Opinion ID: 490009
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Jurisdictional Basis of Roman's Claim

Text: 13 The district court concluded that Roman's claim was essentially based upon a breach of the collective bargaining agreement. We believe that conclusion was correct. Roman's complaint asserted that jurisdiction was proper under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1339, which grants district courts jurisdiction over any civil action arising under any Act of Congress relating to the Postal Service. Section 1339 does not, however, create an independent source of jurisdiction. Peoples Gas, Light & Coke Co. v. United States Postal Service, 658 F.2d 1182, 1189-92 (7th Cir.1981). By permitting the Postal Service, an independent executive establishment, to sue and be sued, Sec. 1339 only removes the sovereign immunity barrier that might otherwise exist in suits involving the Postal Service. Id. In order for the district court to have jurisdiction, Roman's complaint had to be based upon some other substantive legal framework. 14 Roman's allegation that the Postal Service violated his due process rights in threatening him and forcing him to resign does not provide jurisdiction. Where Congress has created an elaborate, remedial scheme which adequately and comprehensively addresses the protection of constitutional rights in the employment context, an employee whose rights are protected through that scheme cannot bring a new, non-statutory action. Bush v. Lucas, 462 U.S. 367, 385, 103 S.Ct. 2404, 2415, 76 L.Ed.2d 648 (1983). In Ellis v. United States Postal Service, 784 F.2d 835, 839-40 (7th Cir.1986), postal employees raised political discrimination claims based upon the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. This court affirmed the district court's dismissal of those claims, holding that the means for redressing grievances in the Postal Service are both adequate and comprehensive. This court emphasized that Congress has expressly authorized the adoption of final and binding grievance provisions in the Postal Service collective bargaining agreements, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1206(a), and ... the particular collective bargaining agreement between the Postal Service and the employees' union establishes a multi-step procedure which culminates in binding third-party arbitration. Id. at 839-40. But see McNair v. United States Postal Service, 768 F.2d 730, 736 n. 8 (5th Cir.1985). Thus, the postal employees were not entitled to bring their claims directly under the due process clause. 15 A postal employee does have a property interest in continued employment which is entitled to due process protection. Winston v. United States Postal Service, 585 F.2d 198, 208-09 (7th Cir.1978). This property interest is created by the collective bargaining agreement between the Postal Service and the Union, which provides that no employee shall be disciplined or discharged without just cause. When a postal employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement the employee is limited to the due process protections provided by the grievance procedures in that agreement. See id. at 210 (the procedures adopted between the Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union satisfy the requirements of due process). 16 In this case, Roman's due process claim arose in his employment relationship with the Postal Service. That relationship was governed by a collective bargaining agreement between the Postal Service and Roman's union which provided that employees could only be discharged for just cause. The district court correctly concluded that Roman's claim was necessarily one for breach of the collective bargaining agreement and that he was therefore limited to the due process protections provided in that agreement.