labor case is before the Court on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment.¹ Plaintiff United States Postal Service ("Postal Service") seeks to vacate an arbitrator's decision ordering the reinstatement of a letter carrier convicted of unlawfully delaying the mail on the ground that such an award is contrary to public policy. Defendant National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO ("Union"), urges that another public policy — judicial deference to arbitral determinations — mandates affirmance of the order. The material facts are not in dispute and, for the reasons set forth below, the Court will grant plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and deny that of defendant.

On June 13, 1984, police and postal inspectors made a lawful search of the impounded personal automobile of letter carrier Edward Hyde. They found over 3,500 undelivered pieces of mail addressed to residents on Hyde's delivery route in Garden City, New York, and a lesser amount destined for addresses elsewhere. Most of the mail was first-class, some containing commercial and U.S. Treasury checks. Postmarks indicated certain items had been more than a year delayed.

Hyde was immediately arrested and charged with unauthorized possession and unlawful delay of the mail. After Hyde pled guilty to the latter offense,² the court sentenced him to 18 months' probation, the principal condition of which being that he enroll in and successfully complete a rehabilitation program for compulsive gamblers. Hyde has sworn under oath that he regularly attends Gamblers Anonymous meetings and abstains altogether from gambling.

Shortly after Hyde's arrest, the Postal Service notified Hyde of its intention to discharge him, effective August 20, 1984. During the notice period, the Union filed a grievance on Hyde's behalf pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, maintaining that there was not "just cause" for the firing. Unable to settle the grievance, the Union sought arbitration, and on April 12, 1985, the arbitrator ordered that Hyde be given a medical leave of absence of 60 days and then reinstated without back pay. Acknowledging his inability "to foretell what the future prospects of the Grievant's rehabilitation may yield," the arbitrator nevertheless concluded that, "if any reasonable hope exists for the rehabilitation of the Grievant, it is in returning ... him to the work place, and no one should deny him this opportunity." The Postal Service, however, has refused to comply and has instead filed the instant complaint to vacate the arbitration award.

The only issue before the Court is whether the award violates public policy and, therefore, exceeds the scope of the arbitrator's authority. It is, of course, a most basic principle of labor law that the strong federal policy favoring arbitration of labor disputes results in "extremely limited" judicial review of arbitrators' awards. Devine v. White, 697 F.2d 421, 436 (D.C.Cir. 1983) (citing United Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960)). The parties having bargained for an arbitrator's interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement, courts are bound to enforce the awards "unless the arbitral decision does not `draw its essence from the collective bargaining agreement....'" W.R. Grace and Co. v. Local 759, International Union of Rubber Workers, 461 U.S. 757, 764, 103 S.Ct. 2177, 2182, 76 L.Ed.2d 298 (1983) (quoting Enterprise Wheel, 363 U.S. at 597, 80 S.Ct. at 1361).

Qualifying this general rule of judicial deference, however, is an exception which operates when an arbitrator's decision contravenes the law or some other public policy of comparable stature. The court of appeals for this circuit has stated that, while "an arbitral decision ... must present egregious deviations from the norm before we will abandon the firmly-established principle of deference, courts will not enforce an award that is contrary to law or explicit public policy." Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 2 v. WMATA, 724 F.2d 133, 137, 140 (D.C.Cir.1983). See also Revere Copper and Brass Inc. v. Overseas Private Investment Corp., 628 F.2d 81, 83 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied 446 U.S. 983, 100 S.Ct. 2964, 64 L.Ed.2d 839 (1980). To override the rule of deference, however, the competing public policy "`must be well-defined and dominant, and is to be ascertained by reference to the laws and legal precedents and not from general considerations of supposed public interest.'" Id. at 140 (citing W.R. Grace, 461 U.S. at 766, 103 S.Ct. at 2783).

The First Circuit has held just such a public policy to apply in circumstances sufficiently similar to govern in this case. See United States Postal Service v. American Postal Workers Union, 736 F.2d 822 (1st Cir.1984). Holding an arbitration award requiring the Postal Service to reinstate a window clerk convicted of embezzling postal funds to be unenforceable, the court declared that the public policy involved was "not only defined by positive law, but ... also the clear dictates of common sense:"

A postal employee is required to swear that he "will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which he is about to enter." 39 U.S.C. § 1011. Numerous statutes relate to the conduct and honesty of postal employees — among them is 18 U.S.C. § 500, the statute under which the clerk was convicted. Moreover, the Postal Service is required by law to be "prompt, reliable, and efficient...." 39 U.S.C. § 101(a). Finally, as a government monopoly, the public has to use the

...