INTERNATIONAL U., UA, A. & AIW v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp.

• Decision Date: 04 June 1965
• Docket Number: No. 14945.,14945.
• Citation: 346 F.2d 242
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW), AFL-CIO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOOSIER CARDINAL CORPORATION, an Indiana corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

346 F.2d 242 (1965)

INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW), AFL-CIO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOOSIER CARDINAL CORPORATION, an Indiana corporation, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 14945.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

June 4, 1965.

Stephen I. Schlossberg, Detroit, Mich., Daniel F. Cummings, Indianapolis, Ind., Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Washington, D. C., Harold Katz, Chicago, Ill., Lynnville G. Miles, Indianapolis, Ind., for appellant, Judith Bleich Kahn, Detroit, Mich., of counsel.

Harry P. Dees, Arthur R. Donovan, Joseph A. Yocum, Evansville, Ind., for defendant-appellee, Kahn, Dees, Donovan & Kahn, Evansville, Ind., of counsel.

Before SCHNACKENBERG, KNOCH and SWYGERT, Circuit Judges.

SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judge.

International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), AFLCIO, plaintiff, appeals from a judgment of the district court dismissing plaintiff's complaint because it showed on its face that the causes of action upon which recovery was sought were barred by the statute of limitations of the state of Indiana.

The complaint avers that plaintiff, hereinafter sometimes referred to as the Union, having a collective bargaining agreement with Hoosier Cardinal Corporation, an Indiana corporation, defendant, which required vacation pay for its employees, by this action seeks to rely upon various statutes of the state of Indiana, (a) providing for the payment of wages due to employees at least weekly, Burns Ind.Stat.Ann. (1952 Repl.) § 40-104(b) making an employer who fails for 10 days after demand to make payment therefor weekly liable for the same together with penalty and reasonable attorneys' fees, to be recovered in a civil action, Burns Ind.Stat.Ann. (1952 Repl.) § 40-105, and (c) providing liquidated damages for such failure to pay, for each day, 10% of the amount due twice each month, not exceeding double the amount of wages due, and a reasonable fee for plaintiff's attorney, as provided in Burns Ind.Stat.Ann. (1952 Repl.) § 40-102.

It is significant that in this case no recovery is sought for or on behalf of plaintiff union itself. Any recovery in this case would inure to the exclusive benefit of the individual employee in varying amounts depending upon the individual's employment contract with defendant.

The district court relied on Burns Ind. Stat.Ann. (1946 Repl.) § 2-601 (Supp.), which provides a six-year statute of limitations on accounts and contracts not in writing.

The district court noted that the complaint herein was filed on April 8, 1964, which was more than six years from June 1, 1957 when the alleged breach of employment with individual employees occurred.

We agree with and affirm the holding and judgment of the district court. Before arriving at this conclusion we have considered each of the two reasons advanced by plaintiff which seeks to demonstrate that the district court erred.

First, plaintiff contends that no state statute of limitations can bar an action under section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185. It arrives at this conclusion by reasoning that

"* * * it is a firm, well-established, and judicially recognized policy of Congress that insofar as concerns the application of legal principles the resolution of labor questions under federal law should not depend in any manner upon the geographic location in which such an action arises. While the fostering of uniformity in this area normally concerns substantive legal issues, procedural rules which may be dispositive of a dispute (such as the question here involved of the application of a state statute of limitations) are no less significant. The decision of the court below to impose local time limitations on a Section 301 action disturbs the national design of having a federal labor law uniformly applied. * * *"

However it should be noted that § 185(a) deals with "suits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees in an industry * * *". The case at bar is not a suit by plaintiff to recover wages due it from defendant, for the simple reason that no one contends that defendant owes any wages to the Union. Therefore we perceive that plaintiff is in error in characterizing the subject matter of this case as the resolution of a labor question. Moreover, § 185(b) authorizes a labor organization to sue "in behalf of the employees whom it represents in the courts of the United States". There is before us actually a case by an agent to enforce the rights of individual workmen to collect from defendant vacation pay, which it is claimed was due them individually under Indiana law and for which it is clear that they individually could have brought their own suits in the state courts of Indiana. The present suit frankly characterizes the choses in action involved as existing by virtue of the statutory law of Indiana. The question of whether vacation pay is due the workmen here involved is a question of state law. It remains a question of state law even though the terms of a bargaining agreement authorize the workmen's personal rights of action to be maintained for them by their union. The complaint seeks not only wages due for vacation pay, but also statutory penalties and attorneys' fees allowable by an Indiana statute, and thus frankly recognizes the case as a state action. Therefore it is subject to the Indiana statute of limitations.

This result is in accordance with our prior holding in Kordewick v. Indiana Harbor Belt R. Co., 7 Cir.,...