Court Opinion

ID: 9690157
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:55:29.424947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:53.853056
License: Public Domain

CRIPPEN, Judge
(concurring specially).
Appellants have identified significant propositions of law to support state court jurisdiction to hear their stated causes of action. We must affirm the trial court’s summary judgment given the facts pleaded by appellants, but we do not diminish the propositions of law cited on their behalf.
1. When an employer fraudulently induces concessions in a collective bargaining agreement, a fraud cause of action in a state court may be preempted by NLRB jurisdiction. There is preemption in the circumstances here, but this is not always the case.
The nondisclosure of a fact related to a purely managerial decision is not actionable under the NLRA even if the nondisclosure is a critical element in reaching a collective bargaining agreement. Wells v. General Motors Corp., 881 F.2d 166, 172 (5th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 110 S.Ct. 1959, 109 L.Ed.2d 321 (1990).1 The doc*731trine of Wells is important, but it cannot be applied here. Although a decision whether to close a plant is a managerial decision, a nondisclosure of closing plans is actionable under the NLRA because it implicates the duty to bargain in good faith about the effects of the closing. See Serrano v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., 790 F.2d 1279, 1286-87 (6th Cir.1986).
Here, respondent promised to build new facilities if appellants granted major concessions. If respondent failed to disclose its intent not to build a new facility, this nondisclosure was tantamount to nondisclosure of a decision to close. As indicated by the concessions given, a decision against building, like a decision to close, meant that job security would be seriously threatened. Under Serrano, the effects of a plant closing must be bargained for in good faith. This nondisclosure thus falls under NLRB jurisdiction.
Although it is necessary to distinguish the Wells decision in the circumstances here, this does not minimize its importance. It is also significant, as appellants note, that Wells was decided three years after International Longshoremen’s Ass’n v. Davis, 476 U.S. 380, 106 S.Ct. 1904, 90 L.Ed.2d 389 (1986). The Wells court followed the Supreme Court’s mandate in Davis that preemption should only be found where the NLRB could reasonably be expected to accept jurisdiction. Davis, 476 U.S. at 395, 106 S.Ct. at 1914. Davis narrowed the previous preemption analysis which merely required that the court find that the NLRB would “arguably” have jurisdiction. See San Diego Bldg. Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 245, 79 S.Ct. 773, 780, 3 L.Ed.2d 775 (1959). Because Wells was decided under the narrower Davis rule, its preemption analysis is unusually significant. As Wells demonstrates, some fraud claims related to workers’ concessions are actionable in state court proceedings.
2. Concurrent jurisdiction of state and federal courts in section 301 cases is an avenue for seeking relief independent of NLRB preemption law. See United Steelworkers Local No. 4264 v. New Park Mining Co., 273 F.2d 352, 358 (10th Cir.1959).
As the majority indicates, topics giving rise to a section 301 action are commonly addressed in a general collective bargaining agreement. See, e.g., Hass v. Darigold Dairy Products Co., 751 F.2d 1096, 1101-02 (9th Cir.1985) (promissory estoppel). However, section 301 also governs a provable labor management agreement made separately from the primary collective bargaining agreement. See Retail Clerks Int’l. Ass’n v. Lion Dry Goods, Inc., 369 U.S. 17, 28, 82 S.Ct. 541, 548, 7 L.Ed.2d 503 (1962); Frech v. Pensacola S.S. Ass’n, 903 F.2d 1471, 1475 (11th Cir.1990).
An action may be brought on the separate promise for a breach of contract, or if no otherwise lawful contract is established, for promissory estoppel. See Local No. 1330, United Steel Workers v. United States Steel Corp., 631 F.2d 1264, 1269-70 (6th Cir.1980). Breach of a labor relations promise may also give rise to an action for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing commonly found in labor management agreements. See United Steelworkers Local No. 4264, 273 F.2d at 356; cf. Wild v. Rarig, 302 Minn. 419, 441, 234 N.W.2d 775, 790 (1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 902, 96 S.Ct. 1093, 47 L.Ed.2d 307 (1976) (covenant not implied for individual employment contract).
Here, appellants pleaded breach of contract and unjust enrichment. The latter pleading was adequate to permit proof of promissory estoppel or breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. See In re Stevenson Assocs., Inc., Ill F.2d 415, 421 (8th Cir.1985) (proof of unjust enrichment by showing that a benefit was incurred and knowingly accepted under such circumstances that would make it unjust to permit its retention without payment). Freeh, 903 F.2d at 1476 (estoppel law the fruit of simple concerns for just results). However, all of appellants’ possi*732ble causes of action founded on an independent promise (breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing) rest solely on an alleged oral promise made during negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement. Because the parties’ later collective bargaining agreement was fully integrated, evidence of the previous oral promise would be barred. Given the same promise and concessions, but without a new collective bargaining agreement addressing only the concessions, the facts would likely give rise to valid causes of action under section 301.
In sum, appellants have properly identified vital state court jurisdiction over causes of action for fraud and for contract claims under section 301. I agree with the majority, however, that the facts here do not permit either form of state court jurisdiction.

. Respondent attempts to distinguish Wells by observing that the Wells inducement was not an *731inducement to enter into a collective bargaining agreement, but rather an inducement to'enter into individual severance agreements. See Wells, 881 F.2d at 171. As the Wells court observed, this is a "relevant consideration,” however, it is “not dispositive.” Id.