NC-DSH, Inc. v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1107

MEMORANDUM **

Plaintiff, NC-DSH, Inc., dba Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center (“the Employer”), entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”) with Defendant, Service Employees International Union, Local 1107 (“the Union”). The parties agreed to arbitrate all disputes, or “grievances,” arising from the CBA. The Union filed two separate grievances against the Employer on behalf of two employees who had been disciplined; the Union argued that the Employer lacked “just cause” for the discipline. A different arbitrator resolved each grievance, both in favor of the Union. The district court vacated both arbitrators’ awards, and the Union appeals.

The district court erred in vacating the arbitrators’ awards. A court has “no business weighing the merits of the grievance.” United Paperworkers Int’l Union v. Misco, Inc., 484 U.S. 29, 37 , 108 S.Ct. 364 , 98 L.Ed.2d 286 (1987) (internal quotation marks omitted). To successfully challenge an arbitrator’s decision, one “must clear a high hurdle. It is not enough ... to show that the [arbitrators] committed an error — or even a serious error.” Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 1758, 1767 , 176…

dissenting in part:

Even arbitrators must be reversed when they turn a blind eye to the language of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Here, the arbitrators had to construe Article 19 of the agreement, which said: “[t]he arbitrator shall have no authority to modify or alter the discipline or penalty imposed by the hospital unless it is established by a preponderance of the evidence that there was not just cause for the discipline.” Despite the Union’s ingenious efforts to rewrite this section, there is no getting around its plain meaning: unless someone establishes the absence of just cause by a preponderance of evidence, the arbitrator has no authority to change the hospital’s decision on discipline. Obviously, the hospital did not establish “that there was not just cause”; to do so would be contrary to its position that it had cause for the discipline. Nor did the Union show by a preponderance of the evidence “that there was not just cause.” As a result, under the plain language of the CBA, the arbitrator has no power to change the discipline imposed by the hospital.

To be sure, we cannot reverse an arbitrator’s mistaken interpretation of a CBA if the arbitrator is “even…

FILED

NOT FOR PUBLICATION NOV 10 2011

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S . CO U RT OF AP PE A LS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

NC-DSH, INC., dba Desert Springs No. 10-16769 Hospital Medical Center, D.C. No. 2:10-cv-00124-GMN- Plaintiff-counter-defendant - PAL Appellee, v.

MEMORANDUM *

SERVICE EMPLOYEES

INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL

1107,

Defendant-counter-claimant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada Gloria M. Navarro, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted October 26, 2011 San Francisco, California

Before: GRABER and IKUTA, Circuit Judges, and KAPLAN,** Senior District Judge.

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3. ** The Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan, Senior United States District Judge for the Southern District of New Yorµ, sitting by designation. Plaintiff, NC-DSH, Inc., dba Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center (þthe

Employerþ), entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement (þCBAþ) with

Defendant, Service Employees International Union, Local 1107 (þthe…