Opinion ID: 764161
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Agency and Affirmative Duty Theories

Text: 39 LIUNA contends that the district court erred by finding it liable for the alleged racial discrimination of Local 496. The district court found that LIUNA was liable both because Local 496 was acting as the international union's agent and because LIUNA breached its affirmative duty to oppose Local 496's discriminatory practices by neglecting to remedy the alleged discrimination when it learned of the plaintiffs' claims. Again, we review these findings of fact for clear error. See Berger v. Iron Workers Reinforced Rodmen Local 201, 843 F.2d 1395, 1407 (D.C.Cir.1988). 40 Common law agency theories of vicarious liability govern the liability of international labor organizations for the acts of their local unions that violate Title VII and § 1981. See id. at 1427-28. At common law, a principal may be held liable for the intentional torts of its agent if the agent's conduct is within the scope of his agency and if, with the knowledge of the conditions, the principal intends the conduct or its consequences. See id. at 1430. In other words, in a case such as this, a plaintiff must adduce specific evidence that the international 'instigated, supported, ratified, or encouraged' those actions, or 'that what was done was done by their agents in accordance with their fundamental agreement of association.'  Id. at 1427 (quoting Carbon Fuel v. United Mine Workers, 444 U.S. 212, 217-18, 100 S.Ct. 410, 62 L.Ed.2d 394 (1979)). Furthermore, where an agency relationship exists, international unions are not only vicariously liable, they have an affirmative duty to oppose the local's discriminatory conduct. See Sinyard v. Foote & Davies Div. of McCall Corp., 577 F.2d 943, 945 (5th Cir.1978). 6 Thus, [a]s a general proposition ... international labor unions must bear a heavy responsibility in giving effect to the remedial provisions of both Title VII and § 1981. Id. 41 In this case, the district court correctly found that LIUNA is liable both vicariously and directly. LIUNA and Local 496 have clearly maintained a principal/agent relationship since March 1985 when LIUNA became a signatory to the National Maintenance Agreement, which included a provision stating that Local 496 was to fill all maintenance laborer positions at Perry. 7 However, the structure of the relationship between the local and the international was no different before this date, during Perry's construction phase. The working-in-the-calling requirement, which we have determined had a disparate impact on African Americans, was in fact a product of LIUNA's own Uniform Local Constitution. Article III, § 1(a) provides, In order to be eligible for membership a person must be working in the calling within the territory of the Local Union in which the individual applies for membership. We are baffled and amazed as to how LIUNA can contend that it did not instigate, support, ratify, or encourage a policy that it created. Moreover, LIUNA was aware and on notice of the charges of discrimination filed against Local 496, as Floyd Conrad and the EEOC both informed LIUNA personnel of such developments. Thus the international cannot feign ignorance, and cannot be excused for breaching its duty to end Local 496's discrimination. 8 See Berger, 843 F.2d at 1428 (Having ... approved a practice of the local that was later found to be discriminatory in effect, the international would surely have been held accountable for the local's conduct under the agency standard of the common law ....); see also Sagers v. Yellow Freight System, Inc., 529 F.2d 721, 736, n. 32 (5th Cir.1976) (stating that international unions who are parties to national agreements have a duty under Section 1981 to inquire into the effect of contract provisions when it is reasonable to assume that such provisions might lead to discrimination, and that international unions have an affirmative obligation to protect members from agreements they help negotiate when such agreements lock in past discrimination). 42 Here, the district court's conclusion that LIUNA is liable is based on an eminently reasonable interpretation of the relationship between the international and local unions. Because the record and the applicable precedent support the district court's conclusion that LIUNA is liable for Local 496's discriminatory practices and policies, we affirm the judgment of the district court on this issue as well.