Willard v. Fairfield Southern Co., Inc.
| Decision Date | 12 December 2006 |
| Docket Number | No.A 05-14279.,No. 06-12455.,A 05-14279.,06-12455. |
| Citation | 472 F.3d 817 |
| Parties | Dorlan Wayne WILLARD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FAIRFIELD SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC., Birmingham Southern Railroad Company, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
J. Harry Blalock, Blalock & Blalock, P.C., Birmingham, Al, for Willard.
Michael Keith Gann, Huie, Fernambucq & Stewart, Birmingham, AL, for Defendants-Appellees.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Before ANDERSON and DUBINA, Circuit Judges, and VINSON,* District Judge.
Appellant, Dorlan Wayne Willard ("Willard"), appeals the district court's orders denying his Rule 60(b) motion and granting summary judgment to defendants/appellees, Fairfield Southern Company, Inc. ("Fairfield") and Birmingham Southern Railroad Company ("BSRR"), the parent company of Fairfield, on Willard's Federal Employer's Liability Act ("FELA") claim.1 For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court's orders.
The district court found the following undisputed facts. In 1983, U.S. Steel Fairfield Works ("Fairfield Works") transferred its rail operations to Fairfield, a newly formed corporation, which became a subsidiary of BSRR. BSRR is a common carrier by rail that holds itself out to the public for hire. Fairfield and BSRR share a Board of Directors, a trainmaster, office address, and emergency phone number. Fairfield pays BSRR a management fee for supervision of Fairfield's employees. Fairfield's trainmen and acting tower supervisors are the only Fairfield employees who work solely for Fairfield. All other Fairfield supervisors are also BSRR employees.
Fairfield provides rail service to U.S. Steel Corporation ("U.S. Steel"), to two vendors of Fairfield Works whose facilities are located on U.S. Steel's property (Fritz Enterprises and Tube City), and to U.S. Steel Mining Company, LLC ("U.S. Steel Mining"), a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Steel. Fairfield has separate and distinct contracts with Fairfield Works, U.S. Steel Mining, Fritz Enterprises, and Tube City. No common carrier, including BSRR, is a party to those contracts. Fairfield directly invoices its customers, and they, in turn, directly pay Fairfield for its services. Fairfield maintains a separate account which is used for funding its payroll and payments to vendors. Fairfield does not publish rate tariffs and does not receive any rate division from any common carrier railroad.
Furthermore, Fairfield does not own or lease any railroad tracks, and it does not maintain any wharves, docks, or other public facilities for the receipt or handling of freight. Fairfield does not link two common carriers. It operates only on tracks owned by the customers it serves. Nor does it operate over the tracks of any common carrier railroad, including BSRR.
In addition, Fairfield employees pay employment taxes under the Social Security Act, not the Railroad Retirement Act, and the employees are eligible to receive Alabama state unemployment benefits rather than benefits under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. The United Steel Workers of America represents Fairfield's employees and the National Labor Relations Act governs their employment relationship. By contrast, the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers represent BSRR train operating personnel, and the Railway Labor Act governs their employment relationship with BSRR. The Occupational Safety and Health Commission regulates Fairfield's train operations, while the Federal Railroad Administration regulates BSRR's train operations.
On September 25, 2002, Willard filed suit under the FELA, 45 U.S.C. § 51 (1986), against his employer, Fairfield, and its parent company, BSRR, for injuries that he allegedly incurred at work. Willard filed a motion for partial summary judgment, and Fairfield and BSRR filed motions for summary judgment. Several months later, Willard filed a Rule 56(f) motion to reopen discovery because he learned that the Federal Railroad Administration ("FRA") was investigating whether Fairfield was within its jurisdiction. The district court reopened discovery at Willard's request, and thereafter twice extended the time for reopened discovery because the FRA did not rule on the Fairfield matter in a timely fashion. By March 17, 2005, when the FRA had still not ruled on the matter, the district court took the motions for summary judgment under submission with the evidentiary material available as of that date.
In their motion for summary judgment, Fairfield and BSRR argued that Fairfield is an in-plant railroad not subject to the FELA; that Fairfield is not the alter ego of BSRR; and in any event, Willard was judicially estopped from pursuing any claims under the FELA because he already had accepted full medical benefits under the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act plus indemnity payments for his alleged injuries. Willard countered in his motion for summary judgment that Fairfield is subject to the FELA because it, like BSRR, is a common carrier by rail engaged in interstate commerce. Willard also claimed that his suit against BSRR was appropriate because Fairfield was BSRR's alter ego.
The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Fairfield and BSRR, finding that Fairfield is a private carrier, not a common carrier subject to the FELA. The district court also found that Fairfield is not the alter ego of BSRR. In light of its findings and conclusions, the district court declined to consider Fairfield and BSRR's estoppel argument. Willard filed a timely appeal.
While Willard's appeal from the district court's order on summary judgment was pending, he filed a Rule 60(b) motion to set aside final summary judgment, asserting that a letter from the FRA was "newly discovered evidence" which entitled him to relief from the court's prior summary judgment order. The district court requested briefing on the motion, then conducted oral argument on the matter. Following argument, the district court denied Willard's Rule 60(b) motion, finding that the FRA letter did not change its prior finding that Fairfield is a private carrier not subject to the FELA. Willard also appeals this order.
1. Whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment to Fairfield and BSRR because it found that Fairfield is a private carrier not subject to the FELA and that Fairfield is not the alter ego of BSRR.
2. Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Willard's Rule 60(b) motion.
This court reviews de novo a district court's order granting a motion for summary judgment, applying the same legal standards as the district court. Johnson v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Ga., 263 F.3d 1234, 1242 (11th Cir.2001).
This court reviews the district court's order on a Rule 60(b) motion for abuse of discretion. Am. Bankers Ins. Co. of Fla. v. Nw. Nat'l Ins. Co., 198 F.3d 1332, 1338 (11th Cir.1999).
The FELA creates a cause of action for injury sustained when the plaintiff is an employee and the defendant is a "common carrier by railroad" engaging in commerce between any of the several states or territories. 45 U.S.C. § 51. Section 51 provides:
Every common carrier by railroad while engaging in commerce between any of the several States or Territories, or . . . any foreign nation or nations, shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce, . . . for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves, or other equipment.
Id. The term "common carrier by railroad" has been defined to mean "one who operates a railroad as a means of carrying for the public, — that is to say, a railroad company acting as a common carrier." Edwards v. Pac. Fruit Express Co., 390 U.S. 538, 540, 88 S.Ct. 1239, 1240, 20 L.Ed.2d 112 (1968) (quoting Wells Fargo & Co. v. Taylor, 254 U.S. 175, 187-88, 41 S.Ct. 93, 98, 65 L.Ed. 205 (1920)). More recently, courts have noted that a common carrier is
one who holds himself out to the public as engaged in the business of transportation of persons or property from place to place for compensation, offering his services to the public generally. The distinctive characteristic of a common carrier is that he undertakes to carry for all people indifferently, and hence is regarded in some respects as a public serv[a]nt.
Kieronski v. Wyandotte Terminal R.R. Co., 806 F.2d 107, 108 (6th Cir.1986) (quoting Kelly v. Gen. Elec. Co., 110 F.Supp. 4, 6 (E.D.Pa.), aff'd, 204 F.2d 692 (3d Cir. 1953)). It is the plaintiff's burden to show that the defendant is a common carrier, and the plaintiff "therefore must present affirmative evidence indicating such." Mickler v. Nimishillen and Tuscarawas Ry. Co., 13 F.3d 184, 189 n. 3 (6th Cir. 1993).
Willard failed to meet his burden of presenting affirmative evidence that Fairfield is a common carrier. The evidence indicates that Fairfield does not hold itself out to the public as providing rail service for hire. See Sullivan v. Scoular Grain Co., 930 F.2d 798, 800 (10th Cir.1991) (). Instead, the evidence shows that Fairfield is an in-plant railroad that transports products within the confines of its...
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