Harvard Maintenance v. NLRB
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Reversed in Part
Harvard Maintenance petitioned the Fifth Circuit to set aside an NLRB order finding it unlawfully threatened and discharged an employee and awarding her back-pay plus an expanded make-whole remedy for all ‘direct and foreseeable pecuniary harms.’ The court upheld the unfair-labor-practice findings but held that the Board lacks statutory authority under §10(c) of the NLRA to award consequential damages, thereby vacating that portion of the order.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether §10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act permits the NLRB to award consequential ‘direct or foreseeable pecuniary’ damages (the Thryv make-whole remedy) beyond traditional equitable relief such as reinstatement with back-pay.
Circuit Positions
NLRA §10(c) authorizes only equitable relief; the Thryv consequential-damages remedy is ultra vires.
Thryv’s make-whole consequential-damages remedy is equitable and permissible under §10(c).
Conflict Summary
The Fifth and Third Circuits read §10(c) to limit the Board to equitable relief and hold that the Thryv consequential-damages remedy exceeds the Board’s authority, whereas the Ninth and Tenth Circuits treat the same remedy as equitable and within the Board’s broad power to effectuate the purposes of the Act.