Yellow Freight Systems, Inc. v. Reich

• Decision Date: 29 October 1993
• Docket Number: No. 93-1205,93-1205
• Citation: 8 F.3d 980
• Parties: Fed. Carr. Cas. P 83,890, 62 USLW 2300, 126 Lab.Cas. P 10,899, 8 IER Cases 1706 YELLOW FREIGHT SYSTEMS, INCORPORATED, Petitioner, v. Robert B. REICH, Secretary of Labor; James R. Hornbuckle, Jr., Respondents.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 980

8 F.3d 980

Fed. Carr. Cas. P 83,890, 62 USLW 2300,

126 Lab.Cas. P 10,899,

8 IER Cases 1706

YELLOW FREIGHT SYSTEMS, INCORPORATED, Petitioner, v. Robert B. REICH, Secretary of Labor; James R. Hornbuckle Jr., Respondents.

No. 93-1205.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued July 12, 1993.

Decided Oct. 29, 1993.

Roger Kenneth Quillen, Fisher & Phillips, Atlanta, GA, argued (Michael C. Towers, Deborah C. Craytor, Fisher & Phillips, on brief), for petitioner.

Edward Owen Falkowski, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, DC, argued (Judith E. Kramer, Deputy Sol. of Labor, Joseph M. Woodward, Associate Sol. for Occupational Safety and Health; Ann Rosenthal, for Appellate Litigation, Barbara A.W. McConnell, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, DC, on brief), for respondents.

Before WILKINSON, WILKINS and NIEMEYER, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

The question presented is whether the Secretary of Labor properly found that Yellow Freight System, Inc. ("YFS") had disciplined a driver in violation of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act ("STAA" or the "Act"). 49 U.S.C. app. §§ 2301-2305. We affirm the Secretary's ruling that Yellow Freight impermissibly disciplined this driver for declining to operate a commercial motor vehicle while in a severely fatigued state.

I.

A.

James R. Hornbuckle, Jr. has been a long haul driver for Yellow Freight since March 1984. He drove out of the company's terminal in Charlotte, North Carolina. In April 1991, Hornbuckle filed a complaint with the Secretary alleging that YFS had disciplined him for refusing to operate a commercial vehicle when he was severely fatigued. Specifically, on April 8-9, 1991, Hornbuckle had driven freight from Charlotte to Jacksonville, Florida. On any given trip, Yellow Freight expects its drivers to complete their runs within a time equalling the sum of (1) one-half hour for pre-trip inspection; (2) an established "running time" between freight terminals, negotiated by YFS and Local Union No. 71 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the drivers' union; (3) a one-hour meal break en route; and (4) a one-hour grace period. With an established running time between Charlotte and Jacksonville of eight hours, plus the allotted meal break and grace period, Yellow Freight anticipated Hornbuckle's arrival in Jacksonville ten hours after his departure from Charlotte. Hornbuckle took eleven hours to make the trip. This delay was attributed to Hornbuckle's pulling into a truck stop and taking a nap "across the steering wheel" between approximately 12:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. Hornbuckle pulled over to take the nap after he noticed himself "crossing the line" while driving and other drivers told him he was weaving on the road.

On April 11, 1991, Yellow Freight's Linehaul Operations Manager in Charlotte, Ted Sowers, wrote Hornbuckle a "Letter of Information" telling him that "[o]n April 9, 1991 you delayed freight and equipment. Subsequent occurrences of the above offense will result in more serious disciplinary action." Sowers declined Hornbuckle's April 15 request to remove the letter from his file.

On April 12, 1991, Hornbuckle accepted a dispatch from Charlotte to Nashville, Tennessee, with a negotiated running time of nine hours. Due to oversleeping, Hornbuckle arrived at the Charlotte terminal forty-five minutes late, but completed his pre-trip inspection in one-half hour, drove for a total of nine hours, took a one-hour meal break, and took an additional one-half hour coffee break. The additional break came in Crossville, Tennessee, after Hornbuckle had negotiated especially heavy traffic amid construction work in Knoxville. With Yellow Freight's one-hour grace period, Hornbuckle arrived in Nashville fifteen minutes later than the company expected.

On April 13, 1991, Hornbuckle made a return run from Nashville to Charlotte. He again spent one-half hour on pre-trip inspection, drove for a total of nine hours, and took a one-hour meal break. Hornbuckle also took an additional one-hour break, for what he called "safety" reasons, while driving through adverse weather and traffic conditions, including rain, fog, and a wreck involving two other tractor trailers and a car near Black Mountain, North Carolina. With the one-hour grace period, he arrived in the Charlotte terminal when the company expected. Hornbuckle then spent an additional eighteen minutes situating his truck, removing his personal belongings from the cab, and taking his freight bills to the dispatcher. This eighteen-minute span occurred beyond the grace period.

On April 16, 1991, Sowers wrote Hornbuckle a "Letter of Warning" for "Delay of freight on April 12, 1991," noting that "[s]ubsequent occurrences of the above offense could result in further disciplinary action." Also on April 16, Sowers wrote Hornbuckle (1) advising him of the previous letters, (2) stating that "[a]gain on April 13, 1991 you delayed freight and equipment," and (3) suspending him from work for three days.

B.

Hornbuckle filed complaints regarding all three letters of discipline with the Department of Labor, as provided by regulations promulgated under the STAA. See 29 C.F.R. § 1978.102. Hornbuckle alleged that Yellow Freight's suspension decision violated the STAA because it punished his refusal to drive in violation of a Department of Transportation regulation prohibiting drivers from operating a vehicle while fatigued. See 49 C.F.R. § 392.3.

The matter was first heard before an administrative law judge ("ALJ"). See 29 C.F.R. § 1978.106. The basic Title VII proof scheme governs actions under the STAA. See Texas Dep't of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). The ALJ concluded that Hornbuckle had established a prima facie violation because (1) taking the fatigue break on April 9 was protected activity under the Act; (2) YFS was aware that Hornbuckle took such breaks; and (3) the letter of information was adverse action on the part of Yellow Freight resulting from the protected activity. The ALJ then found that YFS had rebutted this prima facie showing with evidence of nondiscriminatory reasons for disciplining Hornbuckle--namely that Hornbuckle had not availed himself of company procedures designed to help drivers get adequate rest between runs and had delayed freight on the runs between Charlotte and Nashville by oversleeping, taking extra breaks en route, and taking too much time to check in once back in Charlotte. According to the ALJ, Yellow Freight had "established a pattern of delay of freight by" Hornbuckle, and Hornbuckle had offered only speculative assertions that the discipline was "really given in retaliation of his legitimate need for a fatigue break on April 9, 1991." Accordingly, the ALJ recommended that Hornbuckle's complaint be denied.

The Secretary overturned the ALJ's ruling. First, the Secretary rejected as unsupported by substantial evidence the ALJ's factual finding that YFS had established a pattern of freight delay by Hornbuckle. The Secretary then expanded upon the ALJ's conclusion that Hornbuckle had made out a prima facie case by stressing that the driver had engaged in protected activity both "when he ceased driving for an hour and a half in order to sleep" and when he complained "to Sowers about the letter of information and [directed] that it be removed from his file."

Primarily, the Secretary disagreed with the ALJ's legal conclusion that YFS provided a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for issuing the letter of information. The Secretary concluded that Hornbuckle's need to rest during the Jacksonville run occurred not because Hornbuckle failed to avail himself of certain company procedures, but because he received a dispatch and departed Charlotte later than he or YFS anticipated. Specifically, during the day of April 8, YFS dispatchers had repeatedly told Hornbuckle that a dispatch for him was imminent on April 8. Then, after finally receiving the dispatch, Hornbuckle arrived at the terminal and discovered that his truck required a repair prior to departure. In this situation, the Secretary concluded that Yellow Freight's policies offered Hornbuckle "no real measure of protection against discipline" when he needed to take a nap during his run on April 8-9 and that "in the particular circumstances of this case, ... [Hornbuckle] did not forfeit STAA protection by accepting the assignment on April 8." Finally, although he found the question to be close, the Secretary ruled that YFS had issued the letters of warning and suspension in retaliation for the fatigue break and Hornbuckle's complaints about the letter of information.

In sum, the Secretary concluded that Yellow Freight had violated the STAA in disciplining Hornbuckle. Accordingly, the Secretary ordered YFS to "expunge from Complainant's employment file(s)" all three letters and to "compensate Complainant for any lost wages, terms, conditions, and privileges of employment."

This appeal followed. See 49 U.S.C. app. § 2305(d)(1). ¹

II.

Congress passed the STAA in 1982 to combat the "increasing number of deaths, injuries, and property damage due to commercial motor vehicle accidents" on America's highways. Brock v. Roadway Express, Inc., 481 U.S. 252, 262, 107 S.Ct. 1740, 1748, 95 L.Ed.2d 239 (1987) (quoting remarks of Sen. Danforth and summary of proposed statute at 128 Cong.Rec. 32509, 32510 (1982)); see also Lewis Grocer Co. v. Holloway, 874 F.2d 1008, 1011 (5th Cir.1989) ("Congress enacted the STAA to promote safe interstate commerce of commercial motor vehicles.") The Act seeks to reduce unsafe driving by long haul truckers in two ways. First, it prohibits discipline of trucking employees who raise violations of commercial motor vehicle rules on the part of trucking companies. 49 U.S.C. app. § 2305(a). The Act recognizes that drivers and other employees are often in the best position to detect when an operation is not running safely, but...