International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 959 v. Horizon Lines of Alaska, LLC
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 959 v. Horizon Lines of Alaska, LLC
Opinion of the Court
[Re: Motions at docket 9 and 13]
I. MOTIONS PRESENTED
At docket 9, petitioner International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 959 (“Local 959”) filed a motion for summary judgment, which respondent Horizon Lines of Alaska, LLC (“Horizon”) opposed at docket 17. Local 959 filed a reply at docket 20.
At docket 18, Horizon also filed a cross-motion for summary judgment. Local 959 filed an opposition at docket 19. Horizon filed a reply at docket 21.
II. BACKGROUND
Horizon is a maritime shipping company that employs approximately 17 truck drivers. These drivers own their own trucks and lease them to Horizon. In return, Horizon pays them a wage for the time they spend driving as well as “truck payments,” which are based on the number of miles their truck is used for Horizon’s purposes.
Horizon’s drivers are members of Local 959, a labor organization. Horizon and Local 959 have entered into a collective bargaining agreement that provides for the arbitration of grievances. After Horizon suspended one of Local 959’s members, Mike Dropik, Local 959 filed a grievance asserting that Horizon lacked just cause for the suspension. The parties proceeded to arbitration, where they presented the following two questions to the arbitrator: (1) did Horizon have just cause to suspend Dropik?; and (2) if not, what is the appropriate remedy?
At the arbitration hearing Dropik testified in pertinent part that he leases his truck to Horizon and therefore has two separate relationships with Horizon, “one as the owner of the truck and one as a direct employee.”
The arbitrator issued an Opinion and Award finding that Horizon did not have just cause to suspend Dropik and sustaining Local 959’s grievance. As to the remedy, the arbitrator ordered Horizon to make Dropik whole “for lost wages, benefits, and truck payments that resulted from the suspension.”
III. STANDARD OF REVIEW
Section 301 of the LMRA grants the District Court jurisdiction to review and enforce labor arbitration awards.
IV. DISCUSSION
Both Horizon and Local 959 are asking this court to confirm the arbitration award.
An arbitrator’s decision is final and binding only where it is “intended by the arbitrator to be a complete determination of the claims, including the issue of damages.”
In Millmen, the Ninth Circuit addressed whether the district court has jurisdiction to review an arbitrator’s award that determines liability but reserves jurisdiction to resolve disputes regarding the remedy.
The Ninth Circuit drew parallels between the finality of an arbitration award and the finality rule in 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which gives the courts of appeals jurisdiction over appeals from final district court judgments. The panel noted that a final judgment under Section 1291 is “one which ends the litigation ... and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment.”
The Third Circuit’s decision in Union Switch
Applying these principles, the court concludes that the arbitrator’s award is not final because it does not completely determine the issues presented to arbitration. The award orders Horizon to make Dropik whole, but does not specify the amount of lost truck payments that are necessary to accomplish that objective. The task of determining this amount is more than a mere ministerial act, such as a mathematical calculation.
Horizon cites Teamsters Local Union, No. 760 v. United Parcel Service, Inc.,
V. CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, at docket 9 and 13, are hereby DENIED. This matter is DISMISSED and
. Doc. 3 at 3.
. Doc. 9-1 at 8.
. Doc. 9-2 at 23.
. Doc. 17-3 at 12. Horizon’s repeated assertion that the arbitration record lacks any reference to truck payments is false, as Horizon itself eventually concedes. Compare Doc. 17 at 3 n. 2 (“[T]here is absolutely no mention of truck payments anywhere in the arbitration record.”), and Doc. 17 at 3 ("The Union thus achieved, through stealth, an arbitration award that uses the words 'truck payments' but contains no record of any such thing existing anywhere in the entire record of the arbitration.”), with Doc. 17 at 6 (conceding that Local 959 requested truck payments in its closing brief). See also the arbitrator’s award. Doc. 9-1 at 23 ("The Union requests make-whole relief for wages, benefits, and lost truck payments for the period of the suspension. That is an appropriate remedy under the circumstances, and I will so order.”) (emphasis added).
. Doc. 9-1 at 24.
. Doc. 9-1 at 8.
. Doc. 9-3 at 8; Doc. 3 at 4-5.
. 29 U.S.C. § 185.
. Gen. Drivers, Warehousemen & Helpers, Local Union No. 89 v. Riss & Co., 372 U.S. 517, 519, 83 S.Ct. 789, 9 L.Ed.2d 918 (1963); Kemner v. Dist. Council of Painting & Allied Trades No. 36, 768 F.2d 1115, 1118 (9th Cir. 1985).
. Gen. Drivers, 372 U.S. at 520, 83 S.Ct. 789 ("Of course, if it should be decided after trial that the grievance award involved here is not final and binding under the collective bargaining agreement, no action under § 301 to enforce it will lie.”); Kemner, 768 F.2d at 1118 ("[A] court should refrain from reviewing an arbitrator’s work until a final and binding award is issued.”).
. Millmen Local 550, United Bhd. of Carpenters & Joiners of Am. v. Wells Exterior Trim, 828 F.2d 1373, 1375 (9th Cir. 1987) (citing United Steelworkers of Am. v. Am. Mfg. Co., 363 U.S. 564, 566-68, 80 S.Ct. 1363, 4 L.Ed.2d 1432 (1960); Kemner, 768 F.2d at 1118; Aerojet-Gen. Corp. v. Am. Arbitration Ass’n, 478 F.2d 248, 251 (9th Cir. 1973)).
. Id. (citing Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 546, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949); Liberian Vertex Transports, Inc. v. Associated Bulk Carriers, Ltd., 738 F.2d 85, 87 (2d Cir. 1984)).
. Doc. 1 at 3; Doc. 3 at 5.
. Doc. 10 at 13; Doc. 13 at 13.
. Doc. 17 at 17.
. Millmen, 828 F.2d at 1376 (construing Michaels v. Mariforum Shipping, 624 F.2d 411, 413-14 (2d Cir. 1980)).
. Id. at 1376-77.
. Id. at 1376.
. Id. at 1374.
. Id. at 1374-75.
. Id. at 1374.
. Id. at 1376 (citing Warehouse Rest., Inc. v. Customs House Rest., Inc., 726 F.2d 480, 481 (9th Cir. 1984)).
. Id. (quoting Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Wetzel, 424 U.S. 737, 740, 96 S.Ct. 1202, 47 L.Ed.2d 435 (1976)).
. Id. (citing Pub. Serv. Elec. & Gas Co. v. Sys. Council U-2, Int’l Bhd. of Elec. Workers, 703 F.2d 68, 69-70 (3d Cir. 1983)).
. Id. at 1376-77.
. Union Switch & Signal Div. Am. Standard Inc. v. United Elec., Radio & Mach. Workers of Am., Local 610, 900 F.2d 608 (3rd Cir. 1990).
. Id. at 609.
. Id. at 610.
. Id. at 611.
. Id.
. In contrast, where all that remains is a mathematical computation of the amount of damages, that is a mere “ministerial act” that does not render the award non-final. See Bensalem Park Maint., Ltd. v. Metro. Reg. Council of Carpenters, No. 11-2233, 2011 WL 2633154, at *5 (E.D.Pa. July 5, 2011); Millmen, 828 F.2d at 1377 (construing United Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 599, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960)) (‘‘[T]he arbitrator need not complete the mathematical computations of the award for the award to be final and reviewable.”).
. See Millmen, 828 F.2d at 1376-77.
. 921 F.2d 218 (9th Cir. 1990).
. Doc. 21 at 5-7.
. United Parcel Service, 921 F.2d at 220.
. See United Steel, Paper & Forestry v. Sekisui Specialty Chemicals Am., LLC, No. 5:11-CV-43, 2012 WL 692810, at *8 (W.D.Ky. Mar. 1, 2012) (construing United Parcel Service, 921 F.2d at 220).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS LOCAL 959 v. HORIZON LINES OF ALASKA, LLC
- Status
- Published