State ex rel. Vaughn Industries, L.L.C. v. Ohio Department of Commerce

109 Ohio St. 3d 482
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 28, 2006
DocketNo. 2005-1921
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 109 Ohio St. 3d 482 (State ex rel. Vaughn Industries, L.L.C. v. Ohio Department of Commerce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Vaughn Industries, L.L.C. v. Ohio Department of Commerce, 109 Ohio St. 3d 482 (Ohio 2006).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing a petition for a writ of mandamus to compel a state agency and its director to comply with the terms of a settlement agreement concerning complaints filed with the agency alleging violations of the Ohio Prevailing-Wage Law.

{¶2} Appellant, Vaughn Industries, L.L.C. (“Vaughn”), is an electrical and mechanical contractor that performs construction work on public improvements. According to Vaughn’s complaint, in 1995, the Department of Industrial Relations, which then enforced the prevailing-wage law, investigated Vaughn to determine whether it was complying with R.C. 4115.03 through 4115.16. Vaughn 'filed suit, and the department counterclaimed, in a dispute over credits for payments made by Vaughn to a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (“VEBA”). In December 1997, the Wyandot County Court of Common Pleas accepted the voluntary dismissal of the parties’ claims without prejudice based upon a settlement agreement between Vaughn and the Administrator of the Bureau of Employment Services, to whom the duties of enforcement of the prevailing-wage law had been transferred. According to Vaughn, the settlement agreement provided that Vaughn’s contributions to the VEBA could be credited against its payment of the required wages. Vaughn claimed that it has since relied upon the settlement agreement when it bids to perform construction work on public-improvement projects.

{¶ 3} On December 23, 2004, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local No. 8, filed six complaints with appellee the Department of Commerce, which now enforces the prevailing-wage law, alleging that Vaughn had violated the law by crediting its contributions to the VEBA. The department began an investigation of the union’s complaints, requesting information from Vaughn about benefits paid out by the VEBA.

{¶ 4} In February 2005, Vaughn filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for Franklin County for a writ of mandamus to compel appellees, the department and its director, to abide by the terms of the settlement agreement specifying that Vaughn’s contributions to the VEBA be credited towards its prevailing-wage obligation. In addition, Vaughn requested a writ of mandamus to order the department and its director to limit their investigation so as not to contradict the settlement agreement.

[484]*484{¶ 5} Appellees moved to dismiss Vaughn’s mandamus complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. In support of the motion, the appellees asserted that in March 2005, after 60 days had passed without any ruling by the director on the union’s complaints, the union filed six complaints, which alleged that Vaughn had violated the prevailing-wage law, in the Wood County, Sandusky County, and Hancock County courts of common pleas. Appellees should have established these assertions by affidavit and then moved for summary judgment, not dismissal for failure to state a claim. But because Vaughn accepted the assertions as true and relied on them in its argument on mootness, we will accept them as true, as did the court of appeals.

{¶ 6} Appellees contended that under the controlling statute, Vaughn was not entitled to the writ because appellees had no duty to act once the union filed the complaints in court, and Vaughn had an adequate remedy at law in those common pleas court cases.

{¶ 7} On September 29, 2005, the court of appeals granted appellees’ motion and dismissed the cause.

{¶ 8} In its appeal as of right, Vaughn asserts that the court of appeals erred in dismissing its mandamus claim. Dismissal under Civ.R. 12(B)(6) is appropriate if, after all factual allegations are presumed true and all reasonable inferences are made in Vaughn’s favor, it appears beyond doubt that it could prove no set of facts warranting the requested extraordinary relief in mandamus. State ex rel. Talwar v. State Med. Bd. of Ohio, 104 Ohio St.3d 290, 2004-Ohio-6410, 819 N.E.2d 654, ¶ 5.

{¶ 9} In order to establish its entitlement to the requested writ of mandamus, Vaughn had to prove a clear legal right to the department’s adherence to the settlement agreement by crediting Vaughn’s contributions to the VEBA towards its prevailing-wage obligation and limiting the department’s investigation accordingly, a clear legal duty on the part of the department to so abide by the settlement agreement, and the lack of an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. State ex rel. Asti v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Servs., 107 Ohio St.3d 262, 2005-Ohio-6432, 838 N.E.2d 658, ¶ 17.

{¶ 10} Vaughn’s claim is governed by R.C. 4115.16, which provides:

{¶ 11} “(A) An interested party may file a complaint with the director of commerce alleging a violation of sections 4115.03 to 4115.16 of the Revised Code. The director, upon receipt of a complaint, shall investigate pursuant to section 4115.13 of the Revised Code. If the director determines that no violation has occurred or that the violation was not intentional, the interested party may appeal the decision to the court of common pleas of the county where the violation is alleged to have occurred.

[485]*485{¶ 12} “(B) If the director has not ruled on the merits of the complaint within sixty days after its filing, the interested party may file a complaint in the court of common pleas of the county in which the violation is alleged to have occurred. The complaint may make the contracting public authority a party to the action, but not the director. Contemporaneous with service of the complaint, the interested party shall deliver a copy of the complaint to the director. Upon receipt thereof, the director shall cease investigating or otherwise acting upon the complaint filed pursuant to division (A) of this section. The court in which the complaint is filed pursuant to this division shall hear and decide the case, and upon finding that a violation has occurred, shall make such orders as will prevent further violation and afford to injured persons the relief specified under sections 4115.03 to 4115.16 of the Revised Code. The court’s finding that a violation has occurred shall have the same consequences as a like determination by the director. The court may order the director to take such action as will prevent further violation and afford to injured persons the remedies specified under sections 4115.03 to 4115.16 of the Revised Code. Upon receipt of any order of the court pursuant to this section, the director shall undertake enforcement action without further investigation or hearings.”

{¶ 13} Vaughn cannot establish a legal duty on the part of the department or its director to act on the union’s complaints. Because the director did not make a ruling on the merits of the union’s complaints within 60 days after the complaints were filed with him, and the union then filed complaints in common pleas courts alleging prevailing-wage violations by Vaughn, the director had a duty under R.C. 4115.16(B) to “cease investigating or otherwise acting upon the complaint[s].”

{¶ 14} Moreover, Vaughn’s claimed legal right to compel the department and its director to abide by the settlement agreement and limit its investigation of the union’s complaints is premised upon R.C. 4115.131, which provides:

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Bluebook (online)
109 Ohio St. 3d 482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-vaughn-industries-llc-v-ohio-department-of-commerce-ohio-2006.