Teamsters Local Union No. 122 v. August A. Busch & Co. of Massachusetts, Inc.

660 F. Supp. 899, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2100, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4228
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedMay 26, 1987
DocketCiv. A. No. 85-3378-Mc
StatusPublished

This text of 660 F. Supp. 899 (Teamsters Local Union No. 122 v. August A. Busch & Co. of Massachusetts, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Teamsters Local Union No. 122 v. August A. Busch & Co. of Massachusetts, Inc., 660 F. Supp. 899, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2100, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4228 (D. Mass. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

McNAUGHT, District Judge.

This matter came before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment. The parties have filed numerous memoranda and other supporting papers and have favored the Court with oral argument.

The facts are essentially undisputed. The plaintiff Teamsters Local Union No. 122 (“the Union”) is the exclusive collective bargaining representative for the drivers, warehousemen and helpers employed at the Medford, Massachusetts facility of defendant August A. Busch & Co. of Massachusetts, Inc. (“the Company”), a Massachusetts corporation engaged in Medford in the business of wholesale beer distribution. The Union and the Company were parties to a collective bargaining agreement effec[901]*901tive from December 1, 1982 through November 30, 1985 (“the Agreement”).

Section 10 of Article XXI of the Agreement states in full:

No conventional type trailer truck with a box 26 feet or over in length shall be used for retail deliveries in downtown Boston. Conventional type trailer trucks, with a box 26 feet or over, used for retail deliveries in the City of Boston shall have a working crew of three men, consisting of a driver and two helpers.

In 1984 a dispute arose between the parties concerning the Company’s announced intention to use tractor trailers to make retail deliveries outside the City of Boston with a working crew of two men, a driver and a helper. The Union objected to this plan and filed a grievance, consisting of a letter dated July 2, 1984 from James F. Keegan, Secretary Treasurer/Business Agent of the Union to Christopher Stevens, General Manager of the Company. It states that Keegan and Stevens “met to discuss the Company’s unilateral decission [sic] to utilize trailors [sic] as part of its regular delivery operation.” According to this letter, the “matter of grievance” was “[t]he Company’s unilateral decission [sic] violates the Agreement and past practice.” Eventually the grievance was referred to arbitration by the Company, after some of the issues raised by the Company’s plan were resolved by negotiations between the parties, according to the Opinion and Award of Arbitrator Bruce Fraser dated May 13, 1985 (“Interim Award”). The Arbitrator held hearings on three dates and then decided the issue to which the parties agreed, namely: “Is there a grievance which is arbitrable?” Arbitrator Fraser concluded: “There is a grievance which is arbitrable.” It “concerns the interpretation of ARTICLE XXI, Section 10. The grievance was processed pursuant to ARTICLE YII without defect and pursuant to this same provision, is properly before the Arbitrator.” The Union did not seek to vacate this interim award. The Arbitrator held another hearing on June 5, 1985 and on August 2 or 3, 1985 (depending on whether one accepts the date on the Award or that on the Opinion) issued an Opinion and Award (“Opinion and Award”).

The uncontradicted evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing before Arbitrator Fraser established that in 1968 and 1969 the Company used trailer trucks to make retail deliveries, that the use of the trailer trucks was confined to the City of Boston, exclusive of downtown, and that the trailer trucks operated with a working crew of three men, a driver and two helpers. The uncontradicted evidence also established that the Company did not use trailer trucks for retail deliveries in 1970 and continuing at least through the date of the hearing, June 5, 1985, with the exception of a special promotional event in 1983 at Hanscom Air Force Base, which Arbitrator Fraser concluded was not a retail delivery. The evidence presented at the hearing established that between 1967 and June 5, 1985, the Company had never used tractor trailers when making retail deliveries within its sales area outside of the geopolitical boundaries of the City of Boston with the exception of a special promotional event at Hans-com Air Force Base. The differing interpretations given to these undisputed facts by the parties is the crux of the controversy in this case.

The Arbitrator reasoned as follows in the August Opinion:

However, the language of Section 10, taken with the nature of the Company’s sales area, leads to the conclusions that the parties never intended Section 10 to limit tractor trailer use solely to the City of Boston. At least since the late 1960s, the Company’s sales area has consisted of three sectors: downtown Boston; a band of area surrounding the downtown area and extending to the City limits; and a second band beginning at the City boundaries and extending roughly to Route 128. Reference to Section 10 shows that the first sentence places limits on the use of tractor trailers in the downtown area while the second places limits on their use in the surrounding area within the City of Boston. From the fact that the parties initially placed limitations on two of the three sales area segments, were aware of the third, and [902]*902over the years reviewed the contract provisions and chose not to address the third, persuades me that they never intended Section 10 to place any limitations of tractor trailer use in this outer segment of the sales area. Thus, I find that the language of Section 10 does not limit the Company from operating tractor trailers outside the City of Boston with but a single helper[.]

On August 29, 1985, the Union filed the Complaint in the instant action, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Opinion and Award dated August 3, 1985, are not binding upon the plaintiff and are unenforceable and void under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, that the Court vacate and set aside the Opinion and Award, and other just and proper relief. The Company answered and brought a three-count Counterclaim. The present cross-motions for summary judgment essentially request relief for each party on all of its claims.

As the Company points out, the First Circuit has made it clear that the arbitration process is subject only to minimal judicial scrutiny. In Bettencourt v. Boston Edison Co., 560 F.2d 1045, 1048 (1st Cir.1977), the Court of Appeals stated: “Where parties to a collective bargaining agreement have provided for arbitration as the final and binding method for settling grievances the arbitration award is normally non-reviewable by a court.” That Court also stated: “Exceptions to the rule of nonreviewability are ... few and of a most limited nature.” Id. at 1049. More recently, in Local 1445, United Food & Commercial Workers International Union v. Stop & Shop Cos., the Court of Appeals stated:

In Bettencourt v. Boston Edison Co., 560 F.2d 1045 (1st Cir.1977), we held that a court may review and set aside an arbitrator’s decision only if the decision was: (1) unfounded in reason and fact; (2) based on reasoning so palpably faulty that no judge, or group of judges, ever could conceivably have made such a ruling; or (3) mistakenly based on a crucial assumption that is concededly a non-fact. Id. at 1050.

776 F.2d 19, 21 (1st Cir.1985).

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Bluebook (online)
660 F. Supp. 899, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2100, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/teamsters-local-union-no-122-v-august-a-busch-co-of-massachusetts-mad-1987.