Date: 07-24-2001

Case Style: Ronald A. Fayer v. Town of Middlebury, et al.

Case Number: 00-9003

Judge: Per Curiam

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Plaintiff's Attorney: James S. Brewer, West Hartford, Connecticut

Defendant's Attorney: Kerry R. Callahan of Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C., Hartford, Connecticut

Description: Plaintiff, a former employee of the Town of Middlebury, Connecticut, brought Section 1983 action against Town and two Town officials, alleging First Amendment and due process violations in connection with his termination, as well as state law claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Joan Glazer Margolis, Magistrate Judge) granted summary judgment to defendants on ground that plaintiff was precluded from litigating his claims by a prior arbitration award pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement between the Town and plaintiff's former union. Plaintiff appealed. The Court of Appeals, Leval, Circuit Judge, vacates and remands, holding that Connecticut courts would not grant preclusive effect to the state court judgment confirming the award as a bar against plaintiff's Section 1983 action, and that under 28 U.S.C. § 1738, the federal courts should similarly not find preclusion.

We begin by reviewing the lines of authority established by the Supreme Court dealing with the relationship between arbitration agreements and claims under federal law. The first line of cases concerns the preclusive effect of arbitrations conducted under collective bargaining agreements on subsequent litigation arising out of the same underlying facts. Beginning in 1974, with Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36 (1974), the Supreme Court ruled in a series of cases that the determinations of labor arbitrators pursuant to collective bargaining agreements do not preclude subsequent federal actions to vindicate certain federal statutory and constitutional rights, at least when those arbitration awards are not confirmed in state or federal court. See Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. at 51-53 (collective bargaining agreement arbitration does not preclude a subsequent Title VII employment discrimination action arising out of the same underlying facts); see also McDonald v. West Branch, 466 U.S. 284 (1984) (claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983); Barrentine v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, Inc., 450 U.S. 728 (1981) (claim under Fair Labor Standards Act). In so ruling, the Court observed that labor arbitrations pursuant to collective bargaining agreements differ significantly from arbitrations pursuant to individually-executed arbitration agreements. The Court noted that "the specialized competence of [labor] arbitrators pertains primarily to the law of the shop, not the law of the land." Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. at 57. Moreover, the Court explained that in labor arbitrations "the union has exclusive control over the 'manner and extent to which an individual grievance is presented.'" McDonald, 466 U.S. at 291 (quoting Gardner-Denver, 415 U.S. at 58 n.19)). As the Court noted, "the union may present the employee's grievance less vigorously, or make different strategic choices, than would the employee." Id. In the course of its discussion, the Court observed that "there can be no prospective waiver of an employee's rights under Title VII." Gardner-Denver, 415 U.S. at 51.

The second line of cases has dealt with the enforceability of individually executed predispute arbitration agreements on federal statutory and constitutional claims. In these cases, dealing not with arbitration clauses in collective bargaining agreements but with employees' own agreements to arbitrate specified disputes, the Court has adopted a more generous view of the extent to which arbitration agreements may waive the right to a federal forum in litigating federal statutory and constitutional claims. Thus, for example, in Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Randolph, 531 U.S. 79 (2000), and Gilmer v. Interstate / Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20 (1991), the Court granted motions to compel arbitration with respect to Truth in Lending Act claims and federal employment discrimination claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, respectively. See also Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc., 473 U.S. 614 (1985) (enforcing application of arbitration clause to Sherman Act claims); Shearson/American Express Inc. v. McMahon, 482 U.S. 220 (1987) (enforcing application of arbitration clause to Securities Exchange Act and civil RICO claims); Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477 (1989) (enforcing application of arbitration clause to Securities Act of 1933 claims); see also Desiderio v. National Ass'n of Securities Dealers, Inc., 191 F.3d 198, 203-06 (2d Cir. 1999) (enforcing the application of arbitration clauses in individually executed contracts to claims under Title VII).

In Wright v. Universal Maritime Services Corporation, 525 U.S. 70, 76 (1998), the Supreme Court confronted the question whether a general arbitration clause in a collective bargaining agreement was enforceable to prevent an employee from bringing suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Court noted that there is "obviously some tension" between the cases denying preclusive effect to collective bargaining arbitrations, on the one hand, and the cases holding individual arbitration agreements enforceable as against federal statutory and constitutional claims, on the other. Wright, 525 U.S. at 76-77. In particular, the Court observed that "[w]hereas Gardner-Denver stated that 'an employee's rights under Title VII are not susceptible of prospective waiver,' Gilmer held that the right to a federal judicial forum for an ADEA claim could be waived." Id. But the Court avoided that issue, ruling that even assuming (but not deciding) that a collective bargaining agreement arbitration clause may be enforceable to compel arbitration of an employee's ADA claims, such a clause would only be enforced where the contract makes "particularly clear" that it intends to cover such claims. Id. at 79. Specifically, collective bargaining agreement waivers of a statutory right to a judicial forum for claims of employment discrimination, the Court held, "must be clear and unmistakable." Id. at 80. And because the particular collective bargaining agreement arbitration clause at issue in Wright did not make a "clear and unmistakable" statement that it covered claims of employment discrimination, the Court found it unnecessary to reach the question whether upon a clear statement, collective bargaining agreements may validly waive an individual's right to a judicial forum for federal statutory claims. See id. at 77, 82. 2

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Click the case caption above for the full text of the Court's opinion.

Outcome: Judgment vacated and remanded.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: Unknown

Comments: None