Worthy v. New Orleans S.S. Ass'n
| Decision Date | 21 August 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-31168.,02-31168. |
| Citation | 342 F.3d 422 |
| Parties | Ray WORTHY; et al., Plaintiffs, International Longshoremen's Association, Dock Loaders and Unloaders of Freight Cars and Barges, Local 854, AFL-CIO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NEW ORLEANS STEAMSHIP ASSOCIATION/INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, AFL-CIO PENSION PLAN, including welfare, vacation, holiday funds and royalty pay; New Orleans Employers International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO, Pension, Welfare, Vacation and Holiday Funds, incorrectly named as "New Orleans Steamship Association International Longshoremen's Association;" American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Pension Plan including Welfare, Vacation, Holiday Funds and Royalty Pay; Richard Teissier, Trustee; C.G. Miller, Trustee; Win Niemand, Trustee; Sid Hotard, Trustee; Max Sanders, Trustee; James Campbell, Trustee; James McCleland, Trustee; Lloyd Irvin; Dwayne Boudreaux, Trustee; Mark Ellis, Trustee; Thomas R. Daniel, Administrator, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Tracie J. Jackson (argued), New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
David E. Walker (argued), McCranie, Sistrunk, Anzelmo, Hardy, Maxwell & McDaniel, William Lurye, Robein, Urann & Lurye, Metairie, LA, for Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Before KING, Chief Judge, and HIGGINBOTHAM and STEWART, Circuit Judges.
Ray Worthy ("Worthy"), president of the Dock Loaders and Unloaders of Freight Cars and Barges, International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO ("Local 854") filed suit against the New Orleans Steamship Association/International Longshoremen's Association AFL-CIO, along with its trustees (collectively, "New Orleans Steamship" or "Association") which oversees the pension, welfare, vacation, and holiday plan for Local 854 employees (the "Trust"); the Trustees of the Trust; and, the administrator of the Trust, Thomas Daniel ("Daniel"). Local 854 alleged violations of the Employment Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), the Taft-Hartley Act, and the Labor Management Relations Act ("LMRA"). New Orleans Steamship filed a motion for summary judgment that the district court granted. Local 854 now appeals. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
Plaintiff-Appellant, Local 854 is a labor organization located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Defendant-Appellee, New Orleans Steamship is an unincorporated association. New Orleans Steamship, guided by administrator Daniel, oversees the Trust between the Mid-Gulf Association of Stevedores, Inc.1 and Local 854. International Longshoremen's Association Locals 3000, 1497, 2036 and 3033 (collectively, "Unions") are also parties to the Trust.
The Trust establishes pension, welfare, vacation, and holiday plans and is governed by the ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1001, et al. (2000), the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. § 186(e) (2000), the law of contracts, and the trust code of the State of Louisiana. The Declaration of Trust which was written in 1957 and created the Trust, provides that the employers, represented by Mid-Gulf Association of Stevedores and the Unions would each appoint an equal number of Trustees to the Board of Trustees ("the Board"). Initially, the Trust stipulated that the parties would each name six Trustees and four alternates who could substitute for one or more of the named Trustees. Eventually, the Trust was amended to reduce the number of Trustees appointed to the Board. In February 2002, the Trust was again amended to allow the employers and the Union to each appoint five Trustees and to eliminate all alternative Trustee positions.
Local 854 is one of the original signatories to the Trust and, until 1989, was represented on the Board. In 1989, however, the president of Local 854 retired from his position on the Board and a representative of Local 3033 was placed on the Board in his place. In May 1997, Worthy, who was president of Local 854 at the time, was appointed as one of the two alternative Trustees. In 1999, the Union Co-Chairman of the Board wrote Daniel advising him that because Worthy did not attend any meetings during his tenure, he was being replaced as an alternate Trustee.
In December 2001, Local 854 and Worthy, filed suit in federal district court against the Trust that oversees the pension, welfare, vacation, holiday, and royalty pay for Local 854's employees, also known as the New Orleans Steamship; the Trustees of the Trust; and Daniel. In its first amended Complaint, Local 854 alleged that New Orleans Steamship: (1) failed "to abide by one or more constitutions and bylaws," the Restatement of Agreement and Declaration of Trust (the "Trust document"), including amendments, and the Summary Plan Description; (2) unlawfully denied pension, welfare, vacation, holiday and other benefits, which caused the trustees to breach their fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries of the trust; (3) deprived Worthy of his rights as a member of a labor organization; and (4) excluded Local 854 from the Board of Trustees, thus causing unequal representation of employers and union in the administration and operation of the Trust, as well as implementing policies without a Local 854 representative's required signature. Local 854 also complained that Daniel failed to obtain Worthy's signature, in his capacity as representative of Local 854, on Amendments 12 through 15 of the Trust, thus rendering each amendment null and void and causing the Trustees to breach their fiduciary duties; and the 1991 through 2001 Memorandum Agreements and Royalty Authorizations to the 1972 Royalty Agreement, despite that Local 854 is a principal to that agreement.2
In October 2002, the district court held the final pre-trial conference on this matter. As part of the trial preparation order issued that same day, the court granted New Orleans Steamship's motion for summary judgment with respect to all claims asserted by Local 854 and Worthy (as its representative), and denied Local 854's motion for preliminary injunctive relief and declaratory judgment with respect to these claims. In addition, the court took under advisement New Orleans Steamship's request for summary judgment with respect to Worthy's individual claim for benefits.
In November 2002, the district court filed written reasons in support of its October order. With respect to all claims asserted by Local 854 and Worthy, the district court granted New Orleans Steamship's summary judgment motion and denied Local 854's motion for declaratory judgment and preliminary injunctive relief. On appeal, Local 854 challenges the district court's order regarding its claims that New Orleans Steamship breached its fiduciary duties under the Trust.
We review the district court's order granting summary judgment de novo employing the same rules that were used in the district court. See Hansen v. Cont'l Ins. Co., 940 F.2d 971, 975 (5th Cir.1991). Summary judgment is only appropriate when there are no genuine issues of material fact and, as a matter of law, the moving party is entitled to summary judgment. See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) ().
The district court found that Local 854 failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to New Orleans Steamship's alleged breach of fiduciary duties under ERISA. The district court concluded that New Orleans Steamship did not violate ERISA because the word "union" was interpreted by New Orleans Steamship to mean a majority of the signatory unions, and thus there was no requirement for Local 854 to be involved in decisions. Also, having evaluated trust administrator Daniel's interpretation of the language of the Trust document, the district court found his interpretation to be "legally correct." Local 854 challenges the district court's grant of summary judgment to New Orleans Steamship regarding its fiduciary duties. Local 854's basic contentions are that New Orleans Steamship breached its fiduciary duties under ERISA by failing: (1) to provide Local 854 with a position on the Board; (2) to get signatures of approval by Local 854 for trust amendments twelve through fifteen; and (3) to get signatures of approval by Local 854 as a principal to the Royalty Escrow Account. We address each argument in turn.
First, we conclude that nothing in the Trust document guarantees Local 854 a place on the Board. The plain language of the Trust document does not support the extension of a contractual right to Local 854 that would entitle it to continuous representation on the Board. New Orleans Steamship contends that the original authors of the Declaration of Trust did not intend for each original signatory union to have a position on the Board and that no portion of the Trust document or practice of the Board indicates that each original union signatory was entitled to a position on the Board at all times. We agree. There is no language in the Trust document which indicates that Local 854 is required to maintain a position on the Board in perpetuity because it was an original signatory to the Trust.
Moreover, the Trust document does not provide express or implied language that all of the member Unions must participate on the Trustee Board. For example, in Local 169, Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of Am. v. Teamster Health & Welfare Fund of Phila. Vicinity, the trust document at issue specifically defined "union" to include only the original signatory local unions,...
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