Lane v. Goren

743 F.2d 1337, 35 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1650, 5 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2089, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 18196, 35 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 34,692
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 27, 1984
DocketNo. 83-6496
StatusPublished
Cited by65 cases

This text of 743 F.2d 1337 (Lane v. Goren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lane v. Goren, 743 F.2d 1337, 35 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1650, 5 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2089, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 18196, 35 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 34,692 (9th Cir. 1984).

Opinion

SKOPIL, Circuit Judge:

The district court held that California statutes prohibiting employment discrimination are applicable to the relationship between a pension trust fund and the trust’s own employees. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Richard Lane, et ah, (“Trustees”) are trustees of the Carpenters Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee Fund for Southern California (“CJATC”). The CJATC administers an employee welfare benefit plan which is funded by pension contributions made by employers of union carpenters. According to the trust agreement, some of the contributions made to the CJATC are utilized to fund a program for training carpentry apprentices and retraining journeyman carpenters. The CJATC is an employee benefit plan within the meaning of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq.

Osias Goren, et al, are members of the Fair Employment and Housing Commission (“FEHC”) of the State of California. The FEHC operates in conjunction with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing of the State of California (“DFEH”), a state agency. The DFEH is authorized to investigate and attempt to conciliate charges of racial, religious, sexual, or age discrimination prohibited by the provisions of Cal.Gov.Code §§ 12940 and 12941, lodged by individuals against their employers. See generally, Cal.Gov.Code § 12960 et seq.

The DFEH is also authorized to file written accusations with the FEHC against employers it believes have engaged in discriminatory employment practices. Cal.Gov. [1339]*1339Code § 12965. The FEHC may, pursuant to Cal.Gov.Code § 12969 et seq., conduct hearings with regard to charges of unlawful employment discrimination filed by the DFEH against employers. The FEHC may also issue written factual findings and enter orders requiring employers to take corrective action to eliminate discriminatory practices and to award monetary relief to employees. Id.

John Headley, a 68 year-old black male, was employed by the CJATC as an apprentice coordinator. Following his discharge in 1980, Headley filed a charge of employment discrimination, based upon race and age, with the DFEH. The DFEH subsequently issued an accusation against the CJATC based on Headley’s charges, and an administrative hearing was conducted by the FEHC. The FEHC ruled in Headley’s favor and on August 8, 1983 ordered in-junctive and monetary relief.

The Trustees then filed this action for declaratory and injunctive relief pursuant to section 502 of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1132, alleging that the Commission lacked jurisdiction to regulate discriminatory employment practices of the CJATC because California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act is pre-empted by section 514(a) of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1144(a). Goren and the other FEHC members moved to dismiss. The district court treated the motion as one for summary judgment. It held that the FEHC had jurisdiction to regulate discriminatory employment practices of the CJATC, and that such jurisdiction was not pre-empted by ERISA.

The Trustees appealed.

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review.

A grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo. Lojek v. Thomas, 716 F.2d 675, 677 (9th Cir.1983). Because there are no contested issues of fact, the panel need only decide whether the substantive law was correctly applied. Amaro v. Continental Can Co., 724 F.2d 747, 749 (9th Cir.1984).

B. Merits.

Section 514(a) of ERISA provides: “Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, the provisions of this title and title IV shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan____” Although the preemptive effect of ERISA is broad, it is not all-encompassing. For example, section 514(a) goes on to shield from preemption “any law of any state which regulates insurance, banking, or securities.” 29 U.S.C. § 1144(b)(2)(A). In addition, section 1144(b)(4) states that the preemption provision “shall not apply to any generally applicable criminal law of a State.” Congress further limited the preemptive effect of ERISA in the definitional section, 29 U.S.C. § 1144(c)(2), wherein it is established that the term “State” for preemption purposes includes a state or its political subdivisions or agencies of either, “which purports to regulate, directly or indirectly, the terms and conditions of employee benefits plans covered by this sub-chapter.”

The plain language of the statute establishes at least three conditions which must be met before a court may find a state statute is superseded. First, the state law must “relate to” an employee benefit plan. Second, the state law is not preempted if it regulates insurance, banking, or securities, or is a generally applicable criminal law. Third, the state statute must attempt to reach in one way or another the “terms and conditions of employee benefit plans.” 29 U.S.C. § 1144(c)(2). We find that neither the first nor the third parts of this test are satisfied in this case.

The Supreme Court recently held in Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 463 U.S. 85, 103 S.Ct. 2890, 2900, 77 L.Ed.2d 490 (1983) that a law “ ‘relates to’ an employee benefit plan, in the normal sense of the phrase, if it has a connection with or reference to such a plan.”

The question presented in Shaw was whether ERISA preempted a New York statute which prohibited discrimination [1340]*1340based on pregnancy in the distribution of pension and welfare benefits by an ERISA-regulated fund at a time when federal law did not prohibit pregnancy based discrimination:

We have no difficulty in concluding that the Human Rights law ... ‘relate[s] to’ employee benefit plans____ A law ‘relates to’ an employee benefit plan, in the normal sense of the phrase, if it has a connection with or reference to such a plan. Employing this definition, the Human Rights law, which prohibits employers from structuring their employee benefit plans in a manner that discriminates on the basis of pregnancy ... clearly ‘relate[s] to’ benefit plans.

Shaw, 103 S.Ct. at 2900. But in a footnote, the Court continued “of course, § 514(a) pre-empts state laws only insofar as they relate to plans covered by ERISA.

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743 F.2d 1337, 35 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1650, 5 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2089, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 18196, 35 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 34,692, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lane-v-goren-ca9-1984.