Hummel v. Brennan

83 F.R.D. 141, 102 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2048, 27 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1329, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11179
District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided July 9, 1979·No. Civ. A. No, 79-856·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BECHTLE, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Lloyd R. Hummel (“Hummel”) and Robert A. Gartner (“Gartner”) brought this action pursuant to Section 102, 29 U.S.C. § 412, of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (“LMRDA”), as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 401 et seq., against defendants Robert C. Brennan (“Brennan”), Secretary-Treasurer of Local 492; ■ George Szatkowsky, President-Business Manager of Local 492; and Local 492 of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers’ International Union of America, AFL-CIO (“Local”). Plaintiffs challenge the method by which the Local enacted a union dues increase, by ballot vote at five separate shop unit meetings, as being violative of the notice and secret ballot requirements of Section 101, 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(3)(A) and 29 U.S.C. § 402(k), and the constitution and bylaws of Local 492. The plaintiffs sought to enjoin the collection of dues at the increased rate, restitution of any excess dues collected from Local 492 members and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.

In response to defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint, claiming that plaintiffs failed to exhaust internal union remedies pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(4), this Court on April 5, 1979, after a hearing, denied the defendants’ motion and entered an Order granting plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction. On April 25, 1979, the Court entered an Opinion making findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of the Order of April 5, Hummel v. Brennan, 469 F.Supp. 1180 (E.D.Pa.1979), which held that the voting procedures at all five shop unit elections violated the secret ballot and notice requirements of §§ 411(a)(3)(A) and 402(k) of the LMRDA.

By Order dated April 27, 1979, upon agreement of counsel and the Court, in furtherance of the Court’s Order of April 5, 1979, the defendants were restrained and enjoined from collecting from members of Local 492 union dues in excess of $11.00 per month/per member. The defendants were ordered to establish an escrow account for the deposit of those dues collected in excess of $11.00 per month/per member. The Order also required plaintiffs to post a cash bond. Permanent injunctive relief was granted on May 10, 1979, following a hearing.

Presently before the Court is the plaintiffs’ motion for certification of this suit as a class action, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a), (b)(2) and (b)(3). For the reasons stated below, plaintiffs’ motion for class action determination will be granted and we will certify, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a) and (b)(2), the following class:

All persons who, by reason of mémbership in Local 492 of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers’ International Union of America, AFL-CIO, have paid, by payroll deduction or otherwise, any increase in dues to the Local by reason of the dues increase ruled invalid by this Court’s Memorandum Opinion of April 25, 1979, [144]*144and this Court’s Orders of April 5, 1979; April 27, 1979; and, May 10, 1979.

Initially, the defendants have raised the issue of whether class certification is warranted at all, arguing that any relief which could be granted by the Court to the class as a whole has, in effect, already been granted by the Court’s Order of April 27, 1979. It is acknowledged that the Court’s invalidation of the January 1979 dues increase election has effectively granted relief to the members of Local 492 without class certification. However, absent class certification, plaintiffs’ additional requested relief consisting of reimbursement of all dues collected in excess of $11.00 per month/per member would only compel reimbursement to the persons named as parties to the suit and would not directly require, under the threat of contempt proceedings, reimbursement of excess dues to all other members of Local 492. The Court’s determination of the reimbursement issue as to the party plaintiffs does have a collateral estoppel effect as to the other members of the Local. However, it would compel the initiation of time-consuming and costly individual lawsuits for relatively small sums of money. Alternatively, the Court declines to leave the effective enforcement of this action in respect to non-parties to the defendants alone, as was deemed permissible in Tindall v. Hardin, 337 F.Supp. 563, 567 (W.D.Pa.1972). There, the court held that Rule 23(b)(2) class certification was unnecessary due to the existence of several hundred separate factual issues and the court’s belief that the defendant state would honor the court’s order-as legal precedent and make voluntary reimbursement of moneys owed to all aggrieved persons even though not parties to the litigation.

In the instant case, we are not faced with several hundred factual issues concerning individual reimbursement because of the existence of employee earnings records which should render certain the sums deducted for union dues. In that regard, the Court is not blindly opening the “Pandora’s box” that has concerned other courts in Rule 23(b)(2) certification cases. See Rhodes v. Weinberger, 388 F.Supp. 437, 444 (E.D.Pa.1975); Paddison v. Fidelity Bank, 60 F.R.D. 695, 698 (E.D.Pa.1973). Further, under the standard in Tindall, this Court, in its discretionary judgment believes that, by reason of the adversary relationship of the Local to not only the plaintiffs, but to others adversely affected by the abortive dues increase, the prompt resolution of the problem of the reimbursement of excess dues collected would best be served by class certification. Additionally, we are not faced with the doctrine of judicial comity that was present in Tindall.

Class certification would require the reimbursement of any excess, dues collected to all class members and serve to further strengthen the impact of the Court’s Order by allowing enforcement through court proceedings if the Local failed to reimburse any excess dues owed. See 3B Moore’s Federal Practice, ¶ 23.40[3] at 23-296.

Finally, we adopt the reasoning of the court in Mendoza v. Lavine, 72 F.R.D. 520 (S.D.N.Y.1976). There, in an action challenging the administration of public assistance programs by the City of New York, the court held that, although class certification might be unnecessary because the benefit of injunctive or declaratory relief would run to all persons similarly situated:

. [nevertheless, it seems advisable to cautiously safeguard the interests of the entire class by ensuring that any order runs to the class as a whole. See Perez v. Lavine, 378 F.Supp. 1390 (S.D.N.Y., Dec. 13, 1974). Were this unnecessary, class certification pursuant to Rule 23(b)(2) would, arguably, never be necessary. Moreover, class certification will also help to avoid any future problem of mootness. See Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975).

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Hummel v. Brennan, 83 F.R.D. 141, 102 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2048, 27 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1329, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11179 (E.D. Pa. 1979).

83 F.R.D. 141 (Hummel v. Brennan) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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