Opinion ID: 337743
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Company's Appeal

Text: 9 The Company contends that summary judgment was inappropriate in this case and cites four purported material factual issues in support of this position. The fundamental defect in this argument is that matters in dispute characterized as fact issues by the Company are actually conclusions of law, not questions of fact. 3 It is axiomatic that where questions of law alone are involved in a case, summary judgment is appropriate. See Asuncion v. District Director, INS, 427 F.2d 523, 524 (9th Cir. 1970); Ammons v. Franklin Life Insurance Co., 348 F.2d 414, 416-17 (5th Cir. 1965); Molinos De Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Sheridan Towing Co., 62 F.R.D. 172, 176-78 (D.P.R.1973). When an arbitration award has been made, the only potential areas for consideration of factual questions that would preclude summary judgment concern whether the dispute actually was arbitrable, H. K. Porter Co. v. Local 37, United Steelworkers, 400 F.2d 691, 695-96 (4th Cir. 1968); Local 1645, U.A.W. v. Torrington Co., 358 F.2d 103 (2d Cir. 1966); Local 12799, U.M.W. v. Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Co., 291 F.Supp. 578 (N.D.W.Va.1968), and whether the award drew its essence from the agreement, Marble Products Co. v. Local 155, United Stone & Allied Products Workers, 335 F.2d 468, 471 (5th Cir. 1964); Torrington Co. v. Local 1645, U.A.W., 362 F.2d 677, 679-80 & nn. 5-6 (2d Cir. 1966). This inquiry entails whether the alleged arbitrable claims are governed by the contract and its arbitration provisions and whether the arbitration panel has confined its decision, and possibly the remedy, to the interpretation and application of the collective bargaining agreement. The court must scrupulously avoid the invasion of the arbitration panel's sphere and the enticement of ruling on the intrinsic merits of the dispute. International Ladies' Garment Workers Union v. Ashland Industries, Inc., 488 F.2d 641 (5th Cir.), cert. denied sub nom., Alfin v. International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, 419 U.S. 840, 95 S.Ct. 71, 42 L.Ed.2d 68 (1974); Teamsters Local 745 v. Braswell Motor Freight Lines, Inc., 428 F.2d 1371 (5th Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 937, 91 S.Ct. 926, 28 L.Ed.2d 217 (1971). 10 Accordingly, the question of the propriety of summary judgment in this case turns on whether there were material issues of fact concerning the arbitrability of the dispute and the proper application of the essence standard. Since there were no material questions of fact concerning these issues, summary judgment was appropriate. Thus, the point of contention that we must resolve concerns whether the district court applied the correct test and reached the correct result on the legal questions of arbitrability and scope of the arbitration panel's decision. See Marble Products Co. v. Local 155, United Stone & Allied Products Workers, 335 F.2d 468 (5th Cir. 1964).B. Arbitrability
11 In holding that the instant dispute was arbitrable, the district court employed principles enunciated in the Steelworkers' Trilogy, 4 and concluded that since the dispute was arguably within the arbitration clause it was, in fact, arbitrable. The Company asserts that this test applies only when the employer refuses to arbitrate in the first instance, rather than in situations, such as the instant one, where the employer voluntarily proceeds to arbitration but refuses to abide by the award. However, this position is at least implicitly rejected by one of the Steelworkers' Trilogy itself; 5 further, this court has specifically ruled that the postulates enunciated in the Trilogy apply to suits to enforce arbitration awards as well as those to compel arbitration in the first instance. Teamsters Local 745 v. Braswell Motor Freight Lines, Inc., 392 F.2d 1 (5th Cir. 1968). 6 Moreover, the Braswell doctrine is based on solid reasoning. A company or union should not be permitted to defeat the sound policies supporting the presumption of arbitrability by the mere procedural device of going to arbitration, but refusing to abide by the award. Accordingly, the district court did not err in applying the presumption of arbitrability in this case.
12 The Company asserts that the dispute was not arbitrable because the Company has the sole discretion to create new job classifications. The leadman position was such a new classification, the argument goes, and therefore the panel exceeded its power by, in effect, deciding whom the leadman led. 13 The short answer to this contention is that the clause empowering the Company to create new job classifications is explicitly and specifically subject to other provisions of (the contract) and to (its) grievance procedure. There is no provision in the contract that meets the Steelworkers' Trilogy standard, which requires a clear and unambiguous exclusion of the dispute from the arbitration mechanism in order to defeat arbitrability. See Communications Workers v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co., 415 F.2d 35, 38-39 (5th Cir. 1969). Thus, the district court's conclusion that the instant dispute was arbitrable is not erroneous. 14 C. Essence Vel Non? 15 The Company contends that the arbitration panel's decision is arbitrary and capricious in that it did not confine itself to the interpretation and application of the collective bargaining agreement. In addition, the Company contends that the decision cannot be rationally derived from that agreement. In substance, the Company's argument is based on its conclusion that the panel decision assigned to the leadmen certain duties that in its opinion the leadmen should perform, rather than the duties which the Company, in its sole and rightful discretion, assigned to the position. 16 In these types of cases, however, the scope of review by courts is extremely limited. When the question of arbitrability is resolved in favor of arbitration, our only remaining function is to determine whether the award draws its essence from the collective bargaining agreement; we do not review the merits or the factual and legal accuracy of the arbiter's findings. Local 540, Amalgamated Meat Cutters v. Neuhoff Bros. Packers, Inc., 481 F.2d 817 (5th Cir. 1973). The essence standard is to be interpreted expansively so as to uphold the award, rather than restrictively. See United Steelworkers v. United States Gypsum Co., 492 F.2d 713, 731-32 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 998, 95 S.Ct. 312, 42 L.Ed.2d 271 (1974). 17 In the instant case the collective bargaining agreement grants the arbitration panel, full authority to decide the proper interpretation and application of any of the provisions, but denies it the power, to add to, detract from or change, any of the provisions. As noted above, the Company's right to create new job classifications is expressly subject to the agreement's grievance provisions; the clause upon which the Union based its claim, and the arbitration panel its award, provides that the Leadman classification shall be at least $.20 above highest led classification. 18 It is apparent that in concluding that the leadmen led the crane operators, the panel was merely interpreting and applying these provisions of the agreement to the realities of the loading dock operation. The Company admitted that the shipping yard work necessitated coordination among the entire crew, including the crane operators. The panel quite reasonably concluded that in order for the work to be coordinated the leadmen as a practical matter led the crane operators as well as the ground crew. Apparently, the Company would have us make a delicate differentiation between directing the work so as to coordinate it and leading a crew. Unappealing as the drawing of such an ethereal distinction might be in the first instance, certainly its mere enunciation evidences the fact that the arbitration panel did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in refusing to make it. The panel's decision is well within the standard which requires it to draw its essence from the contract; the district court did not err in ordering enforcement of the award.