Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-11-2000

Abstract

Respondent-Appellant Marlin Management, LLC ("Marlin") appeals from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Kaplan, J.), confirming an arbitration award against Marlin in favor of petitioner-appellee, Robert L. Chartier, as President of the Service Employees International Union, Local 32E, AFL-CIO (the "Union"). The judgment also dismissed Marlin's counterclaims for federal labor law violations. Marlin purchased a residential building located at 3205 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York (the "Building") from respondent, 3205 Grand Concourse Corporation (the "Seller"), whose managing member is respondent Martin Shapiro. The Union contended that Marlin bought the property subject to a previously negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement ("Agreement") between the Union and the Seller that provided for mandatory arbitration of all disputes involving the Seller and the Union, as the representative of its members. Marlin denied being subject to the Agreement or its mandatory arbitration clause. Thereafter, Marlin discharged and sought to evict the Building's Superintendent, Marco A. Cardona ("Cardona"), a member of the Union, who was entitled to occupy an apartment in the building by virtue of his employment. The Civil Court for the City of New York, Bronx County (the "Civil Court") dismissed Marlin's summary dispossess proceeding against Cardona, holding that Marlin was bound by the Agreement, and therefore must first follow the requirements of the arbitration clause as it related to the disputed discharge of Cardona.

After the action in the Civil Court was dismissed, the Union commenced an arbitration proceeding against Marlin, although Marlin elected not to participate in the proceeding. Following the arbitrator's determination that Marlin's discharge of Cardona was improper, Marlin and Cardona apparently returned to Civil Court. The Civil Court approved a tentative agreement between the parties and entered an Order marking the "matter" off the calendar "with no res judicata or collateral estoppel effect on any other proceeding[]." The district court subsequently confirmed the arbitration award, giving preclusive effect to the first decision of the Civil Court, and holding that Marlin was bound by the Agreement's arbitration clause. The district court later denied Marlin's motion for reconsideration, finding that the "new dispossess proceeding" before the Civil Court could not affect the "conclusive" nature of the prior Civil Court determination that Marlin was subject to the Agreement (emphasis in original).

For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and vacate in part the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Comments

202 F.3d 89 (2000)

Robert L. CHARTIER, as President of the Service Employees International Union, Local 32E, AFL-CIO, for an order confirming an award in arbitration pursuant to Section 7510 of the CPLR, and judgment pursuant to Section 7514 of the CPLR, Petitioner-Appellee, v. MARLIN MGMT., LLC, also known as Marlin Management of N.Y. LLC, Respondent-Appellant, 3205 Grand Concourse Corp. and Martin Shapiro, individually and jointly and severally, Respondents.

Docket No. 99-7263.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: September 28, 1999.

Decided: January 11, 2000.

New York Law School location: File #2772, Box #140

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