Trustees of the Hotel Industry Pension Fund v. Carol Management Corp.

880 F. Supp. 1548, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3975, 1995 WL 139411
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedMarch 27, 1995
DocketNo. 94-0587-CIV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 880 F. Supp. 1548 (Trustees of the Hotel Industry Pension Fund v. Carol Management Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trustees of the Hotel Industry Pension Fund v. Carol Management Corp., 880 F. Supp. 1548, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3975, 1995 WL 139411 (S.D. Fla. 1995).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS CAROL MANAGEMENT CORPORATION AND RESORT & COUNTRY CLUB MANAGEMENT CORPORATION’S MOTION TO DISMISS AMENDED COMPLAINT AND DENYING DEFENDANT KSL RECREATION CORPORATION’S MOTION TO DISMISS AMENDED COMPLAINT

MARCUS, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE comes before the Court upon Defendants Carol Management Corporation (“Carol Management”) and Resort & Country Club Management’s (“Resort’s”) motion to dismiss amended complaint, filed July 5, 1994, and Defendant KSL Recreation Corporation’s (“KSL’s”) motion to dismiss amended complaint, filed August 8, 1994. Upon Orders of Reference from this Court, United States Magistrate Judge Stephen T. Brown issued a Report and Recommendation on December 29, 1994, recommending that Defendants Carol Management and Resort’s motion be denied, and a second Report and Recommendation on January 19, 1995, recommending that Defendant KSL’s motion be denied. Carol Management and Resort filed timely objections to the December 29, 1994, Report and Recommendation. No objections to the January 19, 1995, Report and Recommendation were filed. Upon a thorough review of the pleadings, and for the reasons detailed at some length below, Defendants Carol Management and Resort’s motion to dismiss amended complaint is DENIED. In addition, no objections having been filed, Magistrate Judge Brown’s January 19, 1995, Report and Recommendation is ADOPTED, and Defendant KSL’s motion to dismiss amended complaint is DENIED.

I.

This action arises out of the collective bargaining relationship established between Local 355 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (the “Union”) and the Defendants, Carol Management, Resort, and KSL, each of which has, in turn, owned and/or managed the Doral Resort and Country Club (the “Hotel”). Carol Management and the Union have an extended collective bargaining relationship, having been parties to several collective bargaining agreements and other contracts regarding the terms and conditions of employment at the Hotel, dating back to 1977. Am.Compl. ¶ 5.1 Under these collective bargaining agreements, Carol Management agreed to make contributions to two employee benefit plans governed by ERISA — the Hotel Industry Pension Fund and the South Florida Hotel and Culinary Employees Welfare Fund (collectively, the “Trust Funds” or the “Funds”) — and to abide by the terms of the benefit plans and the [1551]*1551trust documents governing the Trust Funds. Id. ¶ 6. The most recent collective bargaining agreement between Carol Management and the Union expired on June 30,1988. Id. ¶ 7.

In negotiating for a replacement to that most recent collective bargaining agreement, the parties were unable to agree and reached an impasse in their bargaining. At that point, however, “the parties continued their collective bargaining relationship by accepting and adhering to the terms of Carol Management’s last proposed collective bargaining agreement, dated September 28, 1998” (the “1988 Agreement”). Id. The 1988 Agreement, like those before it, required Carol Management’s continued contributions to the Trust Funds for the benefit of Hotel employees. Id. ¶ 8. The Union and Carol Management followed the terms of the 1988 Agreement for approximately four years, including the arbitration of employee grievances in accordance with the terms of the agreement. Id. ¶ 9.

Before the 1988 Agreement expired, the parties began negotiations for a new contract. Once again, however, the Union and Carol Management could not agree, and an impasse in the bargaining was reached. Id. ¶ 10. As in 1988, neither strike nor lockout followed this deadlock. Both sides adopted the terms of Carol Management’s last written proposal (the “1993 Agreement”) and followed its terms with respect to pay rates, hours of work, job classifications, seniority, and grievance procedures, among other terms and conditions of employment included in the contract. Id. The 1993 Agreement also obligated Carol Management to continue its contributions to the Trust Funds on behalf of the Hotel employees. Id. ¶ 11. In addition, Carol Management was required under the 1993 Agreement to allow an audit of its records by the Trust Funds for the purpose of determining the amounts owed to them. Id. ¶ 13.

Thereafter, on a date uncertain, Defendant Resort became a “successor employer” to Carol Management. As such, Resort was notified of Carol Management’s obligations under the 1993 Agreement. In addition, there “has been a substantial continuity in the work force and operations of the Hotel since [Resort] assumed control.” Id. ¶ 16. A few months after Resort took over the Hotel, however, KSL assumed ownership and management of the Hotel. Like Resort before it, KSL was notified of the obligations under the 1993 Agreement, and “there has been a substantial continuity in the work force and operations of the Hotel since [KSL] assumed management control.” Id. ¶ 18.

The Plaintiffs, Trustees of the Trust Funds, bring this action on behalf of the Funds to recover payments allegedly owed by the Defendants. In addition, the Plaintiffs seek an audit of each Defendant’s records to determine the precise amounts owed. Defendants Carol Management and Resort moved to dismiss the amended complaint, arguing that the requested contributions to the Trust Funds are prohibited under section 302(a) of the Labor-Management Relations Act (“LMRA”), 29 U.S.C. § 186(a). Mem. Law Supp.Mot.Dismiss Am.Compl. at 2. Carol Management and Resort further assert that the Plaintiffs, by accepting payments from the Defendants, are estopped from contesting the amounts and manner in which those payments were made. Id. at 5.

II.

The purpose of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion is to test the facial sufficiency of the statement of claim for relief. It is read alongside Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a), which requires only “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” The rule is not designed to strike inartistic pleadings or to provide a more definite statement to answer an apparent ambiguity, and the analysis of a 12(b)(6) motion is limited primarily to the face of the complaint and attachments thereto. See 5 Charles A. Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1356 at 590-92 (1969) (Wright & Miller). Moreover, for the purposes of the motion to dismiss, the complaint must be construed in a light most favorable to the plaintiffs and the factual allegations taken as true. See SEC v. ESM Group, Inc., 835 F.2d 270, 272 (11th Cir.), reh’g denied, 840 F.2d 25, cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1055, 108 S.Ct. 2822, 100 L.Ed.2d 923 (1988).

[1552]*1552The Eleventh Circuit has recently written:

[T]he Supreme Court has stated that the “accepted rule” for appraising the sufficiency of a complaint is “that a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45^6, 78 S.Ct. 99 [102], 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957);

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Bluebook (online)
880 F. Supp. 1548, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3975, 1995 WL 139411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trustees-of-the-hotel-industry-pension-fund-v-carol-management-corp-flsd-1995.