United States v. N.Y.C. District Council

229 F. App'x 14
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 18, 2007
DocketNos. 06-1988-cv(L), 06-3348-cv(CON)
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 229 F. App'x 14 (United States v. N.Y.C. District Council) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. N.Y.C. District Council, 229 F. App'x 14 (2d Cir. 2007).

Opinion

AMENDED SUMMARY ORDER

The government appeals the January 12, 2006 Order of the district court denying its motion for contempt of a consent decree, and the May 16, 2006 Order of the district court denying its motion for reconsideration. Familiarity by the parties is assumed as to the facts, the procedural context, and the specification of appellate issues. After reviewing the district court’s January Order, we now reverse.1

The consent decree (“Consent Decree”) at issue in this case arose from the 1994 settlement of a civil RICO case the government brought against the N.Y.C. District Council of N.Y.C. & Vicinity of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and [16]*16Joiners of America (“Union” or “District Council”). United States v. Dist. Council of New York City, 409 F.Supp.2d 439, 441 (S.D.N.Y.2006). In 2001, the Union entered into collective bargaining agreements (“CBAs”) that, at the least, significantly modified the job referral rules (“Job Referral Rules”) attached to and incorporated into the Consent Decree. Id. at 444-45. Alleging that the Union had not abided by the terms of the Consent Decree, the government made a motion for contempt before the district court. Id. at 440.

Rule 5(A) of the Union’s Job Referral Rules required members on the out-of-work list (“OWL”) to be “referred to jobs in the order in which they have registered their availability for referral.” Rule 5(B) provided, in full, that “[rjequests by an employer for specific members employed by the employer within the previous six months shall be fulfilled, as required by applicable collective bargaining agreements.”

Paragraph 5 of the Consent Decree required the Union’s constituent locals to “adopt the [J]ob [Rjeferral [Rjules and proeedures[,] ... make all job referrals in accordance with the [JJob [Rjeferral [Rjules and ... comply with the [JJob [Rjeferral [Rjules in all respects.”

Paragraph 11 provided that the Union’s By-Laws were “amended to conform with all of the terms of this Consent Decree.” It further required that the Job Referral Rules be made part of the By-Laws.2 Paragraph 11 also required the Union to “waive[ ] compliance with “any current or future rights, privileges or rules applicable to the [Union] or its membership” if they conflicted with the Consent Decree,” and, along with “its membership^] ... act in accordance with this Consent Decree.”

Finally, Paragraph 12 required the Union to give the government prior written notice of any proposed changes to the ByLaws, and inform the government “of any changes in any rules or procedures adopted or implemented pursuant to paragraphs 4(g), 4(h), 4(i)(3), 5, 9(c), and 10, of this Consent Decree” from the date the Consent Decree was implemented to seven years “after the termination of the Investigations and Review Officer’s term of office,” which ended in June 1999. If the government objected to a change, the Union could “apply to the Court for a determination as to whether the proposed change is consistent with the terms and objectives of this Consent Decree”; otherwise, the change could not occur.

When the Consent Decree was entered, all of the Union’s CBAs contained a “50/50 rule” that “authoriz[edj the union to assign fifty percent of the carpenter workforce at a job site (with the company designating the other fifty percent).” Dist. Council of New York City, 409 F.Supp.2d at 444. As the district court correctly noted, the interplay of the 50/50 Rule and Job Referral Rule 5(A) “create[dj a major source of job opportunities for members who had been seeking work for the longest period of time.” Id. This effect was lessened some[17]*17what by Rule 5(B), which permitted employers to hire workers who had worked for them in the previous six months, because workers hired under 5(B) would be designated as “Union” workers for 50/50 Rule purposes. Id.

In the 2001 CBAs, the Union “granted a concession to the associations of contractors that eliminated the requirement that a contractor could not request the services of a particular contractor on a job unless that carpenter had worked for the requesting contractor within the past six months.” Id. The 2001 CBAs gave these contractors “an unfettered right to select all the carpenters on a job” by permitting them to “pick” the 50 percent contingent of carpenters that, under previous CBAs, had been assigned to them in chronological order from the OWL. Id. at 444-45. The parties refer to this as the “Request System.” 3

In its contempt motion, the government alleged that the Union violated Paragraph 12 of the Consent Decree by failing to give the government “prior notice of its intent to enter into the 2001 CBAs which included the Request System, thereby eliminating the six-month prior employment limitation contained in Rule 5(B) of the Job Referral Rules.” Id. at 449-50.

The district court denied the government’s motion. It first found that the Request System did change the operation of Rule 5(B) of the Job Referral Rules and that Paragraph 12’s prior notice requirement did apply to changes made to the Job Referral Rules. Id. at 451. It then noted that the Job Referral Rules had been changed through the collective bargaining process. Id. at 451-52. The court next found that the parties “did not intend the Consent Decree to bring future collective bargaining agreements within its purview,” that the reason the Union granted the Request System concession in the CBAs was “understandable,” and that there was no suggestion that the CBA formation processes were “tainted” by extortion or influenced by organized crime. Id. at 454-55. Thus, the district court denied the motion for contempt. Id. at 456.4 The government then filed a motion for reconsideration, which the district court denied. United States v. Dist. Council of New York City, No. 90-5722(cv), 2006 WL 1586560, *1 (S.D.N.Y. June 8, 2006).

Legal determinations, including the interpretation of the Consent Decree, are reviewed de novo. See E.E.O.C. v. Local 638, 81 F.3d 1162, 1171 (2d Cir.1996). The district court’s factual determinations are reviewed for clear error. United States v. Local 1801-1, Int’l Longshoremen’s Ass’n, 44 F.3d 1091, 1095 (2d Cir.1995). Finally, the burden of proof rests on the party moving for contempt—here, the government. See, e.g., id. at 1097 n. 1.

A contempt order is a “potent weapon,” Int’l Longshoremen’s Ass’n v. Phila. Marine Trade Ass’n, 389 U.S. 64, 76, 88 S.Ct. 201, 19 L.Ed.2d 236 (1967), that is inappropriate if “there is a fair ground of doubt as to the wrongfulness of the defendant’s conduct.” Cal. Artificial Stone Paving Co. v. Molitor, 113 U.S. 609, 618, 5 S.Ct. 618, 28 L.Ed. 1106 (1885). Nevertheless, courts [18]*18have “inherent power to enforce consent judgments, beyond the remedial ‘contractual’ terms agreed upon by the parties [because] a consent judgment contemplates judicial interests apart from those of the litigants.” E.E.O.C. v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
229 F. App'x 14, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-nyc-district-council-ca2-2007.