Opinion ID: 559995
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is there a closer analogy in federal law?

Text: 10 The Union argues, and the district court held, that the state law cause of action for specific performance of a contract provides a closer analogy to the Union's action to compel arbitration than does the federal cause of action for unfair labor practices. We agree with that conclusion. 11 An action for specific performance of a contract is closely analogous to an action to compel arbitration. We need go no further than the Supreme Court's decision in Textile Workers Union v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957), to demonstrate this. In Lincoln Mills, the Court had to decide whether the Norris-LaGuardia Act withdrew jurisdiction to compel arbitration of grievance disputes. In answering the question in the negative, the Court stated, we see no justification in policy for restricting Sec. 301(a) to damage suits, leaving specific performance of a contract to arbitrate grievance disputes to the inapposite procedural requirements of that Act. Id. at 458, 77 S.Ct. at 918. It is clear, then, that the Supreme Court has characterized a suit to compel arbitration as a suit for specific performance of a contract to arbitrate grievance disputes. Our circuit has done likewise. See, e.g., South Western Bell Tel. Co. v. Communications Workers of Am., 454 F.2d 1333, 1336 (5th Cir.1971) 10 (need uniform standard of arbitrability, regardless of whether the suit asks for the injunction of a strike ... or the specific performance of an arbitration clause); Haynes v. United States Pipe & Foundry Co., 362 F.2d 414, 417 (5th Cir.1966) (under Lincoln Mills, district courts have jurisdiction to grant specific performance of arbitration provisions contained in collective bargaining agreements); Refinery Employees Union v. Continental Oil Co., 268 F.2d 447, 452 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 361 U.S. 896, 80 S.Ct. 199, 80 S.Ct. 199, 4 L.Ed.2d 152 (1959) (district court, before ordering specific performance of a contract to arbitrate, must first determine whether defendant has contracted to arbitrate the matter); Lodge 12, Dist. 37, Int'l Ass'n of Machinists v. Cameron Iron Works, Inc., 257 F.2d 467, 474 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 880, 79 S.Ct. 120, 3 L.Ed.2d 110 (1958) (Lincoln Mills established authority of district courts to decree specific performance of collective bargaining contracts to arbitrate); see also Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Trailer Train Co., 690 F.2d 1343, 1351 (11th Cir.1982) (court, in discussing arbitration provision in non-labor context, stated that an order to arbitrate under the Federal Arbitration Act is 'simply an order granting specific performance of an arbitration provision'  (quoting Necchi v. Necchi Sewing Mach. Sales Corp., 348 F.2d 693, 696 (2d Cir.1965))); Kentucky W. Virginia Gas Co. v. Oil, Chem. & Atomic Workers Int'l Union, Local 3-510, 549 F.2d 407, 412 (6th Cir.1977) (It is settled that a federal court may order specific performance of provisions for arbitration contained in collective bargaining agreements. (citing Lincoln Mills )); see also Local 149 of the Am. Fed'n of Technical Engr's. v. General Elec. Co., 250 F.2d 922, 929-30 (1st Cir.1957), cert. denied, 356 U.S. 938, 78 S.Ct. 780, 2 L.Ed.2d 813 (1958) (district court, before undertaking to decree specific performance of a contract for arbitration, must first determine if refusal to arbitrate violates collective bargaining agreement (cited approvingly in Refinery Employees, supra )); Local 1055, IBEW v. Gulf Power Co., 175 F.Supp. 315, 317 (N.D.Fla.1959) (grievances arising under a collective bargaining agreement when arbitrable are unequivocally enforceable through specific performance in the district courts). Common sense tells us that the Union's action was simply intended to obtain an order from the district court to compel ITT to perform what the Union sees as ITT's end of the bargain. A closer analogy is difficult to imagine. 12 ITT asserts that the closer analogy to the Union's cause of action is an action for unfair labor practices under section 10(b). ITT argues that collective bargaining agreements and commercial contracts are fundamentally dissimilar and as a result, the policies that support section 10(b) and Fla.Stat. Sec. 95.11(5)(a) are not the same. In making this argument, ITT relies principally on Communications Workers of America v. Western Electric Co., 860 F.2d 1137 (1st Cir.1988). The Western Electric court stated that arbitration clauses are sui generis and cannot, as a matter of federal law, be viewed as equivalent to more ordinary contractual provisions for limitation purposes. Id. at 1141. The court believed an action to compel arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement is not analogous to a suit for specific performance because of the federal policies at stake in the former. We believe this view misapprehends the two-step approach reaffirmed in Reed. The first step requires an examination of the cause of action to determine whether another state or federal cause of action is more analogous. The second step requires an examination of the federal policies at stake. The Western Electric court combined the two steps. We will look at federal policy in the second part of our analysis. For now, we hold that an action to compel arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement is more analogous to a suit for specific performance of a contract provision than to an action for unfair labor practices. 13