Associated General Contractors v. Otter Tail Power Co.

611 F.2d 684, 102 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3022
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 27, 1979
DocketNo. 78-1828
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 611 F.2d 684 (Associated General Contractors v. Otter Tail Power Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Associated General Contractors v. Otter Tail Power Co., 611 F.2d 684, 102 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3022 (8th Cir. 1979).

Opinion

HEANEY, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal by the Associated General Contractors of North Dakota (AGC) from the dismissal of its complaint by the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota. The original complaint filed in state court alleged violations of various state labor laws, including the state right-to-work law. The amended complaint, filed after removal to federal court,1 additionally alleged a violation of federal antitrust laws. The District Court dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the AGC lacked standing, both on its own behalf and in a representational capacity for its members, to raise the antitrust claims and that the state labor law claims were preempted by federal law. We affirm.

The District Court considered the matter on a motion to dismiss the complaint. As matters outside the pleadings, namely depositions and affidavits, were considered by the District Court, we treat its action as one granting a motion for summary judgment. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b). We assume, as did the District Court, that the facts as stated in the plaintiff’s affidavits and complaint are true.

The AGC of North Dakota is a nonprofit trade association. Its stated goals include the promotion of fair competition, the improvement of labor conditions and the elimination of unfair and unethical practices in the construction industry. Its active membership consists of 138 general contractors. Seventy-two of these contractors are parties to collective bargaining agreements. The AGC serves as the bargaining agent for many, if not all, of its union contractor members in their collective bargaining negotiations. Sixty-six member contractors do not recognize or bargain with any union.

Bechtel Power Corporation has undertaken to construct a large fossil fuel power plant in Mercer County, North Dakota, for the Otter Tail Power Company, Montana-Dakota Utilities and Minn-Kota Power Cooperative. The plant will generate power for distribution in interstate commerce. Bechtel, acting with the knowledge and consent of Otter Tail Power, the agent of the other two power companies, negotiated and executed a written Stabilization Agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO and several affiliated international unions. The stated purposes of the Stabilization Agreement, which covered all construction work to be performed on the power plant project, were to insure an adequate supply of skilled labor for the project and the continuation of work uninterrupted by labor disputes.

The Agreement provides, in part, that the signatory unions are to be the sole and exclusive bargaining representatives for certain classes of manual employees on designated job sites; that contractors working on the project shall, in filling craft-job vacancies, utilize and be bound by the registration facilities and referral systems established or authorized by each of the international unions, when such procedures are not in violation of federal law; and that the subcontractors employed .on the project must be a party to a collective bargaining agreement with a lawfully established bona [687]*687fide union which provides for wages, hours and other economic conditions of employment meeting the minimum standards set out in the Stabilization Agreement. The AGC contends that the Stabilization Agreement is illegal and seeks to enjoin its enforcement.

I.

THE ANTITRUST CLAIMS.

In Count One of its complaint, the AGC alleges that Bechtel and Otter Tail, by executing and enforcing Article II of the Agreement (which recognizes signatory unions as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for the manual employees working on the project) force the AGC member contractors, union and nonunion alike, who are willing, able and qualified to work on the project to recognize the particular unions as the exclusive bargaining agents for their employees on the project site in order to be eligible for the work. It further alleges that this conduct restrains trade and competition in the construction industry in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 and 1px solid var(--green-border)">2.

In Count Two of the complaint, the AGC alleges that Bechtel and Otter Tail, by executing and enforcing Article XIV of the Agreement (which provides that any work covered by the Agreement shall be contracted only to firms whose employees are represented by a lawfully established bona fide union and compensated under a collective bargaining agreement at not less than the minimum standards set out in the Stabilization Agreement) have forced and are forcing AGC member nonunion contractors into collective bargaining relationships with particular unions in order to be eligible for work as a subcontractor on the project. The AGC alleges that this conduct restrains trade and competition in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 and 1px solid var(--green-border)">2.

The initial issue presented is whether the AGC has standing to pursue the antitrust claims. The District Court denied standing on the grounds that (1) the AGC had not alleged injury to itself, and (2) an assertion of representational standing based on the allegation of injury to AGC members is not countenanced by Section 16 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 26.2

The Supreme Court has invoked a two-part test to determine standing. Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498-501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). A court must ascertain, first, whether the plaintiff has met the constitutional requirement of presenting a “case or controversy” — has he “suffered ‘some threatened or actual injury resulting from the putatively illegal action . .’ Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U.S. 614, 617, 93 S.Ct. 1146, 35 L.Ed.2d 536 (1973).” Id. at 499, 95 S.Ct. at 2205. Second, the court must determine whether the “statutory provision on which the claim rests properly can be understood as granting persons in the plaintiff’s position a right to judicial relief.” Id. at 500, 95 S.Ct. at 2206.

Against this background, the AGC contends that it has standing both in its own right and as a representative of its members. Regarding its personal standing, the AGC contends that sufficient allegations of injury to itself exist in its assertions that the “AGC brings this action in its own behalf,” and that “[u]nless enjoined, defendants will continue to * * * enforce the Agreement to the irreparable injury of AGC, its member contractors and the general public.” These conclusory allegations are insufficient to make out a “case or controversy” because they simply fail to indicate any injury personal to the AGC.

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611 F.2d 684, 102 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/associated-general-contractors-v-otter-tail-power-co-ca8-1979.