Court Opinion

ID: 9679635
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:00:47.932917+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:17.245019
License: Public Domain

FRANKS, Judge,
dissenting.
I concur with the result reached by the majority insofar as the majority opinion affirms the summary judgment. The majority mentions Brewer v. Argo-Collier Truck Lines Corp., 592 S.W.2d 322 (Tenn.1979), which states the general rule that “[a] suit will not lie in either state or federal court” where the collective bargaining contract provides for grievance procedures. [At 326.] The majority concludes, however, that "... [Mr. Blair’s tort action] can be considered without reference to the collective bargaining agreement, and there is nothing in the collective bargaining agreement to indicate that employees have agreed to substitute the grievance process for their private tort actions against fellow employees.” This approach is contrary to the prevailing view interpreting agreements to arbitrate disputes.
Federal courts have uniformly held arbitration is a favorite means of resolving labor disputes and, while obligations to arbitrate are a matter of contract, if any uncertainty exists as to whether the grievance falls within the agreement to arbitrate, arbitration is appropriate. Salary Policy Employee Panel v. Tenn. Valley Auth., 731 F.2d 325 (6th Cir.1984). The Third Circuit, as restated in Local U. No. 336 v. Detroit Gasket & Mfg. Co., 521 F.Supp. 39 at 40 (E.D.Tenn., N.E.Div., 1981), has held:
Consequently, although the parties are bound to arbitrate only those disputes they have agreed to arbitrate, all doubts or ambiguities must be resolved in favor of arbitration. Controlled Sanitation Corp. v. Dist. 128, Etc., C.A.3d (1975), 524 F.2d 1324, 1328[2], certiorari denied (1976), 424 U.S. 915, 96 S.Ct. 1114, 47 L.Ed.2d 319. "... In effect, there is a presumption in favor of arbitrability which should be dispelled only when the agreement explicitly exempts certain conduct from arbitration or when the terms of the agreement, read as a whole, clearly envision non-arbitrability.”
The nature of this dispute is such that “non-arbitrability” is clearly not envisioned. The dispute between plaintiff and his supervisor is nothing more, in the words of Professor Larson, than “a work connected quarrel”. If courts countenance every bumping, pushing, laying on of hands or exchanging of harsh words occurring in the work place which result in no adverse “physical or emotional effects”, [emphasis supplied] collective bargaining agreements will be trivialized and harmonious labor relations impaired.
Disputes of this nature are highly appropriate for arbitration and I would hold plaintiff is contractually bound to arbitrate this dispute under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and affirm the trial court’s summary judgment on this issue. Moreover, under the majority’s theory, plaintiff would only be entitled to nominal damages and affirmance of the trial court’s judgment is appropriate under the standard stated in Brewer:
We, therefore, believe that lawyer, litigant and judicial economy dictate an affirmation of the Trial Judge in this respect, as opposed to reversing on a naked legal proposition when the results are foreordained.