Doe v. Central Arkansas Transit

900 S.W.2d 582, 50 Ark. App. 132, 149 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2899, 1995 Ark. App. LEXIS 369
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJune 28, 1995
DocketCA 93-713
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 900 S.W.2d 582 (Doe v. Central Arkansas Transit) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. Central Arkansas Transit, 900 S.W.2d 582, 50 Ark. App. 132, 149 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2899, 1995 Ark. App. LEXIS 369 (Ark. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

Melvin Mayfield, Judge.

This is an appeal from the order of the Pulaski County Chancery Court which granted the appellee’s motion for summary judgment and vacated an award granted by an arbitrator.

On January 3, 1995, we certified this case to the Arkansas Supreme Court pursuant to Rule l-2(d)(2) of the Rules of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. The supreme court declined to accept the case and remanded it to this court for decision. Jurisdiction to determine the issues presented on appeal is therefore in this court.

Appellant, Jane Doe, was a bus driver for the appellee, Central Arkansas Transit Authority, which is a public transportation company. She was off work beginning January 4, 1991, through March 26, 1991, due to a job-related injury. Several days before her return to work, appellant took a return-to-work physical, including a drug test, pursuant to appellee’s anti-drug policy. On March 26, 1991, appellant returned to work and, after completing work that day, was notified that her drug test was positive for cocaine and she was discharged.

The appellant’s union filed a grievance on appellant’s behalf pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement entered into between the union and the appellee in April of 1990. The union alleged that the appellant was not discharged for “just cause” under the terms of the parties’ labor contract. The appellee refused to reinstate the appellant and the matter was submitted to arbitration pursuant to Article 4 of the agreement. The sole issue to be decided was whether appellant was discharged for “just cause.” On November 12, 1992, the arbitrator issued an opinion ruling that although appellant had violated the anti-drug program, appellee did not have “just cause” to discharge her. The arbitrator reinstated appellant subject to another return-to-duty drug test; random drug testing for five years; and the satisfactory completion of an Employee Assistance Program.

Appellee filed a complaint in Pulaski County Chancery Court to vacate the arbitrator’s award alleging that there is a well-defined public policy against having drug-impaired employees in the work place; that there is a well-defined public policy against having drug users operate commercial vehicles such as a public transit bus; and that enforcing the arbitrator’s award violates public policy.

On April 1, 1993, the chancellor entered an order granting the appellee’s motion for summary judgment and vacated the award. This action was based upon a finding that the arbitrator’s award reinstating appellant was contrary to public policy and that the arbitrator acted in excess of his authority.

On appeal, appellant argues: (1) the trial court failed to give proper deference to the arbitrator’s findings; (2) the trial court erred in concluding the award violated public policy; (3) the trial court erred in concluding the award did not draw its essence from the labor agreement; and (4) the trial court erred in concluding the arbitrator exceeded his authority.

At the outset, we note two things. One, our opinion is confined to the facts in this case and does not hold that a driver for a public transit company may drive a bus while under the influence of drugs. Second, the facts in this case were uncontested before the chancellor. Normally on a summary judgment appeal the evidence is viewed most favorably for the party resisting the motion and any doubts and inferences are resolved against the moving party. In a case where the parties agree on the facts that rule is inapplicable, and we simply determine whether the appellee was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. City of Little Rock v. Pfeifer, 318 Ark. 679, 887 S.W.2d 296 (1994). And because our Uniform Arbitration Act (Ark. Code Ann. §§ 16-108-201 — 16-108-224 (1987)) does not apply to employee-employer disputes, we look to prior Arkansas law, to the common law, and, at the parties’ request, to the federal law for the resolution of the issues involved in this appeal.

I. JUDICIAL DEFERENCE

In the early case of Kirten v. Spears, 44 Ark. 166 (1884), our supreme court said unless the illegality of the decision appears upon its face:

[T]he court will not interfere on the ground merely that the arbitrators have mistaken the law, or have advisedly decided contrary to the rules of established practice observed by courts of law and equity.
If the parties wanted exact justice administered according to the forms of law, they should have allowed their case to take the usual course. But for reasons satisfactory to themselves, they have chosen to substitute for the courts of law a private forum, and there is no injustice in holding them bound by the result.

44 Ark. at 173-74 (citations omitted). In Alexander v. Fletcher, 206 Ark. 906, 175 S.W.2d 196 (1943), the court stated:

The general rule and the one supported by the great weight of authority, with reference to awards is: “Every reasonable intendment and presumption is in favor of the award, and it should not be vacated unless it clearly appears that it was made without authority, or was the result of fraud or mistake, or of the misfeasance or malfeasance of the appraisers.”

206 Ark. at 909-10 (citations omitted).

II. PUBLIC POLICY

In W.R. Grace & Company v. Local 759, 461 U.S. 757 (1983), the United States Supreme Court recognized a public policy exception to the enforcement of an arbitrator’s award. The Court stated:

As with any contract, however, a court may not enforce a collective-bargaining agreement that is contrary to public policy.. .. Such a public policy, however, must be well defined and dominant, and is to be ascertained “by reference to the laws and legal precedents and not from general considerations of supposed public interests.” (Citations omitted.)

461 U.S. at 766.

In United Paperworkers International Union, AFL-CIO v. Misco, Inc., 484 U.S. 29 (1987), the United States Supreme Court emphasized that the courts play only a limited role when asked to review the decision of an arbitrator. The Court stated:

In W.R. Grace, we recognized that “a court may not enforce a collective-bargaining agreement that is contrary to public policy,” and stated that “the question of public policy is ultimately one for resolution by the courts.” We cautioned, however, that a court’s refusal to enforce an arbitrator’s interpretation of such contracts is limited to situations where the contract as interpreted would violate “some explicit public policy” that is “well defined and dominant, and is to be ascertained ‘by reference to the laws and legal precedents and not from general considerations of supposed public interests.’” In W.R.

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Doe v. Central Arkansas Transit
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Bluebook (online)
900 S.W.2d 582, 50 Ark. App. 132, 149 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2899, 1995 Ark. App. LEXIS 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-central-arkansas-transit-arkctapp-1995.