Jones v. Caterpillar Tractor Co.

607 N.E.2d 1348, 241 Ill. App. 3d 129, 180 Ill. Dec. 835, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 118
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 4, 1993
DocketNo. 4—92—0408
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 607 N.E.2d 1348 (Jones v. Caterpillar Tractor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 607 N.E.2d 1348, 241 Ill. App. 3d 129, 180 Ill. Dec. 835, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 118 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE LUND

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiffs filed a complaint against defendant Caterpillar Tractor Company (defendant), for allegedly violating certain terms of their apprenticeship agreements and for misrepresentation. The trial court granted summary judgment for defendant on the basis of Schacht v. Caterpillar, Inc. (1991), 213 Ill. App. 3d 169, 571 N.E.2d 1215, appeal denied (1991), 141 Ill. 2d 560, 580 N.E.2d 134, cert. denied (1992), 503 U.S. 926, 117 L. Ed. 2d 644, 112 S. Ct. 1506. Plaintiffs appeal this award of summary judgment. We affirm.

Plaintiffs are former and present employees of defendant. At various times between 1978 and 1982, each plaintiff entered into defendant’s apprentice training program. The terms of the apprenticeships were set forth in a standardized apprenticeship agreement entered into between each individual employee and defendant. Among its provisions, the agreement provided that the trainee would receive wages according to the current applicable schedule of rates contained in the collective-bargaining agreement, and defendant would teach and instruct plaintiffs for the entire training period specified in the agreement. Of particular importance to this case was an additional provision which provided:

“[Defendant] reserves the right to separate the TRAINEE from the Training Course for failure to maintain the standards of the course including but not limited to: unsatisfactory work, inability to acquire the necessary knowledge for graduation, improper conduct, indifferences to factory rules and regulations, insubordination, or any other justifiable reason.”

Upon completion of the training program, the agreement specified that defendant intended to offer the trainee job placement. The type of placement would depend upon the openings available, the ability and progress displayed during training, and the graduate’s desires.

In the early 1980’s, defendant experienced economic difficulties and in response laid off employees pursuant to the layoff and seniority provisions in the central collective-bargaining agreement and related provisions of the local agreements. Plaintiffs were terminated at various times from the training program during these layoffs.

During the layoffs, defendant and the union had two collective-bargaining agreements in effect. The first was effective December 15, 1979, and its successor was effective April 19, 1983. Each plaintiff during his employment was a member of a collective-bargaining unit represented by the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Workers of America, Local 751 (Union). While serving as apprentices, plaintiffs continued to hold membership in the Union and to pay Union dues.

In response to the layoffs, 45 of the laid-off apprentices filed an action in State court against defendant for common law breach of contract. The complaint consisted of 45 counts, one for each plaintiff, alleging defendant breached their apprenticeship agreements by failing and refusing to employ them as apprentices and by failing and refusing to provide them training or allow them to complete the training program. Defendant subsequently petitioned to remove the action to the United States District Court. It contended that plaintiffs’ terms and conditions of employment, including removal and termination from the apprenticeship program, were governed by the collective-bargaining agreement and that the apprenticeship agreements were subsumed by it. Therefore, the action was preempted under section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (LMRA) (29 U.S.C. § 185(a) (1988)) and was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal courts.

Plaintiffs moved to remand the action. They argued that their apprenticeship agreements were separate and independent of any collective-bargaining agreement, and, therefore, their claims were not preempted. The Federal district court ordered the action remanded to the State court based on the authority of Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams (1987), 482 U.S. 386, 96 L. Ed. 2d 318, 107 S. Ct. 2425. It found that plaintiffs’ State-law claims for breach of the individual apprenticeship contracts did not implicate the applicable collective-bargaining agreement nor were they completely preempted by section 301(a) of the LMRA. Plaintiffs’ motion for remand, therefore, was allowed. Jones v. Caterpillar, Inc. (C.D. Ill. Aug. 7, 1987), No. 86 — 3047 (order allowing motion for remand).

Defendant then filed an answer to the complaint and raised as an affirmative defense that plaintiffs’ claims were preempted by section 301(a) of the LMRA and that plaintiffs failed to allege the prerequisites to suit under that section. Plaintiffs later filed a motion for summary judgment, and defendant filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, again arguing that plaintiffs’ claims for breach of the apprenticeship agreements were preempted by section 301(a) of the LMRA. The trial court denied both motions for summary judgment. In so ruling, it found that the apprenticeship agreements were not “subsumed” into the collective-bargaining agreement, and the claims, therefore, were not preempted.

On July 25, 1989, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint. Each of the 45 plaintiffs alleged one count of misrepresentation and one count of breach of contract. Defendant subsequently filed a motion requesting the court to reconsider the order denying its motion for summary judgment and in the alternative asking it to certify the issue for appeal. The trial court certified the issue of “[wjhether the resolution of this case requires the interpretation of a collective[-]bargaining agreement and, accordingly, whether the suit is preempted by Section 301 of the [LMRA]” for interlocutory appeal. On October 23, 1989, this court denied defendant’s petition for leave to appeal. (Jones v. Caterpillar, Inc. (1989), No. 4 — 89—0792 (order of clerk denying petition for leave to appeal).) Defendant then answered the amended complaint and again asserted the affirmative defense of preemption.

On October 30, 1989, the trial court granted plaintiff’s motion to join 120 additional persons and to supplement its amended complaint. Each new plaintiff filed one count of misrepresentation and one count of breach of his or her apprenticeship agreement. Defendant answered the supplement to the amended complaint and reiterated its affirmative defense of preemption. On December 9, 1991, defendant filed a renewed motion for summary judgment, asserting that plaintiffs’ claims were preempted by section 301(a) of the LMRA. To support its contention, it cited the recent Schacht decision and filed volumes of materials from the Schacht record. The trial court granted defendant’s renewed motion for summary judgment on the basis of the Schacht decision, and this appeal followed.

Summary judgment is properly granted when “the pleadings, depositions, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 110, par. 2 — 1005(c); see also Purtill v. Hess (1986), 111 Ill.

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Bluebook (online)
607 N.E.2d 1348, 241 Ill. App. 3d 129, 180 Ill. Dec. 835, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-caterpillar-tractor-co-illappct-1993.