Kathy Anderson v. Ford Motor Company

803 F.2d 953, 1 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1011, 123 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2753, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 32561
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedOctober 23, 1986
Docket85-5370
StatusPublished

This text of 803 F.2d 953 (Kathy Anderson v. Ford Motor Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kathy Anderson v. Ford Motor Company, 803 F.2d 953, 1 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1011, 123 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2753, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 32561 (8th Cir. 1986).

Opinion

803 F.2d 953

123 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2753, 55 USLW 2241,
105 Lab.Cas. P 12,084,
1 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1011

Kathy ANDERSON, Sue Bydzovsky, Mike Disanto, Jim Donaldson,
Randy A. Engel, Janet Frost, Carolyn Gillispie, Denise
Gomez, Nancy Haider, Tommy Haines, Dean Hedberg, Clyde
Hughes, Ann Labelle, Scott Maki, Dan Matykiewicz, Robin
McCloskey, Jeff McFarland, Liz McFarland, Jean McNally, Ken
McNamara, Audry Moen, Janet Murphy, Stephen Nelson, Lorna
Olsen, Mark Olsen, Terry Pendersen, Bessie Poole, Barbara
Pratt, Tony Quevedo, D.J. Rierson, Terri Savage, Betty
Simms, Jeffrey Sorenson, Dennis Stordah, Keith W. Swan, Tom
Sypnieski, Bruce Griffith, James Koshenina, James Wenzel,
Sandra Moshier, Appellants,
v.
FORD MOTOR COMPANY, United Auto Workers International Union,
Appellees.

No. 85-5370.

United States Court of Appeals,
Eighth Circuit.

Submitted May 14, 1986.
Decided Oct. 23, 1986.

Roderick Macpherson, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellants.

Robert Hobbins, Minneapolis, Minn., for Ford Motor Co.

Michael B. Nicholson, Detroit, Mich., for United Auto Workers.

Before McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge, BRIGHT, Senior Circuit Judge, and BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge.

Appellants seek review of a final order entered in the District Court for the District of Minnesota dismissing their state law claims against Ford Motor Company (Ford) and the United Auto Workers International Union (UAW or union) as preempted by Sec. 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a) (Sec. 301).1 For reversal appellants argue the district court erred in dismissing their state law claims because (1) the source of the rights they assert is independent of the collective bargaining agreement between Ford and the UAW and adjudication of their state law claims would not require an interpretation of the terms of that agreement, and (2) preemption is inappropriate because the application of state law in this case would not interfere with the federal scheme favoring collective bargaining. For the reasons discussed below, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings.

During the summer of 1983, Ford scheduled a production increase to begin in December 1983 at its Twin Cities assembly plant located in St. Paul, Minnesota. To meet the labor demands of the projected increase, Ford needed to hire approximately 250 additional production employees at the plant. By agreement with the UAW, Ford was required to offer these available jobs to company employees on a preferential hiring list. This list consisted of the names of laid-off Ford employees throughout the country whose plants had either been shut down or who were on indefinite layoff. Ford began to offer employment at the Twin Cities plant to preferentially placed applicants in October 1983. Ford also contacted appellants and offered them employment. Appellants were former Ford employees who had been laid off during 1980, but whose recall rights had expired due to the length of time they had been on layoff. Appellants were employed as new hires under the collective bargaining agreement between Ford and the UAW and were subject to a 90-day probationary period. Before the end of the probationary period, in February 1984, appellants were "bumped" from their jobs by employees from the preferential hiring list.

Appellants brought this action in state court alleging, inter alia, state law claims of fraud, breach of a verbal contract of employment, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrongful discharge, promissory estoppel, and negligence. There was no allegation that Ford had violated the collective bargaining agreement. According to the complaint, Ford represented to appellants when they were hired that they were being taken on as permanent employees of the company. As former Ford employees, appellants were familiar with the preferential hiring list and they claim that they sought and received repeated assurances from Ford that they would not be "bumped" by preferential hirees. Appellants contend Ford told them that the preferential hiring list had been exhausted, that they would not be replaced by preferential hirees, and that they would be laid off only if there was an economic downturn. Appellants allege that Ford reiterated these assurances during the new hire orientation. Appellants speculate that Ford was not able to meet its hiring needs for the proposed production increase in sufficient time through the preferential hiring list, and therefore hired appellants to fill the short term work requirement until replacement employees from the preferential list could be hired.

Appellants sought relief in the form of reinstatement, backpay, accrued benefits, specific performance of the contract for permanent employment, consequential damages, damages for emotional distress, and punitive damages. After commencement of the action, appellants joined the UAW as a defendant for the purpose of obtaining a complete remedy pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 19.2 Ford had the case removed to the federal district court.3

Ford and the UAW moved for summary judgment on two occasions based upon federal preemption. The district court denied the first motion. Appellants then voluntarily withdrew the wrongful discharge claim. In their second motion for summary judgment, Ford and the UAW argued that appellants' state law claims were preempted by federal labor law and by failure to exhaust the grievance procedure contained in the collective bargaining agreement between Ford and the union. The district court granted the motion and this appeal followed.

The sole issue before us in this appeal is whether appellants' state law claims are preempted by federal labor law.4 Where federal and state law conflict in the area of labor relations, or where local regulation would frustrate the federal labor law scheme, federal law preempts state law. Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U.S. 497, 504, 98 S.Ct. 1185, 1189, 55 L.Ed.2d 43 (1978). Federal labor policy favors collective bargaining between labor and management. Uniformity in the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements is considered essential to the federal scheme favoring collective bargaining. See Teamsters v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U.S. 95, 103, 82 S.Ct. 571, 576, 7 L.Ed.2d 593 (1962). Such uniformity is assured by application of the preemption doctrine under Sec. 301.5 "Substantive principles of federal labor law must be paramount in the area covered by the statute [so that] issues raised in suits of a kind covered by Sec. 301 [are] to be decided according to the precepts of federal labor policy." Id.

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Anderson v. Ford Motor Co.
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Bluebook (online)
803 F.2d 953, 1 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1011, 123 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2753, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 32561, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kathy-anderson-v-ford-motor-company-ca8-1986.