Court Opinion

ID: 9481125
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:08:30.356205+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:06.330988
License: Public Domain

BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Richard B. Eldridge was exposed to radio frequency radiation on September 14, 1983, while employed by Felec Services, Inc. He was admitted to a hospital for observation between September 16 and 18, 1983, and subsequently underwent further medical observation. When he failed to report back to work after his personal leave expired on October 17, 1983, Felec fired him, claiming Eldridge failed adequately to notify the company of his inability to return to work. Because I believe that in light of these facts, Eldridge’s cause of action for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing requires interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement and thus is preempted, I respectfully dissent.
To analyze whether federal law preempts a cause of action for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, we examine the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to determine whether it contains terms governing job security; if it does, the claim is preempted. Cook v. Lindsay Olive Growers, 911 F.2d 233, 238-39 (9th Cir.1990).
The implied covenant tort is designed to protect the job security of employees who at common law could be fired at will. Generally, no comparable lack of job security exists for unionized employees. Thus section 301 preempts the implied covenant when an employee has comparable job security under a collective bargaining agreement.
Young v. Anthony’s Fish Grottos, Inc., 830 F.2d 993, 999 (9th Cir.1987) (citations omitted). See Jackson v. Southern California Gas Co., 881 F.2d 638, 645 (9th Cir.1989); Chmiel v. Beverly Wilshire Hotel Co., 873 F.2d 1283, 1286 (9th Cir.1989); Newberry v. Pacific Racing Ass’n, 854 F.2d 1142, 1147 (9th Cir.1988).
In Eldridge’s case, the CBA’s job security provisions are unusually detailed, as applied to a failure to report for work after an absence. Section 8.02 of the CBA provides in part:

Paragraph 8.02 Continuity of Service

The continuous service credit and seniority of a'n employee will be broken under the following conditions, and when so broken such employee shall be for all purposes considered a new employee if and when rehired:
(a) Resignation or other voluntary termination of employment.
(b) Absence in excess of three (3) consecutive working days without notice, either by telephone or written message by messenger to the immediate Supervisor, Activity Manager, Duty Manager, or other managerial personnel, unless satisfactory evidence of inability to do so is shown.
(c) Discharge for just cause.
*1441(d) Unauthorized absence after the time limit of an authorized vacation or an approved absence, unless satisfactory evidence of inability to report for work is shown.
I believe the claim for breach of an implied covenant of good faith requires construction of those CBA provisions, and is necessarily preempted.
Lingle v. Norge Div. of Magic Chef, Inc., 486 U.S. 399, 108 S.Ct. 1877, 100 L.Ed.2d 410 (1988), does not require the result reached by the majority. Lingle differs from this case not only in the cause of action (in Lingle, an independent tort, in Eldridge, a contract claim) but also in the terms of the CBA. Because the CBA in Lingle is vague on reasons for discharge, providing only that just cause is required, no interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement was required for resolution of the employee’s claim. The employee would have to show sufficient facts to infer (1) that “he was discharged or threatened with discharge,” and (2) that “the employer’s motive ... was to deter him from exercising his rights.” Lingle, 486 U.S. at 407, 108 S.Ct. at 1882. These purely factual questions would not require the interpretation of the CBA. Id. To defend against the retaliatory discharge claim, the “employer must show that it had a nonretalia-tory reason for the discharge.” Id. In Lingle, “this purely factual inquiry ... does not turn on the meaning of any provision of a collective bargaining agreement,” id., because the CBA did not provide specifically legitimate reasons for discharge, providing instead only that discharge must be for just cause. Thus, both under Lingle’s tort claim and the employer’s defense of “just cause,” the focus was upon the employer’s motive for discharging Lingle, not a construction of the CBA.
By contrast, in this case, Felec’s defense depends on the CBA. Felec contends that it had a nonretaliatory reason for discharge under the CBA, i.e. § 8.02(b) and (d). It argues that Eldridge was absent without authorization for more than three days without explanation and that he was absent without authorization after an approved absence without presenting satisfactory evidence of inability to report for work. In the course of litigating Eldridge’s claim, a court necessarily must interpret the CBA to evaluate Felec’s defense. By contrast, in Lingle the court could evaluate whether there was a nonretaliatory reason without resort to the CBA, because the CBA provided no specific reasons for discharge. Eldridge’s claim is thus not independent of the “collective-bargaining agreement in the sense of ‘independent’ that matters for § 301 preemption purposes,” because resolution of his state-law claim does require that we construe the CBA. See Lingle, 486 U.S. at 407, 108 S.Ct. at 1882.
In sum, because I believe that the relevant inquiry is whether the CBA contains applicable terms governing job security, I would hold that Eldridge’s action for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing was preempted, due to the CBA’s specific provisions regarding job security.