Damages

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Stacey Mooney v. Illinois Education Associations

Case No.: 19-1774

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and MANION and ROVNER, Circuit Judges

Focus: Damages

Stacey Mooney is a public-school teacher in Eureka (Illinois) Community School District #140. She is not a member of respondent Illinois Education Association (“IEA”), the union that serves as the exclusive representative of her employee unit in collective bargaining with the school district. From the time she started as a public employee until June 2018, the District deducted from her paycheck and sent to the union a fair-share fee that contributed to the costs incurred by the union in its labor-management activities. Both the Illinois Public Relations Act, 5 ILCS § 315/6, and existing Supreme Court precedent, Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Educ., 431 U.S. 209 (1977), authorized this fee arrangement.

The characterization of Mooney’s claim presents a legal question on which our consideration is de novo. That said, we agree with the district court’s analysis, which finds ample support in the law. Indeed, many years ago we held that a claim for a refund of an agency-fee overcharge under the Abood regime was a legal rather than an equitable claim. Gilpin v. Am. Fed’n of State, Cnty., & Mun. Employees, AFL-CIO, 875 F.2d 1310, 1314 (7th Cir. 1989) (citing Dobbs, Handbook on the Law of Remedies 224 (1973) (“The damages recovery is to compensate the plaintiff, and it pays him, theoretically, for his losses. The restitution claim, on the other hand, is not aimed at compensating the plaintiff, but at forcing the defendant to disgorge benefits that it would be unjust for him to keep.”)). But see Laramie v. Cnty. of Santa Clara, 784 F. Supp. 1492, 1501–02 (N.D. Cal. 1992) (labeling a refund of nonchargeable fees under the Abood regime as restitution).

Mooney is bringing just such a claim—that is, one against the union’s treasury generally, not one against an identifiable fund or asset. She attempts to escape this conclusion with the argument that the entire treasury is an identifiable fund against which she can pursue an equitable lien, but that proves too much. Every defendant will always have a “fund” consisting of all of its assets, but that is not what the Supreme Court was talking about in Great-West Life and Montanile. It is not enough that Mooney’s fees once contributed to IEA’s overall assets. According to Montanile, she must point to an identifiable fund and show that her fees specifically are still in the union’s possession. 136 S. Ct. at 657–59. This she has not done. Her claim is against the general assets of the union, held in its treasury, and can only be characterized as legal.

In substance, then, Mooney’s claim is one for damages. For the reasons we set forth in more detail in Janus v. AFSCME, No. 19-1553, decided today, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.