Capitol Awning Co. Inc v. Local 137 Sheet Metal Workers Int'l Ass'n

698 F.Supp.2d 308

CAPITOL AWNING COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff,v.LOCAL 137 SHEET METAL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, Defendant.

No. 07-CV-78 (KAM)(SMG).

United States District Court E.D. New York.

March 18, 2010.

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Joseph M. Labuda, Adam C. Weiss, Jamie Scott Felsen, Milman Labuda Law Group, PLLC, Lake Success, NY, for Plaintiff.

Irwin Rochman, Tesser, Ryan & Rochman LLP, James M. Murphy, Spivak, Lipton, Watanabe, Spivak, Moss & Orfan LLP, New York, NY, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

KIYO A. MATSUMOTO, District Judge:

Capitol Awning Company, Inc. (“plaintiff” or “Capitol”) filed the instant action against Local 137, Sheet Metal Workers International Association, AFL-CIO (“defendant” or “Local 137”) seeking damages under Section 303 of the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”), as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 187. ( See generally Amended Complaint, Doc. Entry No. 3.) Capitol asserts that Local 137 is liable for conduct that violated § 8(b)(4)(i) and § 8(b) (4)(ii)(B) of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), codified at 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4). Both parties have moved for summary judgment, pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and their fully briefed motions are now before the court. ( See Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (“Pl. Mot.”), Doc. Entry Nos. 32-34; Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (“Def. Mot.”), Doc. Entry Nos. 35, 38, 40.) For the reasons set forth below, plaintiff's motion is denied and defendant's motion is granted in part and denied in part.

BACKGROUND

The following facts are undisputed unless otherwise noted and are taken from the evidence submitted by the parties in support of their motions.

I. Parties to this ActionA. Capitol

Capitol is located in Queens, New York and manufactures and installs awnings on buildings in the tri-state area. ( See June 13, 2007 Transcript of the Deposition of Philip Catalano (“Catalano Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit A to Plaintiff's Rule 56.1 Statement of Undisputed Facts, Doc. Entry No. 32-2 (“Pl. 56.1”) at 8.) Philip Catalano (“Catalano”) has a 35% ownership stake in Capitol and is the Vice President of Sales. (Catalano Depo. Tr. at 7-8.) Capitol has approximately thirty employees. ( Id. at 9.) In 1995, both Local 137 and another union, the United Service Workers, IUJAT Local 955 (“Local 955”) approached Capitol's employees, seeking to organize them. ( Id. at 11-12.) Capitol's employees elected to organize under Local 955 and not under Local 137. ( Id. at 11.) Shortly thereafter, Capitol signed a collective bargaining agreement (or C.B.A.) with Local 955, which remains in place at present. ( Id. at 10-12; see also Local 955-Capitol C.B.A., attached as Exhibit C to the Declaration of Dante Dano, Jr., Doc. Entry No. 37 (“Dano Decl.”).) Local 955 is not affiliated with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, the New York City and State Construction and Building Trades Councils, or the AFL-CIO.

B. Local 137

Defendant Local 137 is a labor organization that is an unincorporated membership association. ( See Defendant's Rule 56.1 Statement of Undisputed Facts, Doc. Entry No. 35-2 (“Def. 56.1”) at ¶ 2.) Local 137 represents employees who manufacture and install signs and awnings on buildings throughout the tristate area. ( See Dano Decl. ¶¶ 2-4.) Local 137 has collective bargaining agreements with The Greater New York Sign Association, Mauceri Sign & Awning, and National Maintenance. ( See Local 137-The Greater New York Sign Association C.B.A., attached as Exhibit A to the Dano Decl.; Local 137-Mauceri Sign & Awning C.B.A., attached as Exhibit B to the Dano Decl.)

Paul Collins is the President of Local 137. ( See Transcript of November 30, 2007 Deposition of Paul Collins (“Collins Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit K to Pl. 56.1 at 45.) Dante Dano, Jr. is the New York Business Representative for Local 137. ( See Transcript of June 20, 2007 Deposition of Dante Dano, Jr. Deposition (“Dano Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit B to Pl. 56.1 at 48.) Collins and Dano also serve on committees that oversee the investment of Local 137's pension fund. (Dano Depo. Tr. at 48-49; Collins Depo. Tr. at 40.)

C. Capitol-Local 137 Relationship

As set forth above, Capitol's employees elected to organize with Local 955 and rejected organization under Local 137. It is undisputed that on a prior occasion after Capitol and Local 955 executed their C.B.A., Local 137 members have claimed work on contracts awarded to Capitol. (Catalano Depo. Tr. at 12-13.) For example, Collins approached one of Capitol's customers with respect to sign and awning installations at Shea Stadium. ( Id.) There are not many details as to what transpired between Capitol's customer and Collins; however, it is undisputed that Collins claimed that the work belonged to Local 137 and that because Capitol was not affiliated with Local 137, Capitol should not get the contract. Notwithstanding Collins' communications, the customer retained Capitol and Capitol completed the project. ( Id.)

II. Chase Sign ProjectA. Chase Initiates Renovations

In early 2006, J.P. Morgan Chase (“Chase”) announced its intent to “re-brand” its existing retail branch offices and 4 those it had recently acquired from other banks. ( See Transcript of March 5, 2008 Deposition of Sal Ariganello (“Ariganello Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit J to Pl. 56.1 at 10-11.) As part of its rebranding effort, Chase planned to remove the existing awnings and signs from these retail branches and to install new signs and awnings that would display a new Chase logo (the “Chase Sign Project”). ( Id. at 10-13.) The Chase Sign Project involved approximately 3500 retail branch offices nationwide, 800 of which were located in the tri-state area. ( Id. at 12-13.) Sal Ariganello, a senior project manager at Chase, oversaw the Chase Sign Project. ( Id. at 10, 13.) He was responsible for managing the contractors and insuring that the project was completed in a timely manner. ( Id. at 13.)

Chase hired Monigle Associates (“Monigle”), a firm that specialized in “corporate branding” or “corporate identity design” to insure that the exterior signs and awnings displaying the new Chase logo had a uniform look nationwide. ( See Transcript of November 20, 2007 Deposition of Kurt Monigle (“Monigle Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit C to the Declaration of James M. Murphy (“Murphy Decl.”), Doc. Entry No. 39 at 7-10; Transcript of November 20, 2007 Deposition of Nelson Yarbrough (“Yarbrough Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit H to Pl. 56.1 at 11, 13-14.) To achieve uniformity, Monigle oversaw the manufacture and installation of signs and awnings by contractors Chase retained.¹ (Monigle Depo. Tr. at 8-10; Transcript of October 30, 2007 Deposition of Robert Mehmet (“Mehmet Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit D to Pl. 56.1 at 15.) Nelson Yarbrough, an Associate at Monigle, led Monigle's efforts. In particular, Yarbrough was responsible for creating sign and awning design intent drawings (manufacturing blueprints for the sign and awning systems to be manufactured by the contractors). (Yarbrough Depo. Tr. at 11.)

In spring 2006, Chase and Monigle held a “kickoff meeting” in Philadelphia with the contractors retained to work on the Chase Sign Project. (Transcript of November 12, 2007 Deposition of Beth Powell (“Powell Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit E to Pl. 56.1 at 43; Monigle Depo Tr. at 11; Yarbrough Depo. Tr. at 44.) At this time, Chase had hired as contractors ImagePoint, Icon Identity, East Coast Sign Advertising (“East Coast”), N.W. Sign, and Philadelphia Sign. (Ariganello Depo. Tr. at 34; Yarbrough Depo. Tr. at 14, 23; Transcript of September 11, 2007 Deposition of Jonathan Bragoli (“Bragoli Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit C to Pl. 56.1 at 22.) Each of these contractors received a contract to perform the sign and awning work at designated locations based on the type of sign and awning system required. (Mehmet Depo. Tr. at 56.) The contractors also had the authority to hire subcontractors to manufacture and install signs and awnings. (Yarbrough Depo. Tr. at 21.)

Chase and Monigle held the meeting to discuss their expectations. (Powell Depo. Tr. at 43; Monigle Depo Tr. at 11; Yarbrough Depo Tr. at 44-45.) Among other things, Chase indicated that it expected the contractors to use unionized labor. ( See Powell Depo. Tr. at 43.) Chase's “goal was to cooperate with the unions and to avoid union issues through the program.” (Monigle Depo. Tr. at 11-12; see also Yarbrough Depo. Tr. at 45.) The parties dispute whether Chase specified that it preferred that the contractors use Local 137 labor for all work or whether union labor, in general, was sufficient. ( Compare Def. 56.1 ¶ 16 and cited exhibits with Pl. Counter. 56.1 ¶ 16 and cited exhibits.) The contractors' testimony is contradictory. For example, Yarbrough and Kurt Monigle of Monigle do not recall Chase specifically directing the contractors to use Local 137 labor. (Yarbrough Depo. Tr. at 45.) Colleen Erickson of ImagePoint, however, did recall a Chase directive to use Local 137 contractors for installation, but not necessarily for manufacture. (Transcript of November 7, 2007 Deposition of Colleen Erickson (“Erickson Depo. Tr.”), attached as Exhibit I to Pl. 56.1 at 24, 95-96.) Brad Nicely of ImagePoint testified that Chase preferred the use of union labor to install signs and never understood that Chase preferred Local 137 to manufacture signs or awnings. (Transcript of November 6, 2007 Deposition of Bradley Nicely (“Nicely Depo. Tr.”) attached as Exhibit F to Pl. 56.1 at 111-12, 122-23.) Ariganello of Chase did not recall any representatives from Chase directing exclusive use of Local 137. (Ariganello Depo. Tr. at 94.)

B. Relevant Contractors and Subcontractors ²

Chase retained ImagePoint, Philadelphia Signs, N.W. Signs, Icon Identity, and East Coast to manufacture and install the signs and awnings.

1. ImagePoint

Chase awarded ImagePoint, a...