Opinion ID: 466131
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Reasons Why District Court Jurisdiction Exists.

Text: 22 If the district court does not take jurisdiction in this matter, Griffith's only recourse is to disregard the prehire agreement and await the Carpenters' attack. That is, to avoid preparing bids that include the costs imposed by the prehire agreement, Griffith must ignore those costs and take its chances. This suit is an effort to obtain a legal determination that will enable it to avoid either course of action. 23 Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. San Diego County District Council of Carpenters, 436 U.S. 180, 98 S.Ct. 1745, 56 L.Ed.2d 209 (1978), provides teaching that offers comfort to Griffith. In that case, the question was whether a state court was barred from hearing a trespass action stemming from a labor dispute that was, in turn, governed by federal law. Because Sears could not invoke the Board's jurisdiction, and because the union did not invoke it, the Court held that the state court's jurisdiction was not preempted. Id. at 207, 98 S.Ct. at 1762-63. Terming the preemption question one of primary-jurisdiction--while distinguishing its use of the phrase from the more usual definition of primary jurisdiction, id. at 199 n. 29, 98 S.Ct. at 1758 n. 29--the Court noted that lack of recourse to the Board altered the traditional analysis: 24 The primary-jurisdiction rationale unquestionably requires that when the same controversy may be presented to the state court or the NLRB, it must be presented to the Board. But that rationale does not extend to cases in which an employer has no acceptable method of invoking, or inducing the Union to invoke, the jurisdiction of the Board. 25 Id. at 202, 98 S.Ct. at 1760. Sears, of course, does not stand for the proposition that lack of recourse automatically renders the preemption doctrine invalid. See id. at 203, 98 S.Ct. at 1760-61. But it does emphasize that, when an employer has no adequate means of obtaining an evaluation ... by the NLRB, a court must reconsider any rote application of the doctrine. Id. at 203 n. 34, 98 S.Ct. at 1760 n. 34 (quoting International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1416 v. Ariadne Shipping Co., 397 U.S. 195, 201, 90 S.Ct. 872, 875, 25 L.Ed.2d 218 (1970) (White, J., concurring) ). 26 The approach of Sears is applicable to this case. Moreover, a district court, unlike a state court running the risk of preemption, is likely to be construing federal labor law, not a more regionalized cause of action. In cases such as this, the district court would merely be deciding initially-- in those few instances in which the Board either will not, or cannot, decide--what it would normally review at a later stage in the process. Under these circumstances, it would be safe to presume that judicial supervision will not disserve the interests promoted by the federal labor statutes. Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway & Motor Coach Employees v. Lockridge, 403 U.S. 274, 297-98, 91 S.Ct. 1909, 1923, 29 L.Ed.2d 473 (1971) (citing Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 87 S.Ct. 903, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967) ). 27 Of a similar thrust is our holding that a district court may take jurisdiction if a party has no standing to bring his case before the Board. 28 ... [T]he Trust Funds could not have brought this case before the Board. As the Trust Funds are neither parties to the Agreement nor employees, they have no standing to petition the Board for unit clarification or for an accretion of callback workers. 29 The Trust Funds assert that because they cannot proceed before the Board, the district court suit is necessary ..., and that they are entitled to proceed to trial on the merits of the case. We agree. There is authority for holding that the primary jurisdiction rationale is inapplicable where the injured party bringing the suit has no acceptable means to invoke the Board's jurisdiction and cannot induce its adversary to do so. 30 Laborers Health & Welfare Trust Fund v. Kaufman & Broad, Inc., 707 F.2d 412, 415 (9th Cir.1983) (citations omitted) (citing Sears, 436 U.S. at 201-02, 98 S.Ct. at 1759-60). 31 Even when a party theoretically has standing before the Board, the Board may not choose to hear his case. Under those circumstances, we have also found the primary jurisdiction doctrine inapplicable. For example, in Operating Engineers Pension Trust v. Beck Engineering & Surveying Co., 746 F.2d 557 (9th Cir.1984), we held that, in the case of an employer having only one employee, 32 [s]ince the Board may not and will not ascertain majority status in a single-employee unit, it would be futile for the employer of a single employee to petition the Board for a representation election in order to repudiate his Section 8(f) pre-hire agreement. This Circuit has previously held that the primary jurisdiction rule does not require the dismissal of a Section 301 suit which raises a question of representation where the party bringing the suit has no standing to bring its case before the NLRB. 33 Id. at 565 (citing Kaufman & Broad ); see also Mesa Verde Construction Co. v. Northern California District Council of Laborers, 602 F.Supp. 327, 331 (N.D.Cal.1985) (finding that the primary jurisdiction doctrine did not apply because it would have been futile for Mesa Verde to have filed an election petition since the NLRB cannot make a bargaining unit determination as to non-existent jobsites nor could an election be held). 34 To refuse to extend the rationale of Sears, Kaufman & Broad, and Beck to this case--in which the employer can never get a majority status determination from the Board--would tend to exalt the doctrine of primary jurisdiction to the level of an icon when, properly viewed, it is but a device for the practical purposes of protecting the authority of the Board and preserving the uniformity of labor law. Therefore, we hold that, under the special circumstances of this case, the district court may take jurisdiction. 3 35 Appellees, in asserting that no section 301 jurisdiction exists, reason that the parties are not suing for a breach of contract but rather are litigating the validity of the contract itself. 4 It is true that several cases support this general proposition. See, e.g., Glaziers & Glassworkers Local Union # 767 v. Custom Auto Glass Distributors, 689 F.2d 1339, 1342-43 (9th Cir.1982) (issues involving the validity of the agreement, as opposed to those involving the interpretation of the agreement, were within the exclusive jurisdiction of the NLRB); see also NDK Corp. v. Local 1550 of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, 709 F.2d 491, 493 (7th Cir.1983) (per curiam) (where validity is the ultimate issue the district court does not have section 301 jurisdiction); Hernandez v. National Packing Co., 455 F.2d 1252, 1253 (1st Cir.1972) (same). But these cases involved situations in which one or both parties were asking the district court to decide the representational issue--an issue within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board and one which, under the facts, could have been decided by the Board. Griffith's situation, however, is quite different. 36 In the instant case, the Board's decision not to decide is as close to a Board-made ruling on representational status as Griffith presently can get. 5 We believe the reasoning in Sears, Kaufman & Broad, and Beck, should be followed. Permitting the district court to take jurisdiction in this case is consistent with the philosophy of section 8(f) agreements. Unless the union has achieved majority status, Griffith should not be bound by the terms of a prehire agreement that it allegedly repudiated, and any future Griffith employees should not be forced to accept the terms of an agreement negotiated by a union that a majority of such employees might not support. As we noted in a recent opinion, Lumber Production Industrial Workers Local # 1054 v. West Coast Industrial Relations Association, 775 F.2d 1042 (9th Cir.1985), we must guard against protecting, inadvertently or not, the very concept Congress refused to include within the NLRA: compulsory acceptance of a collective bargaining agreement. Id. at 1046. To deny Griffith the opportunity to obtain a declaratory judgment from the only body that can hear its case would come far closer to the compulsory acceptance danger than would permitting this limited exception to section 301 jurisprudence suggested by Griffith. 6 Only a determination of representational status will preserve the two interests that Congress intended to uphold when it enacted Sec. 8(f) [:] ... protect[ing] the Sec. 7 rights of employees to select their own bargaining representative [and] ... promot[ing] Congress' 'intention ... that prehire agreements were to be arrived at voluntarily.'  Jim McNeff, 461 U.S. at 268-69, 103 S.Ct. at 1757-58 (footnote omitted) (quoting NLRB v. Local Union No. 103, International Association of Bridge, Structural & Ornamental Iron Workers (Higdon), 434 U.S. 335, 348, 98 S.Ct. 651, 659, 54 L.Ed.2d 586 (1978) ). 37 Upon remand, the district court will consider whether to issue a declaratory judgment with respect to the effect of Griffith's repudiation. Stewart v. M.M. & P. Pension Plan, 608 F.2d 776 (9th Cir.1979), reiterated the requirements for a declaratory judgment: 38 Whenever a declaratory judgment is sought in a federal court, there must be an actual controversy before there can be jurisdiction. Basically, the question in each case is whether the facts alleged, under all the circumstances, show that there is a substantial controversy, between parties having adverse legal interests, of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment. 39 Id. at 782 (emphasis in original) (quoting Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal & Oil Co., 312 U.S. 270, 273, 61 S.Ct. 510, 512, 85 L.Ed. 826 (1941) ). 40 Although, in Stewart, we found that no case or controversy existed because the pensioner did not aver that he intended to apply for pension benefits, id. at 784-85, the situation in this case is quite different. Here Griffith alleges that, until the status of the prehire agreement is settled, it cannot adequately prepare bids for construction jobs. The costs that it must take into account include calculations of the benefits owed to employees, and until it knows the extent of the employee benefits, it cannot estimate the aggregate cost of a job. Cf. Ion Construction v. District Council of Painters No. 16, 593 F.Supp. 233, 235 (N.D.Cal.1984) (emphasizing the importance of section 8(f) agreements in enabling employers to estimate labor costs). This constitutes an immediate and real controversy. The district court has jurisdiction to issue a declaratory judgment on the effect of Griffith's alleged repudiation of the prehire agreement. 41 REVERSED AND REMANDED. 42