New York Dialysis Services, Inc. v. New York State Nurses Ass'n

262 F. Supp. 3d 96
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 28, 2017
Docket17 Civ. 469 (JSR)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 262 F. Supp. 3d 96 (New York Dialysis Services, Inc. v. New York State Nurses Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New York Dialysis Services, Inc. v. New York State Nurses Ass'n, 262 F. Supp. 3d 96 (S.D.N.Y. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JED S. RAKOFF, U.S.D.J.

This case concerns the arbitrability of a labor dispute that ripened more than two years after the parties’ collective bargaining agreement expired in June 2014, In October 2016, following a series of delays, petitioner New York Dialysis Services, Inc. (“New York Dialysis”) opened a dialysis facility that was originally intended to replace two facilities that had been staffed by members of respondent New York State Nurses Association (the “Association”). New York Dialysis has refused; to apply the expired agreement at the new facility and to recognize the Association as the exclusive bargaining agent for registered nurses employed there. After the Association demanded arbitration of the dispute pursuant to the expired agreement’s dispute resolution provisions, New York Dialysis moved to permanently stay such arbitration. Having carefully considered the parties’ arguments and submissions, the Court hereby grants petitioner’s motion and directs the entry of final judgment permanently staying (and therefore, in effect, prohibiting) the arbitration.

Courts apply the summary judgment. standard to motions to stay arbitration. Bensadoun v. Jobe-Riat, 316 F.3d 171, 176 (2d Cir. 2003) (“[T]he summary judgment standard is appropriate in cases where the District Court is required to determine arbitrability, regardless of whether the relief sought is an order to compel arbitration or to prevent arbitration.”). “If there is an issue of fact as to the making of the agreement for arbitration, then a trial is necessary.” Id.

The pertinent facts, undisputed except where noted, are as follows. - New York Dialysis operates 41 dialysis clinics in New York State, including several in New York City. See Declaration of Courtney Cordon (“Cordon Decl.”), ECF No. 11, ¶ 5. The Association is a labor organization representing approximately 40,000 registered nurses throughout the state. See Declaration of Rory D. Barthel, ECF No, 15, ¶ 4. For most of the past decade, New York Dialysis and the Association have entered multiple collective bargaining agreements covering distinct bargaining units in the New York City area. See Declaration of Eric C. Smith (“Smith Decl.”), ECF No. 14, ¶ 6. At issue in this case is the collective bargaining agreement known as the “ABC CBA,” because it governed the ABC bargaining unit.

The ABC CBA became effective .on July 1, 2011 and expired on June 30,; 2014. See ABC CBA, Ex. A to Cordon Decl., § 17. At the . beginning of 2013, the agreement covered four facilities operated by New York Dialysis and staffed by Association nurses: the Atlantic Hemodialysis Center (the “Atlantic Center”), the Brooklyn Kidney Center (the “Brooklyn- Center”), the Atlantic Peritoneal Home Dialysis and Training Center (the “Atlantic Training Center”), and the Atlantic Hemodialysis at the Cobble Hill Nursing Home and Rehar bilitation Center (the. “Cobble Hill Center”). See id. at Preamble; Cordon Decl. ¶6; Smith Decl. ¶6. The ABC CBA provided that it would also apply to “any other, location(s) to which the. Employer [New-York Dialysis] may ¡move the existing operations” and that it “shall apply to [99]*99any new or additional facilities of the employer [sic] under the same facility operating certificate.” ABC CBA § 1. The agreement set forth detailed dispute resolution procedures that would culminate in arbitration conducted by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under the AAA’s Labor Arbitration Rules. See id. § • 13. The parties began negotiating a replacement to the ABC CBA befqre it expired in June 2014, but to date have not entered- a new agreement. Cordon Dec! ¶ 8;

By summer of 2013, New York Dialysis was planning to open a new 50-chair dialysis facility located at 595 DeGraw Street in Brooklyn (“DeGraw”). Id. ¶¶ 9-10. DeGraw was intended to replace the 50 chairs that New York Dialysis then operated' at the Atlantic Center (28 chairs) and the' Brooklyn Center (22 chairs). Id. ¶9. DeGraw was also to replace the Atlantic Training Center, a small teaching office for home dialysis instruction. Id. ¶6, 10. To that end, New York Dialysis planned to simultaneously close the Atlantic Center and Brooklyn Center, open DeGraw, and transfer the patients and staff from the closing facilities to DeGraw. Id. ¶ 10. New York Dialysis also considered transferring the Cobble Hill Center (a five-chair facility located at a nursing home) to DeGraw, but ultimately chose not to do so. Id. ¶16.

Before the ABC CBA expired, New York Dialysis informed the Association of its plans to replace these facilities with DeGraw. Id. ¶ 11. In particular, on May 21, 2014, New York Dialysis told the Association that it planned to open DeGraw and that Association nurses covered by the ABC CBA would be relocated there. Smith Decl. ¶8. Later that month, New York Dialysis and Association representatives jointly informed affected nurses of the planned transition to DeGraw, explained their interim work options, and told them that they would ultimately be able to move to DeGraw. Id ¶ 9. '

The DeGraw transition did not happen as planned. For reasons outside of New York Dialysis’s control, DeGraw, which was initially supposed to open in December 2013, did not open until October 2016. The opening was first delayed because the New York City Department of Bdildings decided to delay issuing necessary permits to the petitioner so that the petitioner’s future landlord would pressure an existing tenant to obtain its' own permits. Id ¶ 12. Later, asbestos was discovered in the future DeGraw site, and had to be removed. Id. New York Dialysis also had trouble obtaining enough electricity to run De-Graw. Id. Thus, as of spring 2016, there was .still no opening date in sight. Id. ¶ 13.

During the delay period, the three facilities that New York Dialysis intended to transfer to DeGraw experienced serious setbacks of their own. On May 22, 2014, New York Dialysis was forced to close the Atlantic Center because the hospital where it was located closed. Id ¶ 14. In August 2015, New York Dialysis was also forced to close the Brooklyn Center because its landlord sold the property and terminated New York Dialysis’s lease. Id. Finally, during 2015, the Atlantic Training Center experienced a drop in patient census that led New York Dialysis to opt against transferring it to DeGraw for fear'that still more patients would be lost, Id U17.

The closure of the Atlantic Center- was the only one of these events to occur before the ABC CBA expired. In June 2014, New York Dialysis and the Association entered an agreement (the “Atlantic Closure Agreement”) under which Atlantic Center nurses were transferred to other New York Dialysis facilities. In that agreement, New York Dialysis acknowledged that it planned to transfer patients .currently being treated at the Atlantic Center [100]*100and the Brooklyn Center to DeGraw. See Atlantic Closure Agreement, Ex. A to Smith Decl., ¶ 4. The agreement also provided that Association nurses then employed at the Atlantic Center would have limited rights (so-called “recall rights”) to be employed at other Néw York Dialysis facilities ahead of external hires. See id. ¶ 8. Although DeGraw was not specifically listed among the facilities to which the recall rights applied, the contract provided that the recall rights applied to “clinics within the [New York Dialysis/Association] ABC ... bargaining unit[ ],” see id., which, at that time, the parties believed would eventually include DeGraw. See Smith Decl. ¶ 8; see also ABC CBA § 1 (“It is agreed that this Agreement shall apply ...

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262 F. Supp. 3d 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-dialysis-services-inc-v-new-york-state-nurses-assn-nysd-2017.