Opinion ID: 2134951
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Tort Actions.

Text: Although the Supreme Court has not addressed this specific issue, it has set forth certain principles to guide our analysis on the question of pre-emption of state tort actions. The Court has held that Congress did not intend to pre-empt state rules that proscribe conduct, or establish rights and obligations, independent of a labor contract. Lueck, 471 U.S. at 212, 105 S.Ct. at 1912, 85 L.Ed.2d at 216. We must focus on whether the tort of negligent misrepresentation confers a right independent of any right established by the cba, or, instead, whether evaluation of the tort claim is inextricably intertwined with consideration of the terms of the labor contract. Id. at 213, 105 S.Ct. at 1912, 85 L.Ed.2d at 216. We must also ask whether the tort action would frustrate the federal labor law scheme established by section 301. Id. at 209, 105 S.Ct. at 1910, 85 L.Ed.2d at 214; Conaway, 431 N.W.2d at 798. In Lueck, the Court held that an action for bad faith handling of an insurance claim under a disability plan (included in the labor contract) was pre-empted by section 301 of the LMRA. 471 U.S. at 220-21, 105 S.Ct. at 1915-16, 85 L.Ed.2d at 220-21. The Court found that the duty of good faith and fair dealing was a right derived from the insurance contract itself, therefore the rights and obligations under the contract would involve interpretation of the cba. Id. at 217-19, 105 S.Ct. at 1914-15, 85 L.Ed.2d at 219-20. To allow a breach of contract claim to be characterized as a tort claim would cause arbitration to lose most of its effectiveness, ... as well as eviscerate a central tenet of federal labor-contract law under § 301 that it is the arbitrator, not the court, who has the responsibility to interpret the labor contract in the first instance. Id. at 220, 105 S.Ct. at 1915, 85 L.Ed.2d at 221. Similarly in International Brotherhood of Electric Workers v. Hechler, 481 U.S. 851, 861-62, 107 S.Ct. 2161, 2168, 95 L.Ed.2d 791, 802-03 (1987), the Court found an employee's suit for failure to provide a safe workplace pre-empted by section 301. Because the union had assumed the duty of employee safety, determination of the nature and scope of that duty required construction of the cba. Id. at 862, 107 S.Ct. at 2168, 95 L.Ed.2d at 802-03. The Court emphasized that uniformity in the interpretation of labor contracts was paramount. Id., 107 S.Ct. at 2168, 95 L.Ed.2d at 803. The Court's most recent look at section 301 pre-emption involved an employee's action for retaliatory discharge. Lingle, 486 U.S. at 412-13, 108 S.Ct. at 1885, 100 L.Ed.2d at 422-23; see also Conaway, 431 N.W.2d at 800. The Court began its analysis by examining the elements of the tort of retaliatory discharge under state law and noted that [e]ach of these purely factual questions pertains to the conduct of the employee and the conduct and motivation of the employer. Lingle, 486 U.S. at 407, 108 S.Ct. at 1882, 100 L.Ed.2d at 419. Further, the defense of the claim also involved a purely factual inquiry. The Court concluded the tort action was not pre-empted because resolution of the claim did not require construction of the cba and it would not frustrate the goal of uniformity. Id. at 407, 108 S.Ct. at 1882, 100 L.Ed.2d at 419-20. In Lingle the Court rejected the employer's argument that because a state court would perform the same analysis of the facts as if the plaintiff had brought an action for discharge without just cause under the cba, it rendered the claim substantially dependent upon analysis of the cba. Id. at 408-10, 108 S.Ct. at 1882-83, 100 L.Ed.2d at 420-21. So long as the state-law claim can be resolved without interpreting the agreement itself, the claim is `independent' of the agreement for § 301 pre-emption purposes. Id. at 410, 108 S.Ct. at 1883, 100 L.Ed.2d at 421; see also Conaway, 431 N.W.2d at 799-800. The Court also rejected the argument that resolution of the plaintiffs' damage claims depended on the cba. Lingle, 486 U.S. at 413 n. 12, 108 S.Ct. at 1885 n. 12, 100 L.Ed.2d at 423 n. 12.