Santos v. District Council of New York City and Vicinity of United Broth. of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL-CIO

• Decision Date: 27 March 1980
• Docket Number: A,AFL-CI,D,No. 363,363
• Citation: 619 F.2d 963
• Parties: 103 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3082, 88 Lab.Cas. P 11,994 Frank SANTOS, Carl Gurrieri, and Mario Vozzo, each of them individually and on behalf of all other persons, members of local unions affiliated with Painters' District Council # 9 of New York City and the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, employed or seeking employment as woodwork finishers within New York City, similarly situated, Appellants, v. DISTRICT COUNCIL OF NEW YORK CITY AND VICINITY OF UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA,ppellee. ocket 79-7530.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 963

619 F.2d 963

103 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3082, 88 Lab.Cas. P 11,994

Frank SANTOS, Carl Gurrieri, and Mario Vozzo, each of them individually and on behalf of all other persons, members of local unions affiliated with Painters' District Council # 9 of New York City and the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, employed or seeking employment as woodwork finishers within New York City, similarly situated, Appellants, v. DISTRICT COUNCIL OF NEW YORK CITY AND VICINITY OF UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA AFL-CIO, Appellee.

No. 363, Docket 79-7530.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued Oct. 25, 1979.

Decided March 27, 1980.

Burton H. Hall, New York City, for appellants.

Clifford S. Bart, New York City (Bart & Lew, Clifford S. Bart and David Lew, New York City, on brief), for appellee.

Before FRIENDLY, OAKES and NEWMAN, Circuit Judges.

NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:

This case concerns an attempt to secure judicial enforcement of an arbitration award entered eleven years ago. Not surprisingly, the principal issues on appeal involve the statute of limitations. The procedural history, essential to an understanding of the current dispute, is unfortunately complicated, even somewhat more so than when the case was here on a prior appeal. Santos v. District Council of New York City, 547 F.2d 197 (2d Cir. 1977) (Santos I ).

The issue on the first appeal was whether a suit by members of one labor union against another union for failure to comply with an arbitral decree was barred by § 20 of Article XX of the AFL-CIO Constitution, which explicitly precludes resort to the courts for the enforcement of such awards. ¹ This Court determined that § 20 does not apply where the union, victorious in arbitration, breaches its duty of fair representation of its members by failing to make good faith efforts to gain enforcement of the award. Finding that the union members had sufficiently alleged breach of duty by their local union, the International Brotherhood, and the AFL-CIO, this Court remanded for consideration of the merits, including defenses. Upon remand, the District Court (Charles M. Metzner, Judge) dismissed the suit on the ground that it had not been brought within one year of the accrual of the cause of action and was therefore barred by the applicable New York statute of limitations, N.Y.C.P.L.R. § 215(5). This appeal followed.

I Background

The facts such as had unfolded prior to the first appeal are set out in Judge Oakes' thorough opinion, 547 F.2d at 198-201. Briefly stated this suit was initiated on September 4, 1975, by appellants, three individual union members, on behalf of themselves and similarly situated members of the 27 local unions affiliated with Painters' District Council No. 9 of New York City (Painters' District Council). They sought enforcement of an arbitrator's award entered on September 4, 1969 against appellee, District Council of New York City and Vicinity of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (Carpenters' District Council). The arbitration proceeding was authorized by Article XX of the Constitution of the AFL-CIO, the article governing settlement of internal disputes between affiliated unions of the AFL-CIO. The award sustained a complaint against the Carpenters District Council brought by the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America (Painters' Brotherhood), with which the Painters' District Council is affiliated. The complaint alleged that the Carpenters were performing woodfinishing duties of the Painters in violation of §§ 2 and 3 of Article XX. Section 2 requires affiliates of the AFL-CIO to "respect the established collective bargaining relationship of every other affiliate," while § 3 requires affiliates to "respect the established work relationship of every other affiliate." The arbitrator found that the Carpenters had violated § 3 of Article XX with respect to 17 of the woodfinishing shops, but made no express finding with respect to the alleged violations of § 2. His opinion described the case as:

. . . primarily a dispute arising under Section 3 of Article XX, because the established work relationship of the Painters is being undermined and is still under attack. The Carpenters are charged with violations, in that they refuse to respect the established work relationships of the Painters and have been attempting by agreement or collusion with the employers or by the exercise of economic pressure to obtain work for its members as to which the Painters has (sic) established work relationships.

Over the next several years, appellants actively sought at local and two national levels of union organization to gain the compliance of the Carpenters with the arbitrator's decision. Obtaining no satisfaction through union mechanisms, the appellants brought this suit six years after entry of the award.

After the District Court's dismissal of that suit for lack of jurisdiction was reversed by this Court on the prior appeal, the Carpenters' District Council filed its answer to the appellants' complaint, raising for the first time the affirmative defense that the action was "in whole or in part barred by the applicable statute or statutes of limitation." The answer did not indicate which statute or statutes of limitation the Carpenters believed to be applicable. ² Thereafter the Carpenters' District Council moved for dismissal of the complaint and summary judgment on the ground that the action was barred by New York's one-year statute of limitations applicable to an action "upon an arbitration award." N.Y.C.P.L.R. § 215(5). ³ After initially denying the motion because the limitations defense had not been raised by the Carpenters' District Council in its November, 1975 pre-answer motions, Judge Metzner ruled that the defense had not been waived and that the trial would include the factual issue of whether plaintiffs' cause of action had accrued more than one year prior to the complaint.

Prior to trial, the appellants sought to characterize their action as one seeking not only to enforce the arbitrator's award, but also one seeking relief for violation by the Carpenters' District Council of its contractual duties under §§ 2 and 3 of Article XX. However, Judge Metzner ruled that his previous rulings and this Court's opinion in Santos I required that the case proceed only as an action for enforcement of the award.

After a five-day, non-jury trial, Judge Metzner dismissed appellants' complaint on the ground that it had not been filed within the one-year statute of limitations period. The dismissal was based on a finding that appellants' cause of action had accrued and the statute of limitations had commenced running by the fall of 1972, when appellants were aware that union mechanisms would not secure compliance with the award because the Painters' District Council was not acting in good faith. This was three years before the complaint was filed. Thereafter by post-trial motion appellants sought to pursue their claims based on §§ 2 and 3 of Article XX and challenged the District Court's statute of limitations ruling. Appellants' motion was denied by Judge Metzner in an opinion dated June 26, 1979.

II The Merits

On appeal from the judgment dismissing their complaint and from denial of their post-trial motion, appellants present four claims. They contend that the statute of limitations defense was waived, that New York's one-year statute of limitations for actions "upon an arbitration award" is inapplicable, that their cause of action did not accrue until a point within one year prior to their complaint, and that they are entitled to sue for violations of §§ 2 and 3 of Article XX.

A. Waiver. Whether or not the statute of limitations defense was waived by failure to raise it in a pre-answer motion is the appropriate first question. Appellants contend that this question must be answered according to New York rather than federal law on the theory that when a federal court borrows a state statute of limitations, it also borrows the state's procedural rules governing assertion of the defense. We disagree. A District Court is obliged to look to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to determine whether defenses to an action have been raised in a timely manner, and this principle applies when a District Court borrows a state period of limitations for a federal cause of action. See United States v. Masonry Contractors Ass'n of Memphis, Inc., 497 F.2d 871, 877 (6th Cir. 1974).

The statute of limitations defense need not be raised in a pre-answer motion. ⁴ Rather, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(c), the statute of limitations constitutes an affirmative defense, to be asserted in a responsive pleading. ⁵ The defense is sufficiently raised for purposes of Rule 8 by its bare assertion. Identification of the particular statute relied upon, though helpful, is not required in the pleading. Cf. Reconstruction Finance Corp. v. Tuolumne Gold Dredging Corp., 137 F.Supp. 855, 862-63 (N.D.Cal.1953), aff'd, 230 F.2d 479 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 352 U.S. 832, 77 S.Ct. 48, 1 L.Ed.2d 52 (1956) (defense sufficiently pleaded even though wrong statute of limitations identified).

The assertion of the limitations defense in the defendant union's answer, rather than in its prior motion for dismissal and summary judgment, was both timely and sufficient as a matter of pleading.

B. The Applicable Statute of Limitations. It has long been established, as acknowledged in Santos I, that the victor in an arbitration proceeding, undertaken pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement or an agreement between labor organizations, may seek court enforcement of his award under the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, § 301(a), 29 U.S.C. § 185(a). Santos I, supra, 547 F.2d at 201. Federal law is silent, however, as to the limitations period applicable to § 301 suits. In such circumstances, federal courts have "frequently inferred that Congress...