Circuit Watcher

06-20865, 07-40574 E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Sawyer
Before KING, BARKSDALE, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.
KING, Circuit Judge: These appeals arise out of a dispute between E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (“DuPont”) and former DuPont employees who allege that DuPont fraudulently induced them to terminate their employment and accept employment with a subsidiary that was later sold. In anticipation of a lawsuit from one of the employees, DuPont sought a declaratory judgment under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”). The district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, concluding that the employee’s potential claims could not be read as stating a claim under ERISA. DuPont filed notice of appeal.
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A group of the former employees then sued DuPont, asserting state-law fraud and fraudulent inducement claims. DuPont filed two motions to dismiss, arguing that the employees’ claims were preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) under the Garmon doctrine or, in the alternative, by ERISA. The district court denied both motions but certified an interlocutory appeal, which we accepted and consolidated with DuPont’s appeal from the dismissal of its declaratory judgment action. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the employees’ state-law claims are not preempted by the NLRA or ERISA, and that DuPont’s declaratory judgment action was properly dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. AFFIRMED. … E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Sawyer.