Opinion ID: 583596
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Does the Consent Decree authorize Ballew's Monetary Obligation?

Text: 13 The Independent Administrator found that, with respect to the matters pertinent to this appeal, Ballew acted simply as a trustee of the Trust, and the District Court ruled that Ballew sent his letter in his official capacity as trustee of the Trust. Therefore, our initial question is whether the Consent Decree, of its own force, binds Ballew in his capacity as a trustee of the Trust such that an obligation may be imposed upon him pursuant to the election supervision machinery established by the decree. 14 Neither the Trust nor Ballew in his capacity as a trustee were parties to the litigation in which the Consent Decree was entered, and normally a person is not bound by an in personam judgment entered in litigation in which he is neither designated as a party nor served. See Martin v. Wilks, 490 U.S. 755, 109 S.Ct. 2180, 104 L.Ed.2d 835 (1989); Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32, 61 S.Ct. 115, 85 L.Ed. 22 (1940). Limited exceptions exist for persons who are agents of, or acted in concert or participation with, parties bound by a judgment, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(d), or who were adequately represented in the litigation that resulted in the judgment, see Martin v. Wilks, 490 U.S. at 762 n. 2, 109 S.Ct. at 2184 n. 2. 15 We have previously recognized that some entities have sufficient relationships to the IBT to be bound by the Consent Decree. We have ruled that IBT affiliates are bound because their interests were adequately represented by the IBT, see Election Rules Decision, 931 F.2d at 185-87, and that an officer of an IBT local was bound by the disciplinary mechanism of the Consent Decree because the investigatory and disciplinary powers of the court-appointed officers are proper delegations of the powers of the IBT General President and the [General Executive Board] within the scope of the IBT Constitution that binds all members of the IBT ..., Friedman and Hughes, 905 F.2d at 622 (2d Cir.1990). However, in our most recent consideration of an enforcement of the Consent Decree, involving a remedy imposed upon an employer of IBT members, we were careful to recognize that we were not determining whether the decree applied of its own force but, instead, upheld the remedy as a proper use of the All Writs Act. See Yellow Freight, 948 F.2d at 102 (2d Cir.1991). The District Court in the pending matter considered our rulings in Election Rules Decision and Friedman and Hughes to have determined the inapplicability of Martin v. Wilks to this ongoing case, but we think that overstates the matter. Whether any person is bound by a judgment always depends on the precise relationship of that person to the underlying litigation, and, as Friedman and Hughes illustrates, sometimes depends on the particular provisions of the judgment sought to be applied. 16 A trust and its trustees are distinct from both the employer and the union that authorized their existence. See Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 150 v. Vertex Construction Co., Inc., 932 F.2d 1443, 1451 (11th Cir.1991); Griffith Co. v. NLRB, 660 F.2d 406, 410 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1105, 102 S.Ct. 2903, 73 L.Ed.2d 1313 (1982). An employee benefit trust is not necessarily bound by a judgment entered in litigation involving the pertinent union. See O'Hare v. General Marine Transport Corp., 740 F.2d 160, 167 (2d Cir.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1212, 105 S.Ct. 1181, 84 L.Ed.2d 329 (1985). Though the members of the IBT were adequately represented in the underlying litigation and though those members have an interest in assuring that Trust resources are not misused, it does not follow, as the Government contends, that the Trust or the trustees were adequately represented by the IBT in the underlying litigation. As the pending attempt to enforce the decree against the Trust and Ballew indicate, substantial issues arise as to whether conduct of the trustees is prohibited political campaigning or permissible distribution of pension benefit information. The interests of the IBT in agreeing to terms to regulate the conduct of the 1991 IBT election do not necessarily coincide with the interests of the Trust and the trustees in determining where the line is to be drawn between prohibited campaigning and permissible informing of Trust beneficiaries. 1 We conclude that the Consent Decree, of its own force, is not binding upon the Trust and its trustees, at least not so as to make applicable to Ballew, in his capacity as trustee, the obligation not to take action that can be regarded as influencing an IBT election. 17