Ardingo v. Local 951, United Food & Commercial Workers Union

333 F. App'x 929
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 29, 2009
Docket08-1078
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 333 F. App'x 929 (Ardingo v. Local 951, United Food & Commercial Workers Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ardingo v. Local 951, United Food & Commercial Workers Union, 333 F. App'x 929 (6th Cir. 2009).

Opinions

THAPAR, District Judge.

Plaintiff Charles Ardingo won a jury-verdict of $819,614 in his wrongful-termination lawsuit against Defendant Local 951, United Food & Commercial Workers Union. On appeal, the defendant contends that the judgment in favor of Ardingo should be reversed because Ardingo’s wrongful-termination claim is preempted by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (the “LMRDA”). In the alternative, the defendant asks for a new trial on the grounds that: (1) the trial court made several prejudicial evidentiary errors; (2) the trial court erred in refusing to give certain jury instructions proposed by the defendant; (3) the trial court erroneously permitted the plaintiffs expert to testify; and (4) the trial court erred in not remitting the amount of damages awarded to Ardingo. Because these arguments are unavailing, we affirm.

I. Background

The defendant is a labor organization representing thousands of grocery store workers — largely Meijer employees — in Michigan. The defendant hired Ardingo as a business agent in 1990 under a just-cause employment policy that permitted the defendant to terminate him only if he “failed to meet employment performance standards,” or if his termination would further the needs of the union “as construed by the Supreme Court in Finnegan v. Leu and its progeny.” J.A. at 440, 590-91.1

Ardingo’s employment with the defendant went well for the first decade. During this time, he gained a seat on the union’s executive board, id. at 598, and was given important assignments, like negotiating critical contracts with major employers. See id. at 592-93.

In 2001, however, his relationship with the union leaders changed for the worse. See id. at 596. After rumors started circulating that Ardingo was going to run a campaign against Robert Potter, the union’s president, in the next election cycle, Potter and other union officials accused Ardingo of being a traitor. See id. at 596-99. Ardingo requested a meeting with Potter to discuss these issues, and the two met at a union office in Livonia, Michigan. See id. at 600. The meeting became heated, and Potter insinuated that Ardingo was a “pipeline to the Department of Labor.” Id. at 602. Shortly thereafter, Ardingo was reassigned to a different position and told to have no contact with members of Local 951. See id. at 32.

In the spring of 2002, Ardingo cooperated with a Department of Labor investigation concerning financial irregularities with the defendant. See id. at 608, 619-20. Shortly after participating in interviews •with the Department of Labor, Ardingo testified before a grand jury concerning the same issues. See id. at 32, 620.

Starting in early 2003, Ardingo was reassigned in rapid succession to jobs in North Carolina, Indiana, and Washington [932]*932state. See id. at 32, 603-04. The ostensible purpose of each of these temporary assignments was to assist in union organizing campaigns in those states. Ardingo, however, claims that these assignments were a form of retaliation for his cooperation with the Government.

By the beginning of 2004, Local 951 was experiencing financial hardship due to the loss of members. It had lost a total of $1,282,709 over the previous two years, and it was on its way to losing $950,360 during 2004. Id. at 447. This was a significant amount of money for an organization that had an average annual income around $10,000,000. See id. As a result, the union leadership decided to pare down the number of its employees. Ardingo— who was making nearly $100,000 per year at that time and had less seniority than other similarly situated individuals — was chosen to be one of ten employees who were released in January of 2004. Robert Potter testified that Ardingo was selected for termination because of economic reasons and because Potter had lost confidence in Ardingo due to the fact that Ardingo had sought employment with Mei-jer, the largest employer of Local 951’s members. See id. at 994-95.

Ardingo was told that he was being released for financial reasons, but he believed that excuse to be a ruse for retaliation since the defendant had recently hired at least one additional employee. See id. at 623. Therefore, on December 13, 2004, Ardingo filed this lawsuit against Potter and the union, alleging that they had: (1) violated his rights under the LMRDA, (2) forced him to pay assessments to the union in violation of the LMRDA, (3) terminated him in violation of Michigan public policy, and (4) wrongfully discharged him in violation of the union’s just-cause policy. See id. at 23-24. Judge Richard Alan Enslen granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all but the wrongful-discharge claim, see id. at 318-29, and Potter was dismissed as a defendant shortly before the trial commenced. Thus, the only claim left for trial was the wrongful-discharge claim against the union. The parties consented to have this claim tried by Magistrate Judge Ellen S. Carmody.

On July 6, 2007, three days before the trial began, Ardingo supplemented his previous expert disclosures by submitting to the defendant an updated report from Dr. Marvin DeVries, the expert who ultimately testified about the financial damages that Ardingo had suffered. The defendant filed a motion in limine to exclude this supplemental report, and the trial court granted that motion. Id. at 527-28.

The trial began on July 9, 2007, and lasted for five days. In his opening statement, Ardingo’s counsel told the jury that the evidence would show that Ardingo was not terminated for just cause. The defendant’s counsel, on the other hand, told the jury that the evidence would show that Ardingo was terminated out of economic necessity, which amounted to just cause. See id. at 569. Following the opening arguments, Ardingo proceeded to present evidence showing that he had been terminated not out of economic necessity, but out of retaliation for his cooperation with the Government and his testimony before a grand jury. Conversely, the defendant introduced evidence to support its theory that Ardingo had been terminated because of economic necessity. See id. at 666-67, 978-92. Particularly, the defendant argued that its shrinking membership required it to cut costs by reducing the number of its employees. The defendant maintained its economic-necessity theory [933]*933all the way through to the closing arguments. See, e.g., id. at 1194. The jury, however, apparently did not buy into the defendant’s theory and therefore returned a verdict in favor of Ardingo.

The judgment in favor of Ardingo is now on appeal before this court. In particular, the defendant argues that the judgment should be reversed because Ardingo’s claim is preempted by the LMRDA, and in the alternative, the defendant argues that the judgment should be reversed because the trial court erred by: (1) admitting evidence pertaining to the alleged retaliation against Ardingo; (2) rejecting the defendant’s proposed jury instructions with respect to the significance of Finnegan v. Leu, the burden of proof in wrongful-discharge cases, and the possibility of reinstatement in lieu of front-pay damages; (8) permitting Ardingo’s expert to testify; and (4) refusing to remit the jury verdict.

II. LMRDA Preemption

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Bluebook (online)
333 F. App'x 929, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ardingo-v-local-951-united-food-commercial-workers-union-ca6-2009.