Department of the Navy v. Federal Labor Relations Authority

835 F.2d 921, 1987 WL 26475
Court of Appeals for the First Circuit·Decided December 30, 1987·No. No. 86-1506·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

This matter is before us on a petition for enforcement of mandate filed by the Department of the Navy and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (petitioners), in which they allege non-compliance by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) with the mandate issued by this court in Dept. of Navy v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, 815 F.2d 797 (1st Cir.1987) (Portsmouth I). We agree with petitioners that there has been non-compliance by the FLRA with our mandate, and issue a writ of mandamus to correct this abuse of discretion.

[922] We need not recount in detail the controversy decided in Portsmouth I. For present purposes we shall only state the basic premises upon which we denied enforcement of the unfair labor practice order of the FLRA holding petitioners in violation of an arbitrator’s award, and whereupon we granted petitioner’s cross-appeal. First, we concluded that the FLRA erred because the arbitration award upon which the FLRA’s order was based was not self-executing, and failed to establish measurable standards against which to determine whether there was compliance by petitioners with the award. Id. at 805. And second, we ruled that the FLRA had imper-missibly “rewritten the collective bargaining agreement” in deciding that employees were not required to follow the procedures established in Article 20, § 3 of the agreement for the purpose of proving claims to environmental differential pay (EDP). Id. at 806.

Stated otherwise, we concluded that the arbitrator’s award constituted a general declaration of the right to EDP under given circumstances, i.e., a determination of liability. Whether individual employees were entitled to such pay, we ruled, was to be determined by the procedure agreed by the parties pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, i.e., Article 20, § 3. Id. We thus intended that following our decision, individual claims would be filed by employees who deemed themselves entitled to EDP. Such a procedure appears to us to be implicit from a reading of our decision. (“As to any ambiguity in the implementation of the award, the parties should resort to the negotiated grievance procedure, see Article 20, § 3, to determine compliance with its terms, and the method for the distribution of EDP to those employees affected.” Id.).

The FLRA thought otherwise. It issued a Decision In Remand ordering the administrative law judge (AU) to order the parties to seek a “clarification and interpretation of the award” from the arbitrator as to various matters. The parties were ordered to inquire whether it “[w]as ... [the arbitrator’s] intention that the award ... be the direct source for ... environmental differential pay (EDP) on and after July 28, 1983, or merely the standard under which such claims by individual employees would be resolved in accordance with the established procedures for individual employees claiming entitlement to EDP?”1 Thereafter the AU ordered the parties to seek said “clarification and interpretation.”

Petitioner seeks mandamus directing the FLRA “to dismiss its unfair labor practice proceedings and to permit the parties to resolve issues of implementation and compliance with the arbitrator’s award and payment of EDP through the negotiated grievance procedure.” The FLRA opposes the petition on both jurisdictional and substantive grounds. Although we discuss the jurisdictional question first, under the present circumstances, both the jurisdictional and substantive issues are inexorably intertwined.

[923] Mandamus jurisdiction to enforce an appellate mandate

The FLRA claims that “the appropriate course for [petitioner] to follow should it disagree with the [FLRA’s] ultimate resolution of this case ... is to petition this Court for review and follow the normal appellate procedure.” It is the FLRA’s position that mandamus is only appropriate if there are “no other adequate means to obtain the relief” desired, see Allied Chemical Corp. v. Daiflon, Inc., 449 U.S. 33, 35, 101 S.Ct. 188, 190, 66 L.Ed.2d 193 (1980), and where the lower court or agency has “violated a non-discretionary command or so abused [its] discretion” that its action constitutes a disregard of the court’s mandate. Oswald v. McGarr, 620 F.2d 1190, 1196 (7th Cir.1980). This, of course, is a correct statement of the law, and it is precisely for these reasons that we agree with petitioner.

We know of no adequate means to correct the present misapplication or noncompliance with our mandate other than through the use of our mandamus power. See City of Cleveland v. Federal Power Commission, 561 F.2d 344, 346-47 (D.C.Cir.1977). See also Potomac Electric Pow er Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 702 F.2d 1026, 1032 (D.C.Cir.1983); American Trucking Ass’n v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 669 F.2d 957, 960-61 (5th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1022, 103 S.Ct. 1272, 75 L.Ed.2d 493 (1983). Requiring petitioner to participate in the relitigation of issues already decided at both administrative and appellate levels pri- or to challenging such unprecedented actions, can hardly be called an adequate means of correcting non-compliance with a mandate of this court. Such a result would reward bureaucratic misconduct and encourage judicial anarchy.

The court in City of Cleveland, supra, a case involving the scope of the administrative investigation compelled by an earlier appellate decision, in issuing a writ of mandamus ruled that:

[t]he decision of a federal appellate court establishes the law binding further action in the litigation by another body subject to its authority. The latter “is without power to do anything which is contrary to either the letter or spirit of the mandate construed in the light of the opinion of [the] court deciding the case,” and the higher tribunal is amply armed to rectify any deviation through the process of mandamus.

Id. at 346 (footnote omitted). We thus pass on to discuss the FLRA’s action in more detail because the determination of the nature of its actions is relevant not only to the merits of petitioner’s claim, but also to the jurisdictional issue raised by the FLRA.

The FLRA’s order

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Department of the Navy v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, 835 F.2d 921, 1987 WL 26475 (1st Cir. 1987).

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