## F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit 

### FEB 18 1998 

### PATRICK FISHER Clerk PUBLISH
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

TENTH CIRCUIT

DOUGLAS LENON; GREG POLAK; LOUIS J. VELTRIE; WILLIAM C. PETERSON; and LUCIANO BUSNARDO, not in their individual capacities but in their capacities as Trustees of the Colorado Tile, Marble and Terrazzo Workers’ Pension Trust Fund and Trustees of the Local No. 6 Colorado Tile Layers, Marble Masons and Terrazzo Workers Vacation Fund; WALTER KARDY; and FRANK STUPAR, not in their individual capacities, but in their capacities as Trustees of and as the Administrative Committee of the Bricklayers and Trowel Trades International Pension Fund and the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers International Health Fund; and the COLORADO TILE, MARBLE and TERRAZZO CONTRACTORSASSOCIATION, a Colorado nonprofit corporation,

Plaintiffs-Appellees,

v. ST. PAUL MERCURY INSURANCE COMPANY, a Minnesota corporation, Defendant-Appellant. No. 96-1549* The Honorable William F. Downes, District Judge, Un ited States

District Court for the District of Wyoming, sitting by designation. -2- APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO (D.C. No. 94-Z-2032)

Submitted on the briefs: Timothy J. Parsons, David B. Seserman, and Dean C. Heizer of Gorsuch Kirgis, L.L.C., Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiffs-Appellees. Laurence M. McHeffey and Frank C. Porada of McElroy , Deutsch & Mulvaney, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before KELLY and HENRY, Circuit Judges, and DOWNES, * District Judge.

PER CURIAM

Plaintiffs, the trustees of four union trust funds and the Colorado Tile, Marble and Terrazzo Contractors Association, brought this action against defendant St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company seekin g to recover under a surety bond St. Paul had issued to Wilkinson & Company. P laintiffs’ claims are based on a judgment in their favor in a separate action t hey brought against Wilkinson (the Wilkinson action or case) seeking fringe benef it contributions and other damages under collective bargaining agreements appl icable to Wilkinson’s work1 After examining the briefs and appellate record, th is panel has

determined unanimously that oral argument would notmaterially assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral ar gument.

-3- at the Denver International Airport. The district court held that the surety bond St. Paul issued covered these damages and entered j udgment in plaintiffs’ favor. St. Paul appeals. 1 In the meantime, Wilkinson appealed the judgment ag ainst it. We recently affirmed the district court’s judgment against Wilk inson as it applied to the plaintiff trustees, but vacated the judgment and re manded the case as it applied to the Contractors Association. See Trustees of Colo. Tile, Marble & Terrazzo Workers Pension Fund v. Wilkinson & Co. , Nos. 96-1205, 96-1431 (10th Cir. February 3, 1998) (unpublished). Because we affirm ed the judgment in favor of the plaintiff trustees, and because the resolution of this appeal does not turn on the Contractors Association’s claims, we conclude i t is appropriate to resolve this appeal now rather than wait for proceedings to conc lude in the Wilkinson action. On the merits, we reject St. Paul’s argument that t he district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction, but agree that the typ e of damages plaintiffs seek are not covered under the surety bond. We therefore re verse.-4- I. BACKGROUND This case follows directly from plaintiffs’ success on the claims they asserted in the Wilkinson action, which they filed in February 1994. That case essentially turned on whether Wilkinson, a New Jers ey corporation, was required to use union labor on work it performed under subco ntract at the Denver International Airport in Colorado. With one except ion to be discussed later, plaintiffs are the same in both this case and the W ilkinson action. Plaintiff trustees are the named fiduciaries of four multiemp loyer welfare and pension benefit plans as defined by the Employee RetirementIncome Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). They based their claims against Wilkins on on Section 515 of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1145. Section 515 allows federal actio ns against employers for contributions allegedly due under the terms of mult iemployer ERISA plans or collective bargaining agreements. Plaintiff Contra ctors Association is a Colorado nonprofit corporation that promotes the tile, marbl e and terrazzo trade in Colorado who also claimed it was due contributions under collective bargaining agreements. The facts, briefly stated, were that Wilkinson was a signatory to a collective bargaining agreement between the Tile Co ntractors Association of Northern New Jersey, Inc., and Local No. 77 of New Jersey-Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen (the “Local 77 CBA”). That agreem ent generally covered-5-

workers known as “helpers” or “finishers.” That ag reement also contained a “traveling contractors” clause requiring Wilkinson to comply with an affiliated local’s collective bargaining agreement when Wilkin son performed work outside the territory covered by the Local 77 CBA and in an affiliated local’s territory. Plaintiffs claimed that the work Wilkinson performe d on the airport project was the type of work covered by the Local 77 CBA, a nd that pursuant to the Local 77 CBA traveling contractors clause, Wilkinson was obligated to comply with the union affiliate’s agreement covering the airport pr oject site. The applicable local agreement was one involving Local Union No. 6 of Co lorado, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen (the “Colorado CBA”). That agreement essentially required the use of union labor and als o required employers to make contributions to plaintiffs based on the number of hours worked by covered workers. Wilkinson neither used union labor nor ma de the contributions. Plaintiffs contended that Wilkinson breached the Co lorado CBA and sought, as damages, contributions, interest and liquidated dam ages under the Colorado CBA and various trust fund agreements incorporated into that agreement for all workers the agreement covered. The district court agreed with plaintiffs that unde r the plain language of the Local 77 CBA, the airport project was the type of w ork covered by the agreement. The court also determined that the Colorado CBA controlled the amount of-6-

damages, and Wilkinson was therefore obligated to m ake contributions for all workers covered by that agreement. It therefore en tered judgment in plaintiffs’ favor in the amount of $197,098.76 plus attorney fe es and costs. In August 1994, prior to the district court’s rulin g in their favor in the Wilkinson case, plaintiffs brought this action alle ging diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332 and seeking to recover the amounts they claimed Wilkinson owed them under the labor and material bond St. Pau l issued to Wilkinson, pursuant to Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-26-105(1), for th e airport work. St. Paul moved to dismiss the complaint under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b )(6), but the district court denied the motion in October 1995 and on reconsider ation, in March 1996. St. Paul filed its answer in April 1996. In September 1996, while plaintiffs’ summary judgment motion was pending, St. Paul againmoved to dismiss, this time on grounds of lack of complete diversity. St. Paul, a citizen of Minnesota for diversity purposes, raised two arguments for la ck of diversity: (1) that the citizenship of an ERISA plan is based on the citize nship of plan participants, not the plan’s trustees, and plaintiffs could not show they were diverse from St. Paul; and (2) even if the plans’ citizenship were based o n the citizenship of its trustees, there was not complete diversity because one of the trustees was a citizen of Minnesota. Plaintiffs responded by contending thatthe citizenship of the plans-7-

derived from the citizenship of the trustees and bymoving to amend the complaint to delete the nondiverse trustee to maintain divers ity. Relying on Navarro Savings Association v. Lee , 446 U.S. 458 (1980), the district court agreed with plaintiffs that the citi zenship of the trustees was what mattered and granted their motion to amend the comp laint. The court subsequently granted plaintiffs’ motion for summaryjudgment regarding liability under the bond and awarded judgment in plaintiffs’ favor for $260,139.12, the total amount of the judgment on the merits plus att orney fees and costs awarded to plaintiffs in the Wilkinson action and in this c ase. St. Paul filed a notice of appeal. After the parties had filed their briefs i n this appeal, we issued our decision on appeal in the Wilkinson action, Nos. 96 -1205, 94-1431, which affirmed the judgment in favor of the plaintiff tru stees, but vacated the judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings as itapplied to the Contractors Association. On appeal, St. Paul raises three arguments: (1) th e district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the parties wer e not completely diverse; (2) the type of claim plaintiffs asserted was not cover ed by the bond; and (3) ERISA preempts plaintiffs’ claims.-8- II. DISCUSSION A. Jurisdiction St. Paul challenges both the basis on which the dis trict court determined plaintiffs’ citizenship for diversity purposes and the court’s decision that the nondiverse trustee was not an indispensable party u nder Fed. R. Civ. P. 19 and could be dismissed to preserve diversity under Rule 21. The first issue goes to subject matter jurisdiction, and we review the district court’s determination de
novo. See FDIC v. Hulsey , 22 F.3d 1472, 1479 (10th Cir. 1994). The other issues--whether a party is indispensable and whethe r a dispensable party may be dismissed to maintain diversity--depend on the district court’s careful exercise of discretion, and we review the court’s determination s on those issues for abuse of discretion. See Rishell v. Jane Phillips Episcopal Mem’l Med. Ctr. , 94 F.3d 1407, 1410-11 (10th Cir. 1996) (indispensability under Ru le 19(b)), cert. denied , 117 S. Ct. 1427 (1997); Jett v. Phillips & Assocs. , 439 F.2d 987, 989 (10th Cir. 1971) (dismissal under Rule 21). St. Paul contends that ERISA plans are unincorporat ed associations rather than trusts. Because the citizenship of unincorpor ated associations is based on the citizenship of all association members, see, e. g. , Tuck v. United Servs. Auto.
Ass’n , 859 F.2d 842, 844-45 (10th Cir. 1988), and plaintiffs have not even-9-

attempted to show that all plan participants are di verse from it, St. Paul contends that the complete diversity required for jurisdicti on under § 1332 did not exist.
In Navarro , the case on which the district court relied, the Court addressed an argument somewhat similar to St. Paul’s--that a trust, in that case, a business trust, was actually an unincorporated association and that its citizenship should be based on the citizenship of its shareholders ratherthan its trustees. See 446 U.S. at 461-62. The Court began its discussion by recog nizing that [e]arly in its history, this Court established thatthe “citizens” upon whose diversity a plaintiff grounds jurisdiction mu st be real and substantial parties to the controversy. Thus, a fe deral court must disregard nominal or formal parties and rest jurisd iction only upon the citizenship of real parties to the controversy. id. at 460-61 (citations omitted). The Court then not ed that a trust may resemble an association or even a corporation, but stated th at the trust at issue “is an express trust, and the question is whether its trus tees are real parties to this controversy for purposes of a federal court’s diver sity jurisdiction.” Id. at 462. The Court concluded that a trustee is a real party to the controversy for pu rposes of diversity jurisdiction when he possesses certain customary po wers to hold, manage, and dispose of assets for the benefit of others. The trustees in this case have such powers. At all relevant tim es, [the trust] operated under a declaration of trust that authoriz ed the trustees to take legal title to trust assets, to invest those a ssets for the benefit of the shareholders, and to sue and be sued in their c apacity as trustees. [The trustees] filed this lawsuit in that capacity. . . . [The trust’s beneficial shareholders] can neither control the di sposition of this2 St. Paul does not challenge the trustees’ capacity to bring this action.

See Rule 17(a) (trustee of express trust “may sue in that person’s own name without joining the party for whose benefit the act ion is brought”); see also Navarro , 446 U.S. at 463 n.9 (noting “‘rough symmetry’ between the ‘real party in interest’ standard of Rule 17(a) and the rule that diversity jurisdiction depends upon the citizenship of real parties to the controv ersy”). -10- action nor intervene in the affairs of the trust ex cept in the most extraordinary situations. We conclude that these respondents are active trust ees whose control over the assets held in their names is real and substantial. That the trust may depart from conventional forms i n other respects has no bearing on this determination. . . . [The t rustees] have legal title; they manage the assets; they control the lit igation. In short, they are the real parties to the controversy. Id. at 464-65 (footnotes omitted). We agree with the district court that Navarro controls this case, and we find St. Paul’s efforts to distinguish Navarro unpersuasive. 2 As in Navarro , the trustees brought suit in their own name in their capacities as trustees of an express trust. St. Paul contends that ERISA plans are not trusts because “[t]rusts are entities typically created under state law[, but] E RISA plans are governed by a complex set of federal statutes.” Appellant’s Br. at 8. Regardless of what law applies, we cannot see how it can seriously be argu ed that an employee benefit plan under ERISA is not an express trust. Compare, e.g. , Restatement (Second) Trusts § 2 (defining express trust generally as a “ fiduciary relationship with respect to property”), with29 U.S.C. §§ 1101-1114 (describing fiduciary-11-

responsibilities with respect to ERISA plans includ ing, inter alia, requirements that named fiduciaries have authority to manage and control plans (§ 1102(a)(1)) and that with limited exception all plan assets be held in trust (§ 1103(a))). Moreover, there is no question--indeed, St. Paul do es not even attempt to argue to the contrary--that the trustees here possess the “c ustomary powers to hold, manage, and dispose of assets for the benefit of others,” Navarro , 446 U.S. at 464. St. Paul also argues that the fact that 29 U. S.C. § 1132(a) allows plan participants and the plan itself as well as the tru stees to initiate suits somehow means that ERISA plans cannot be trusts. We cannotsee how the power of participants or the plans themselves to initiate ci vil actions in limited circumstances can deprive an ERISA plan of its status as a trust. St. Paul cites three post-Navarro cases in which courts have considered ERISA plans as unincorporated associations for dive rsity purposes. See Laborers Local 938 Joint Health & Welfare Trust Fund v. B.R. Starnes Co. , 827 F.2d 1454 (11th Cir. 1987); Xaros v. U.S. Fidelity & Guar. Co

. , 820 F.2d 1176 (11th Cir. 1987); Recreation Servs., Inc. Defined Benefit Planv. Utah Mortgage Co. , 735 F. Supp. 856 (N.D. Ill. 1990). We find these cases distinguishable or unpersuasive. In Xaros , in which the plaintiffs were apparently plan trus tees, the court concluded that the “trust funds appearto be voluntary unincorporated associations,” and noted that the funds did not “al lege[] facts negativing their3 Few decisions address the citizenship of ERISA plan s for diversity

purposes. Most cases seem to note their status as express trusts and move on. See, e.g. , Central States, S.E. & S.W. Areas Pension Fund v. Art Pape Transfer, Inc. 79 F.3d 651, 653 (7th Cir. 1996) (“The record in this case does not reveal the citizenship of the Fund’s trustees, and therefore i t does not support adjudication under the diversity jurisdiction.”); Trustees of Co lo. Pipe Indus. Pension Trust v. Howard Elec. & Mechanical, Inc. , 909 F.2d 1379, 1380-81 (10th Cir. 1990) (“The Colorado Pipe Industry Pension Fund (the [ERISA] fu nd) is an express trust established to provide retirement benefits for empl oyees in the plumbing and pipefitting industry in the State of Colorado.”); P rescription Plan Serv. Corp. v. Franco , 552 F.2d 493, 496 n.1 (2d Cir. 1977) (noting thatparties agreed citizenship of trustees determines citizenship of p lan for diversity purposes); see also NYSA-ILA GAI Fund v. Poggi , 617 F. Supp. 847, 849-50 (S.D.N.Y.) (holding that under Navarro , citizenship of ERISA plan based on citizenship of trustees), reaff’d as amended on reconsideration , 624 F. Supp. 443 (S.D.N.Y. 1985). -12- existence as voluntary unincorporated associations. ” 820 F.2d at 1181 (emphasis added). Significantly, the court did not cite Nava rro , did not explain why the funds were not trusts, and declined to consider, wi thout explanation, the argument that “diversity may be properly alleged by naming t he trustees as representatives of the employee benefit plans.” See id. at 1182. The other two cases simply followed Xaros without analysis. See Laborers Local 938 , 827 F.2d at 1457; Recreation Servs. , 735 F. Supp. at 859. In addition, the plaintiffs in these two cases were the ERISA plans themselves, not the trus tees. Because these cases failed to address the diversity issue under Navarro where the trustees bring suit in their own name on behalf of the ERISA plans, we dec line to follow them. 34 In Carden , the Court seemed to acknowledge that the analyses in

Navarro and Cardenappear at odds: “The resolutions we have reached above can validly be characterized as technical, precedent-bo und, and unresponsive to policy considerations raised by the changing realities of business organization. But, as must be evident from our earlier discussion, that h as been the character of our jurisprudence in this field . . . .” 494 U.S. at 19 6. -13- St. Paul also contends that this case is controllednot by Navarro but by Carden v. Arkoma Assocs. , 494 U.S. 185 (1990), which addressed the citizens hip of a limited partnership for diversity purposes. T he Court “reject[ed] the contention that to determine, for diversity purpose s, the citizenship of an artificial entity, the court may consult the citizenship of le ss than all of the entity’s members. We adhere to our oft-repeated rule that d iversity jurisdiction in a suit by or against the entity depends on the citizenship of ‘all the members.’” Id. at 195 (citation omitted). Carden , however, distinguished Navarro by stating that it “did not involve the question whether a party that is an artificial entity other than a corporation can be considered a ‘citizen’ of a St ate, but the quite separate question whether parties that were undoubted ‘citiz ens’ (viz., natural persons) were the real parties to the controversy.” Id. at 191. Were the ERISA plans here the named plaintiffs, St. Paul’s reliance on Carden might be justified. That is not the situation. The trustees are the named plaintif fs, and we find this case indistinguishable from Navarro

. 45 Unfortunately, the district court did not fully exp lain in its brief oral

order on this matter why it concluded Trustee Walln er was not indispensable (continued...) -14- We thus conclude that the district court correctly looked to the citizenship of the trustees for diversity purposes here. All o f the trustees here are diverse from St. Paul save one--John Wallner, a trustee of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen International Health Fund and the Bricklayers and Trowel Trades International Pension Fund. The question now is wh ether the district court was correct in dismissing Wallner under Rule 21 to pres erve diversity. “[I]t is well-settled that Rule 21 invests districtcourts with authority to allow a dispensable nondiverse party to be dropped at any time [to preserve diversity jurisdiction], even after judgment has be en rendered.” Newman-Green, Inc. v. Alfonzo-Larrain , 490 U.S. 826, 832 (1989); see also Tuck , 859 F.2d at 845. Rule 21 allows the court to dismiss parties “ on such terms as are just,” thus granting considerable discretion to the district co urt. See Jett , 439 F.2d at 989-90; Moore’s Federal Practice § 21.02[4] (3d ed. 1997). That discretion is circumscribed, however, by Rule 19(b) because the c ourt cannot proceed without indispensable parties. See Newman-Green , 490 U.S. at 832; Jett , 439 F.2d at 990. Whether a party is indispensable, considering the f actors required under Rule 19(b), is a matter left to the district court’s dis cretion. See Navajo Tribe of Indians v. New Mexico , 809 F.2d 1455, 1471 (10th Cir. 1987). 55 (...continued)

under Rule 19(b), why in “equity and good conscienc e” the case could proceed without him, or why it was “just” to dismiss Truste e Wallner under Rule 21. This court is always concerned that reviewing a districtcourt’s exercise of discretion on a complex matter with an inadequate record runs the risk of having this court exercise that discretion in the first instance, som ething we are not empowered to do. In this instance, however, we conclude that th e record is marginally sufficient to allow this court to review the district court’s exercise of discretion in these matters.

6 We express no opinion on this issue as it might app ly to cases in (continued...) -15- St. Paul contends that if the citizenship of the ERISA plans is determined by the citizenship of the trustees, then all of the trustees must be considered at all times, relying on the Court’s statement in Cardenthat “[w]e have never held that an artificial entity, suing or being sued in its ow n name, can invoke the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts based on the cit izenship of some but not all of its members,” 494 U.S. at 192. Because all of the trus tees were not diverse at the outset of the litigation, St. Paul contends the dis trict court was prohibited from dismissing the nondiverse trustee to preserve diver sity. Otherwise, trusts could forum shop by selectively choosing which of its tru stees to name as plaintiffs in a particular action. Alternatively, it argues that T rustee Wallner must be considered indispensable because there would be nothing to sto p him from filing a state court action if the other trustees do not prevail in this case. Again, we find Cardeninapposite because this case does not involve an artificial entity “suing or being sued in its own n ame.” 6 We also reject St. Paul’s6 (...continued)

which the party is the ERISA plan or trust fund its elf. -16- argument that all trustees must be indispensable un der Rule 19(b) and that a trustee is therefore not susceptible to dismissal u nder Rule 21. St. Paul cites no authority supporting what would amount to a categor ical, technical rule that all trustees are always indispensable parties; the onlycase addressing a similar situation of which we are aware is to the contrary. See Prescription Plan Serv. Corp. v. Franco , 552 F.2d 493, 497 (2d Cir. 1977) (affirming dismi ssal of two ERISA plan trustees to preserve diversity under Rul e 21 where interests of trustees remaining in case were identical to dismis sed trustees). Such a rule would be inconsistent with the pragmatic considerat ions that guide the analysis under Rule 19(b). See HB General Corp. v. Manchester Partners, L.P. , 95 F.3d 1185, 1191 (3d Cir. 1996) (“In contrast to Carden ’s jurisdictional rule, which the Supreme Court acknowledged to be technical, precede nt-bound, and unresponsive to policy considerations, whether a person is indis pensable depends on pragmatic considerations.”) (quotations and citations omitted ); Curley v. Brignoli, Curley & Roberts Assocs. , 915 F.2d 81, 88-92 (2d Cir. 1990). Instead of be ing based on application of categorical rules, “[t]he decision w hether to dismiss (i.e., the decision whether the person missing is ‘indispensab le’) must be based on factors varying with the different cases, some such factors being substantive, some-17-

procedural, some compelling by themselves, and some subject to balancing against opposing interests.” Provident Tradesmens Bank & Trust Co. v.
Patterson , 390 U.S. 102, 118-19 (1968). St. Paul’s concern with abusive forum shopping can be addressed through the analysis of indispensability. See id. at 111 (noting that Rule 19(b) takes into account “interest of the courts and the public in c omplete, consistent, and efficient settlement of controversies”); Prescripti on Plan Serv. , 552 F.2d at 497 n.5 (noting that representative parties should not be manipulated to obtain diversity jurisdiction). The analysis and equities may differ somewhat depending on whether the issue arises early in the litigationunder a Rule 12(b)(7) motion, for example, or later under a Rule 21 motion. Poss ible forum shopping may be more critical early in the litigation while judicia l economy may take on greater importance if the question does not arise until lat er in the litigation. But the ultimate concerns of the district court in either s ituation are “whether in equity and good conscience the action should proceed among the parties before it, the absent person being thus regarded as indispensable, ” Rule 19(b), and whether dismissal of a dispensable party is “just,” Rule 21 . And these turn on pragmatic rather than technical considerations.-18-

As the party seeking dismissal for inability to joi n an allegedly indispensable party, St. Paul has the burden of per suasion. See Rishell , 94 F.3d at 1411. To determine whether a party is indispensabl e, a court must consider first, to what extent a judgment rendered in the pe rson’s absence might be prejudicial to the person or those alreadyparties; second, the extent to which, by protective provisions in th e judgment, by the shaping of relief, or other measures, the prejudice can be lessened or avoided; third, whether a judgment rendered in the person’s absence will be adequate; fourth, whether the plaintiff wil l have an adequate remedy if the action is dismissed for nonjoinder. Rule 19(b). St. Paul addresses only the first of these factors, contending that it could be prejudiced by Wallner filing a separate st ate court action should the trustees fail to prevail in this action. This cont ention, however, fails to consider the res judicata effect of a judgment against the o ther trustees, since all trustees would be suing in their representative capacities and almost certainly be found to be in privity with each other. Moreover, under the second factor, the court could avoid any possible prejudice by fashioning relief t o require the party trustees to bind the trust, and consequently the other trustee, to the judgment rendered in this case. The third factor, which includes public and judicial interests in complete and efficient resolution of disputes, see Provident Tradesmens Bank , 390 U.S. at 111, also favors a finding of dispensability. The fact of Trustee Wallner’s nondiversity and the issue of whether or not he was indispensable did not arise until two years after plaintiffs filed their compla int. The district court concluded-19-

that plaintiffs were not guilty of any “shenanigans ” in picking and choosing the named plaintiffs in an attempt to manipulate federa l court jurisdiction, see Appellants’ Br., Ex. B at 4-5, and St. Paul does no t argue to the contrary. The fourth factor, the availability of an alternate for um if the action is dismissed, which we presume would be the situation here, is no t a sufficient reason by itself for dismissing an action for nonjoinder. See Rishell , 94 F.3d at 1413. We therefore conclude that the district court did n ot abuse its discretion in dismissing Wallner as dispensable to preserve diver sity and hold that the court had subject matter jurisdiction. B. Colorado Public Works Act St. Paul issued the bond to Wilkinson pursuant to the Colorado Public Works Act, Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 38-26-101 to 107. T hat act requires that a contractor on a public works construction project s hall execute a penal bond with good and sufficient surety conditioned that such contractor shall at all times promptly make payments of all amounts lawfully due to all persons supplying or furnishing him or his subcontractors with labor, materials, rental machinery, tools, or equipment used or performed inthe prosecution of the work provided for in such contract . . . . Subcontractors, materialmen, mechanics, suppliers of rental equipme nt, and others may have a right of action for amounts lawfully due them from the contractor or subcontractor directly against the pr incipal and surety of such bond.7 The parties’ arguments assume that the scope of the bond is governed

by this statute. We proceed from that assumption. -20- Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-26-105(1). 7St. Paul contends that this statute does not cover the fringe benefit contributions for which pl aintiffs seek recovery here because those contributions do not directly relate to any labor actually supplied or furnished to Wilkinson, but instead are simply dama ges for breach of the Colorado CBA. In concluding that the contributions were covered b y the statute, the district court relied on Trustees of Colo. Carpenters & Mill wrights Health Benefit Trust Fund v. Pinkard Constr. Co. , 604 P.2d 683 (Colo. 1979). In Pinkard , the trustees sought recovery under a bond issued pursuant to the statute for fringe benefit contributions payable for work actually performed b y the contractor’s employees on a public works project. The defendants contende d that the statute covered only amounts payable directly to the workers, not those payable to the trust funds. Relying on a Supreme Court case interpreting the an alogous federal Miller Act,

see United States ex rel. Sherman v. Carter , 353 U.S. 210 (1957), the court held that the amounts were “‘payments . . . lawfully due ’” under collective bargaining agreements. “Each one of these benefits was agreed to be paid by the subcontractors in exchange for the work done by the construction workers. Until these were paid into the trust funds, the compensat ion to the workers was not-21-

fully paid.” Pinkard , 604 P.2d at 685. The district court here conclud ed that it does not matter that the contributions plaintiffs a re seeking are not for the workers who actually did the work and cannot be con sidered part of their compensation. We review the district court’s interpretation of st ate law de novo, Salve Regina College v. Russell , 499 U.S. 225, 231 (1991), and we think it does matter that the contributions in question are not compensation for work actually performed. The statute covers the claims of “all p ersons supplying or furnishing [the contractor] with labor.” § 38-26-105(1). We see no indication that it covers the claims of all persons who may have been entitle d to supply or furnish the contractor with labor, whether or not they had a co ntractual right to do so. Wilkinson obviously breached the Colorado CBA by no t hiring workers covered by that agreement. However, the fact is that those workers did not actually supply or furnish anything to Wilkinson. Thus, despite pl aintiffs’ protestations to the contrary, all they have is a simple derivative brea ch of contract claim against Wilkinson. Colorado courts have not yet addressed whether § 38 -26-105 covers breach of contract damages, but the general rule is that s uch damages, including lost8 In a broad sense, the unpaid contributions here are similar to lost

profits. They are amounts the ERISA plans would have “earned” had Wilkinson complied with the Colorado CBA. -22- profits, 8 are not recoverable under public works bond statut es. See, e.g. , Lucas v.
Western Cas. & Sur. Co. , 176 F.2d 506, 508 (10th Cir. 1949) (interpreting Oklahoma public works bond statute); L.P. FriestedtCo. v. U.S. Fireproofing Co. 125 F.2d 1010, 1012 (10th Cir. 1942) (interpreting federal Heard Act, predecessor to Miller Act); United States ex rel. Mobile PremixConcrete, Inc. v. Santa Fe Eng’rs, Inc. , 515 F. Supp. 512, 516 (D. Colo. 1981) (interpreti ng Miller Act); see also Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman, Inc. v. EI Constructors, Inc. , 687 A.2d 506, 517 (Conn. 1997) (noting that its research disclosed no jurisdiction allowing recovery of unearned profits under Miller Act; “[T]he langua ge and purpose of the [Miller Act], requiring payment for work performed or mater ials supplied, preclude such9 The Colorado Supreme Court has relied on both the M iller Act and

other states’ public works bond acts in interpretin g analogous provisions in the Colorado act. See Pinkard , 604 P.2d at 685; Western Metal Lath v. Acoustical & Constr. Supply, Inc. , 851 P.2d 875, 878 & n.3 (Colo. 1993). Moreover, plaintiffs have not cited any authority holding that breach of contract damages are recoverable under these types of bonds. They cite cases such as Trustees of Teamsters Constr. Workers Local No. 13, Health & We lfare Trust Fund v. Hawg N Action, Inc. , 651 F.2d 1384, 1386-87 (10th Cir. 1981), which st ands for the proposition that the trustees could recover--direct ly against the contractor--for contributions due under a collective bargaining agr eement even though the nonunion workers on whose efforts the contributions were based would not ultimately benefit from the contributions. That ho lding is consistent with our holding in the appeal of the Wilkinson case, but ithas no bearing on the distinct issue of whether the bond statute covers the contri butions in this case. -23- recovery.”). 9 We therefore conclude that § 36-26-105(1) does no t cover the breach of contract damages plaintiffs seek in this case.

III. CONCLUSION We conclude that the district court erred in holdin g that the damages plaintiffs seek are covered under § 38-26-105 and r ecoverable under the bond St. Paul issued to Wilkinson. We therefore do not need to address St. Paul’s ERISA preemption argument. The judgment of the dis trict court is REVERSED.