Opinion ID: 167403
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Petitioner's Former Employer Removed the Suit to Federal Court

Text: 6 On December 26, 2002, NORDAM filed a notice of removal, asserting that petitioner's wrongful discharge claim, although pled as a state-law cause of action, was nevertheless a federal claim for jurisdictional purposes because it was completely preempted by AIR21 — the Whistleblower Protection Program in Section 519 of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, 49 U.S.C. § 42121. Admin. R., Doc. 17, Ex. B at 1-2. AIR21 was enacted on April 5, 2000, as an amendment to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Pub.L. No. 106-181, 114 Stat. 61. Petitioner disagreed that his state wrongful discharge claim was completely preempted by federal law, and moved to remand. NORDAM then moved to dismiss petitioner's suit because he had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies under AIR21 by filing a complaint with the Secretary of Labor. See Admin. R., Doc. 17, Ex. A at 12. 7 Because NORDAM had attached some materials to its motion to dismiss, the district court treated it as a summary judgment motion. Id. at 1 n. 2. On April 8, 2003, the court issued an order agreeing with NORDAM (after a lengthy analysis) that petitioner's state wrongful discharge claim was completely preempted and replaced by AIR21. Id. at 11, 12. The court also held that since petitioner had not filed an AIR21 complaint with the Secretary of Labor and received a final administrative order (as required by 49 U.S.C. § 42121(b)(1), (3) & (4)), he had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies under AIR21 and the court lacked jurisdiction to proceed. See Admin. R., Doc. 17, Ex. A at 12-13 & n. 12. The court therefore granted summary judgment to NORDAM on petitioner's wrongful discharge claim. Id. at 13. 1 In a footnote, the court noted that AIR21's ninety-day statute of limitations had expired, but that the delay in the case was due to a good faith legal dispute regarding an unsettled question of federal preemption. Id. n. 12. The court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to consider whether equitable tolling should apply and, apparently assuming that petitioner would file an administrative complaint, stated that it was for the Secretary of Labor to settle that question. Id. 8