Court Opinion

ID: 9790871
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:00:40.236188+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:32.320113
License: Public Domain

KENNARD, J.
I concur in the reversal with directions. However, in my view, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (hereafter Board) lacked *1296jurisdiction to reconsider our decree in George Arakelian Farms, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. (1985) 40 Cal.3d 654 [221 Cal.Rptr. 488, 710 P.2d 288] (hereafter Arakelian I), and therefore it was not necessary for us in th(s case to consider the applicability of the doctrine of law of the case and any exception to it. The majority opinion fails to adequately evaluate the nature of our order in Arakelian I in the context of the statutory authority granted to the Board. As I shall explain, we did not remand the matter to the Board for further consideration; by a complete affirmance, we decided1 the issue.
In Arakelian I, we concluded: (1) the Board’s certification of the United Farm Workers (hereafter UFW) as the exclusive representative of Arakelian’s employees was valid, (2) the Board properly determined that Arakelian’s refusal to bargain constituted an unfair labor practice, and (3) the Board’s reimposition of make-whole relief following remand should be upheld. (40 Cal. 3d at pp. 663, 668.) Our opinion, as well as its remittitur, ordered: “Let a decree issue enforcing the board’s order in full.” In my view, our order was a final determination of the propriety of make-whole relief as the standard to be applied in calculating the remedy for the unfair labor practice. (See Overstreet v. County of Butte (1962) 57 Cal. 2d 504, 506 [20 Cal.Rptr. 631, 370 P.2d 335].) Thus, the Board did not have authority to reconsider the matter.
This case is analogous to the situation where an appellate court affirms a judgment in part and reverses it in part with directions. In that event, the terms of the remittitur define the trial court’s jurisdiction. As we explained in Hampton v. Superior Court (1952) 38 Cal.2d 652, 656 [242 P.2d 1], “The order of the appellate court as stated in the remittitur, ‘is decisive of the character of the judgment to which the appellant is entitled. The lower court cannot reopen the case on the facts, allow the filing of amended or supplemental pleadings, nor retry the case, and if it should do so, the judgment rendered thereon would be void.’ [Citation.]” (Accord, Rice v. Schmid (1944) 25 Cal.2d 259, 263 [153 P.2d 313] [trial court lacked authority to retry any issue but damages following reversal with directions to calculate damages]; Skaggs v. Los Angeles (1956) 138 Cal.App.2d 269, 272 [291 P.2d 572] [trial court lacked authority to correct erroneous part of a judgment that had been affirmed on appeal where other portions of the judgment had been reversed with directions].)
In the cases cited in the preceding paragraph, as here, further proceedings in the matter were contemplated after the decision on appeal.1 Our order in *1297Arakelian I differs from the decisions in the cited cases only because it did not reverse any part of the Board’s determination. Indeed, our order in Arakelian I was stronger than an order of remand with directions. In Arakelian I, we did not remand at all; our decision on the issues presented was the equivalent of an affirmance in full.
The majority’s reliance on the doctrine of law of the case fails to effectuate our order and holdings in Arakelian I. A review of our decision and our order in Arakelian I compels the conclusion that we intended to make a final decision on the issue presented. (Puritan Leasing Co. v. Superior Court (1977) 76 Cal.App.3d 140, 147 [142 Cal.Rptr. 676]; see Lesny Development Co. v. Kendall (1985) 164 Cal.App.3d 1010, 1020-1021 [210 Cal.Rptr. 890] .)2 The majority opinion implies that the Board, an adminis*1298trative agency, may have authority to overrule or nullify decisions of this court. The judicial review and enforcement provisions of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (Lab. Code, §§ 1160-1160.9) do not support such a grant of authority to the Board.
Board orders are not self-executing; they are dependent upon judicial review and enforcement. If a party does not seek review of a Board decision, the decision is enforced by the superior court following a petition by the Board. (Lab. Code, § 1160.8.) If review of a Board decision is sought, then the appellate court may “make and enter a decree enforcing, modifying and enforcing as so modified, or setting aside in whole or in part, the order of the board.” (Ibid.) The Board’s authority to modify or set aside its own orders empires upon the filing of the record in the court. (Id., § 1160.3.) The statutory provisions contemplate court enforcement of Board decisions following judicial review, not Board review of court orders that constitute a final determination of an issue.
The facts of this case illustrate the importance of according finality to our decision in Arakelian I regardless of any present agreement or disagreement with the decision itself. The UFW “won” the representation election involved in this case in 1976. We decided J. R. Norton Co. v. Agricultural Labor Reflations Bd. (1979) 26 Cal.3d 1 [160 Cal.Rptr. 710, 603 P.2d 1306] in 1979. In 1985, we decided Arakelian I, supra, 40 Cal.3d 654. In May 1987, the Court of Appeal decided William Dal Porto & Sons, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd., supra, 191 Cal.App.3d at page 1195. Now, in 1989, 13 years after the UFW’s “victory” in the representation election, this court is prepared to reverse this case with directions. Because Board and court decisions will continue to be made before all of the possible proceedings in this case are finally over even at the Board level, it may be many years before the matter is ultimately resolved. How long may depend on whether the Board decides that our decree in Arakelian I has been nullified by an intervening change in a controlling principle of law or, perhaps, by intervening changes in law relating to election certification or *1299unfair labor practices. The majority’s analysis is inconsistent with one of the major legislative purposes underlying the Agricultural Labor Relations Act. It is, as demonstrated by the facts of this case, less than conducive to achieving “a speedy resolution of agricultural labor disputes.” (See maj. opn., ante, p. 1295.)
Broussard, J., concurred.

As this case illustrates, Board proceedings may involve a number of phases. Here, the certification proceeding came before the unfair labor practice proceeding, which was followed *1297by a proceeding to determine the appropriate standard for calculating the appropriate relief, that is, the make-whole remedy determination. The proceeding to calculate the proper amount of relief through the process of applying the make-whole standard to the particular facts presented still needs to be concluded.

The majority maintains that res judicata is “not implicated by reopening the proceedings in this case.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 1290.) It bases this assertion on its conclusion that Arakelian has not had an opportunity to litigate the issue, and its conclusion that Arakelian I was an interlocutory judgment. (Ibid.) I do not believe it is either necessary or appropriate to analyze this case in the context of res judicata. I also do not agree with the majority’s conclusions as to res judicata.
It is true that Arakelian did not have an opportunity to cite William Dal Porto & Sons, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. (1987) 191 Cal.App.3d 1195 [237 Cal.Rptr. 206] in the prior proceedings because Dal Porto was not decided until May 1987. However, it does not follow that Arakelian either did not or could not raise the issue in the prior proceeding. (See Takahashi v. Board of Education (1988) 202 Cal.App.3d 1464, 1481 [249 Cal.Rptr. 578].) “A party cannot by negligence or design withhold issues and litigate them in consecutive actions.” (Sutphin v. Speik (1940) 15 Cal.2d 195, 202 [99 P.2d 652].) Arakelian did have an opportunity to litigate the issue in the prior proceeding.
I also do not agree with the majority’s apparent assumption that use of the term “interlocutory” negates any need to analyze res judicata further. The infirmity in the majority’s position, even assuming arguendo that Arakelian I is interlocutory, is illustrated by the Restatement Second of Judgments. As comment g to section 13 says: “But to hold invariably that that kind of carry-over is not to be permitted until a final judgment in the strict sense has been reached in the first action can involve hardship—either needless duplication of effort and expense in the second action to decide the same issue, or, alternatively, postponement of decision of the issue in the second action for a possibly lengthy period of time until the first action has gone to a complete finish. In particular circumstances the wisest course is to regard the prior decision of the issue as final for the purpose of issue preclusion without awaiting the end judgment. See Illustrations 1-3. Before doing so, the court should determine that the decision to be carried over was adequately deliberated and firm, even if not final in the sense of forming a basis for a judgment already entered. Thus preclusion should be refused if the decision was avowedly tentative. On the other hand, that the parties were fully heard, that the court supported its decision with a reasoned opinion, that the decision was subject to appeal or was in fact reviewed on appeal, are factors supporting the conclusion that the decision is final for the purpose of preclusion. The test of finality, however, is whether the conclusion in question is procedurally definite and not whether the court might have had doubts in reaching the decision. [¶] Application of the present Comment, like application of Comment *1298f, may result in inconsistent judgments; see § 16. [¶] Illustrations: [¶] 1. A, owner, brings an action against B, builder, for fraudulently inducing A to enter a construction contract. A moves in that action to stay arbitration of B’s claim against A for payments due under the contract, contending that the arbitration clause is ineffective because it was induced by fraud. After a thorough hearing, the court grants A a preliminary injunction against arbitration. B appeals under a statute permitting review of such an interlocutory order. The appellate court reverses on the facts, finding that A failed to show that there was even a substantial issue as to fraud. If the court in a separate action by B against A to compel arbitration determines that the negative finding as to fraud in the first action was adequately deliberated and firm, that finding should be accepted as conclusive even though the first action has not reached final judgment in the strict sense.” (Rest.2d Judgments, § 13, com. g., at pp. 136-137; accord, id., § 83, com. a, at p. 268.)