First Federal Finance Corp. v. Carrion-Concepcion

87 F. Supp. 3d 332, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20854, 2015 WL 728105
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 20, 2015
DocketCivil Nos. 14-1019 (SEC), 14-1522(SEC)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 87 F. Supp. 3d 332 (First Federal Finance Corp. v. Carrion-Concepcion) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Federal Finance Corp. v. Carrion-Concepcion, 87 F. Supp. 3d 332, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20854, 2015 WL 728105 (prd 2015).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

SALVADOR E. CASELLAS, Senior District Judge.

This labor-arbitration action has “destroyed the prospect of speedy resolution that arbitration in general and bilateral arbitration in particular was meant to secure.” Am. Exp. Co. v. Italian Colors Rest., — U.S.-, 133 S.Ct. 2304, 2312, 186 L.Ed.2d 417 (2013). Taking issue with the Court’s use of “harsh words” against him, Docket # 63, Hiram Carrión-Concep-eión (Carrion) seeks clarification from an order noting that “the parties’ apparent litigation strategies (with [Carrion] having the lion’s share of the blame) have unnecessarily complicated what should otherwise be a straightforward review of an arbitration award.” Docket # 60. A chronological recount of this protracted litigation sets the stage.

The parties entered into an arbitration agreement whereby Carrion agreed to “submit to arbitration any claim for alleged discrimination, breach of contract, damages or retaliation related with the termination” of his employment. Carrión-Concepcion v. First Fed. Fin. Corp., No. 10-1617, 2011 WL 5059192, at *2 (D.P.R. Aug. 3, 2011). As it happened, Carrion was fired and allegedly sexually harassed. But, instead of submitting that matter to arbitration (as he had agreed to), Carrion decided to file a federal-question action on July, 6, 2010, claiming a litany of labor violations. See generally No. 10-1617(FAB), at Docket # 1. For some unknown and unfortunate reason, it took the employer almost a year to move to compel arbitration. Id. at Docket # 32. And although Carrion opposed that request, Judge Besosa agreed with the magistrate judge’s recommendation that the matter should be referred to arbitration, id. at Docket # 67, and in October 2011, he entered judgment dismissing the case without prejudice. Id. at Docket # 68. Carrion never appealed that inexpugnable decision.

For the next two years, the parties litigated their labor dispute before an arbitrator, and as particularly relevant here, they agreed “that the issue” of attorneys’ fees “will be bifurcated.” Docket # 17-2. On December 11, 2013, the arbitrator rendered an “interim award,” ruling, among other things, that Carrion had been sexually harassed. Docket # 1-9, p. 1. A second action, requesting the revocation of the arbitration award under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. § 10(a), was thereupon filed in this court — this time by the employer. Docket # 1.

Carrion then decided to move to dismiss under both Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). Docket # 16. In a nutshell, he argued that because the arbitrator’s interim award had left unresolved the issue of attorneys’ fees and costs, and because he had moved to “correct” the award to reflect the doubling of damages under Puerto Rico law, this court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to consider the employer’s motion to vacate. Id. at 3-8. The Court found that argument to be “way off the mark,” Docket # 43, and this is the first “harsh word” that Carrion complains about, Docket # 63, p. 6. But that argument fell — and still falls — miles short, because the “Interim Award plainly disposed of all the substantive claims raised by the respondent in his demand for arbitration.” Docket # 43, p. 1. Unde[334]*334terred, Carrion moved for reconsideration, rehashing all his previous arguments. Docket # 48. And in a desperate attempt to distinguish on-point, controlling precedent, Carrion informed that the parties had never agreed “to bifurcate” the arbitration “in any way at all.” Id. at 14-15. That is false, of course, because the parties and the arbitrator explicitly agreed “that the issue” of attorneys’ fees “will be bifurcated.” Docket # 17-2. “Clearly, then, both the parties and the arbitrator agreed to bifurcate the arbitral proceeding and understood the determination of liability to be a final award.” Providence Journal Co. v. Providence Newspaper Guild, 271 F.3d 16, 20 (1st Cir.2001). That Carrion moved to “modify” the award, moreover, does not change the outcome. Cf. Fradella v. Petricca, 183 F.3d 17, 20 (1st Cir.1999) (rejecting argument “that an application to modify or clarify an arbitral award tolls the FAA § 12 limitations period”) (footnote omitted); accord Olson v. Wexford Clearing Servs. Corp., 397 F.3d 488, 490 (7th Cir.2005) (Wood, J.). So the Court permissibly called that argument “way off the mark,” because it'was explicitly foreclosed by binding caselaw, which was conspicuously absent from Carrion’s motion to dismiss.

Carrion next complains about the Court’s remark that his 12(b)(6) request “le[ft] much to be desired.” Docket # 63 (citing Docket # 40). That is exactly how the Court felt, however, not least because Carrion’s argument depended solely on the continuing vitality of the so-called manifest disregard of the law doctrine. But Carrion ignored that the First Circuit “and courts in this district have continued to apply the doctrine as they await a more direct ruling from the higher courts.” P.R. Tel. Co. v. WorldNet Telecomm., Inc., 52 F.Supp.3d 370, 384, No. 14-1062, 2014 WL 4627100, at *11 (D.P.R. Sept. 15, 2014); see also Universal Ins. Co. v. War-rantech Consumer Prod. Servs., Inc., 849 F.Supp.2d 227, 237 (D.P.R.2012) (Casellas, J.) (sidestepping “this difficult and important issue that the courts have only begun to resolve,” and applying arguendo the manifest disregard of the law doctrine) (internal citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Of course, the Court would have gladly disposed of this action through Carrion’s motion to dismiss; but, quite simply, it was placed in no position to do so.

That brings us back to Carrion’s request for the Court to “squarely state what are the set of facts demonstrating that he has,” Docket # 63, p. 6, the “lion’s share of the blame” for “unnecessarily complicating] what should 'otherwise be a straightforward review of an arbitration award.” Docket # 60. The Court indulges this request.

The first “set of facts” has already been recounted above. First, Carrion filed this federal action in 2010 instead of submitting the matter to arbitration, as he had agreed to, and as two judicial officers ultimately so held. Second, instead of filing a motion to modify the award in this court, he filed it before the arbitrator, thus ignoring the admonition that “[n]o statutory or judicial authority support[s] [a] contention that ... [an] application to correct the award toll[s] the FAA § 12 limitations period.” Fradella, 183 F.3d at 21. Third, he falsely told the Court that the parties never agreed “to bifurcate” the arbitration “in any way at all.” Docket # 48, pp. 14-15.

But there is more. First, the Court was forced to enter a show-cause order because Carrion’s 23-page motion for reconsideration manifestly violated Local Rule 7(d), which provides that “[n]on-dispositive motions and memoranda or oppositions to those motions shall not exceed fifteen (15) pages in length.” Docket #56. Second, [335]

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Bluebook (online)
87 F. Supp. 3d 332, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20854, 2015 WL 728105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-federal-finance-corp-v-carrion-concepcion-prd-2015.