Court Opinion

ID: 9495521
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:04:44.460585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:03.851363
License: Public Domain

BYE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority rejects the arbitrator’s reading of the Last Chance Agreement (LCA) because he failed to recognize and resolve an ambiguity by examining the parties’ intent. From this analysis, the majority concludes the arbitrator’s award “fails to draw its essence from the parties’ agreement.” Ante at 1086. We cannot reject the arbitrator’s reading of the parties’ agreement merely because he failed to recognize an ambiguity. Nor does it follow that from such a failure the arbitral award fails to draw its essence from the parties’ agreement. For both reasons, I respectfully dissent.
The majority acknowledges that the operative text in the LCA does contain “some measure of ambiguity.” Id. at 1081 n. 5. I agree. Its reference to “any mill rule” comes directly after a statement that it will be Burmeister’s responsibility to comply with published policies and procedures. This arrangement of text can reasonably be interpreted to mean that the type of “rules” referred to in the second sentence are more specifically defined in the first sentence as all “published” policies and procedures. Because Burmeis-ter’s actions were not in violation of any published policy or procedure, the arbitrator reasonably concluded she did not violate the terms of the LCA.
Whether the arbitrator properly or improperly interpreted the LCA, there is no question the arbitrator endeavored to interpret the LCA. That was the parties’ bargain, and therefore we should not interfere with the arbitrator’s award. “A court cannot interfere with the arbitrator’s award unless it can be said with positive assurance that the contract is not susceptible of the arbitrator’s interpretation.” United Food & Commercial Workers, Local No. 88 v. Shop ’N Save Warehouse Foods, Inc., 113 F.3d 893, 895 (8th Cir.1997) (internal quotations and citations omitted); see Keebler Co. v. Milk Drivers & Dairy Employees Union, Local No. 471, 80 F.3d 284, 288 (8th Cir.1996) (‘We could not disturb the arbitrator’s award if he interpreted ambiguous language in the collective bargaining agreement or side agreement to support his conclusion that Keebler could not transfer this account without the agreement of the Union, even if his interpretation of the agreement had been erroneous.”).
In other words, this is not a case where an arbitrator ignored an ambiguity, and set aside his concomitant obligation to examine the parties’ intent, in order to dispense his own brand of industrial justice. This is a case where an arbitrator undertook his obligation to construe and apply the parties’ agreement, and in doing so deemed a provision in the agreement to be *1088■unambiguous by adopting a reasonable interpretation. While we can all agree the arbitrator failed to recognize the provision’s ambiguity, that error does not justify our interference with the award. See Major League Baseball Players Ass’n v. Garvey, 532 U.S. 504, 509, 121 S.Ct. 1724, 149 L.Ed.2d 740 (2001) (“Courts are not authorized to review the arbitrator’s decision on the merits- despite allegations that the decision rests on factual errors or misinterprets the parties’ agreement.”).
Nor does it follow that by failing to recognize the provision’s ambiguity, the arbitrator arrived at an award that failed to draw its essence from the agreement. The Supreme Court has stressed time and again “that if an ‘arbitrator is even arguably construing or applying the contract and acting within the scope of his authority,’ the fact that ‘a court is convinced he committed serious error does not suffice to overturn his decision.’ ” Id. (quoting E. Associated Coal Corp. v. Mine Workers, 531 U.S. 57, 62, 121 S.Ct. 462, 148 L.Ed.2d 354 (2000)) (in turn quoting Paperworkers v. Misco, Inc., 484 U.S. 29, 38, 108 S.Ct. 364, 98 L.Ed.2d 286 (1987)) (emphasis added). An arbitrator’s mere failure to recognize a contract’s ambiguity cannot and does not amount to a failure to construe or apply the contract. The majority’s conclusion to the contrary ignores clear Supreme Court precedent, and thus I am obliged to dissent.