Akins v. United Steelworkers of America

• Decision Date: 13 March 2009
• Docket Number: No. 27,132.,27,132.
• Citation: 2009 NMCA 051,208 P.3d 457
• Parties: Jackie AKINS, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO, CLC, LOCAL 187, Defendant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

208 P.3d 457

2009 NMCA 051

Jackie AKINS, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO, CLC, LOCAL 187, Defendant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee.

No. 27,132.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

March 13, 2009.

Certiorari Granted, No. 31,637, May 13, 2009.

Martin Law Firm, Lane T. Martin, W.T. Martin, Jr., Carlsbad, NM, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Youtz and Valdez, P.C., Shane C. Youtz, Albuquerque, NM, USW Associate General Counsel, Bruce Fickman, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellant/Cross-Appellee.

OPINION

KENNEDY, Judge.

{1} In this case, we determine that there is no need to address the first-impression question of choosing which statute of limitations applies to civil suits between public employees and their unions. The options rest between the six-month statute of limitations for prohibited practices under the Public Employee Bargaining Act (the PEBA) and the four-year catch-all statute of limitations applied by the district court to this common-law suit for breach of a union's duty of fair representation (the DFR). Determining that the six-month statute of limitations does not apply retroactively in this case, we affirm the district court's application of the four-year common-law statute of limitations. Proceeding to the merits of the claim, we hold: (1) the district court's award of both compensatory and punitive damages against the Union was proper; and (2) the district court's refusal to allow either evidence of or a jury instruction concerning intentional infliction of emotional distress was proper. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

{2} Plaintiff Jackie Akins was a public employee who worked for the City of Carlsbad from 1992 until 2002. During that time, Defendant United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, Local 187 (the Union) was the recognized collective bargaining representative for a unit of city employees that included Plaintiff. On March 22, 2004, Plaintiff filed claims against both the City of Carlsbad and the Union for breach of the DFR, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and prima facie tort. Plaintiff's claims stemmed from allegations that he was subjected to hostile working conditions created by coworkers who harassed him and racially discriminated against him by refusing to speak English to him and subjecting him to racial slurs. Pursuant to a stipulated partial dismissal with prejudice, the district court ordered the claims against the City of Carlsbad dismissed. Concerning the claims against the Union, the district court granted summary judgment in the Union's favor on Plaintiff's claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and prima facie tort and on one of two grievances under the claim of breach of the DFR, dismissing the other entirely.

{3} Plaintiff's remaining claim of breach of the DFR was premised on allegations that the Union failed to properly process a grievance for racial discrimination. Plaintiff claimed that as an employee of the City of Carlsbad and a member of the Union, he was exposed to racial discrimination when his coworkers repeatedly referred to him as "pinche miyate," which in Spanish means "fucking nigger." He also claimed that his coworkers and supervisor refused to speak English to him, alienating him and further frustrating his efforts to do his job. He approached the president of the Union on the matter and was told that "he was the wrong color" and that "he needed to learn to speak Spanish."

{4} In its motion for summary judgment on the DFR claim, the Union argued that Plaintiff was barred by the six-month statute of limitations as well as by a lack of factual support. The district court held that Plaintiff brought his DFR claim as a common law action, not pursuant to the PEBA, and that it was therefore subject to the four-year statute of limitations under NMSA 1978, Section 37-1-4 (1953) (the statute of limitations for actions "founded upon accounts and unwritten contracts; those brought for injuries to property or for the conversion of personal property or for relief upon the ground of fraud, and all other actions not herein otherwise provided for") (emphasis added).

{5} Following a jury trial on whether the Union breached its DFR, the district court entered judgment in favor of Plaintiff for $1,661.60 in actual damages and $30,000.00 in punitive damages. Both the Union and Plaintiff appealed. The Union argues that the district court erred by: (1) applying the four-year rather than the six-month limitation period to the DFR claim, (2) allowing the jury to consider punitive damages, and (3) failing to reduce the amount of the punitive damages. As cross-appellant, Plaintiff argues that the district court erred by neither allowing evidence at trial of intentional infliction of emotional distress nor tendering to the jury an instruction on intentional infliction of emotional distress. We address the four issues.

DISCUSSION

1. Statute of Limitations

{6} We first address the dispositive issue raised in the Union's appeal: whether the six-month rather than the four-year statute of limitations should have governed the claim by Plaintiff against the Union for breach of the DFR. If the former applies, the Union prevails, and the entire case is barred; if the latter applies, we reach the merits of the case. Because the facts relevant to the limitation period are undisputed, with the issue instead being a legal issue as to which limitation period is applicable, this Court reviews de novo whether the district court correctly applied the law to the undisputed facts. See Haas Enters., Inc. v. Davis, 2003-NMCA-143, ¶ 9, 134 N.M. 675, 82 P.3d 42. For the reasons set out below, Plaintiff's argument persuades us that the six-month statute of limitations adopted under the PEBA does not retroactively apply to this case. Our holding effectively short-circuits the question of which limitations period otherwise governs, and it demands that we reach the merits of the case.

Six-Month Limitation Period Should Have a Limited Retroactive Effect

{7} The question of the proper statute of limitations in a suit for breach of the DFR is an issue of first impression in New Mexico. Plaintiff argues that because a breach of a union's DFR is not a "prohibited practice" under the PEBA, he could not have anticipated that he was subject to the PEBA's six-month limitation period for prohibited practices. In addition, he argues that adoption of a six-month limitation period would divest him of a judgment vindicating rights that he vigorously fought to defend. Conversely, the Union argues that retroactive versus prospective analysis is not necessary because application of the PEBA's six-month limitation period is not a "new rule" of law subject to such an analysis. Instead, it maintains that "New Mexico law had already formulated its response to the limitations question" because it is well settled by DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 169, 172, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983), that claims of breach of the DFR under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) are subject to a six-month statute of limitations. The Union also maintains that New Mexico case law directs this Court to interpret the PEBA consistently with federal interpretations of the NLRA.

{8} We begin by reiterating that this case deals with a public employee and collective bargaining in the public sector. In Callahan v. New Mexico Federation of Teachers-TVI, 2006-NMSC-010, ¶ 25, 139 N.M. 201, 131 P.3d 51, our Supreme Court was quite clear when it held that remedies against unions for breach of the DFR are not available to employees within the dispute-resolution provisions of the PEBA because breach of the DFR is not specifically listed as a prohibited practice under the Act. Id. ¶¶ 25, 29.

{9} Despite statements in federal cases that the DFR is a "statutory duty" of the NLRA under 29 U.S.C. § 158(b) (1974), see Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 176-77, 87 S.Ct. 903, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967), our Supreme Court has not brought the DFR actions into New Mexico's statutory fold. Furthermore, the Court has not discussed the applicability of the PEBA statute of limitations when an employee exercises his right to remove himself from the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board and proceeds in a state court. Our holding here concerns only the retroactive applicability of the PEBA's six-month statute of limitations.

{10} The NLRA does not govern collective bargaining in the public sector. Nevertheless, our case law also instructs us to look to the NLRA for guidance in interpreting the PEBA statutory provisions that are substantially identical to provisions in the NLRA. See Las Cruces Prof'l Fire Fighters v. City of Las Cruces, 1997-NMCA-031, ¶ 15, 123 N.M. 239, 938 P.2d 1384 (stating that "we should interpret language of the PEBA in the manner that the same language of the NLRA has been interpreted, particularly when that interpretation was a well-settled, long-standing interpretation of the NLRA at the time the PEBA was enacted"); Regents of Univ. of N.M. v. N.M. Fed'n of Teachers, 1998-NMSC-020, ¶ 18, 125 N.M. 401, 962 P.2d 1236 (same). Because of our holding on the issue of retroactivity in this case, we do not reach the first impression question of which statute of limitations the NLRA demands in the DFR case, and we do not consider whether and to what extent the NLRA impacts the DFR cases under the PEBA and Callahan.

Retroactivity

{11} Upon the Union's refusal to file his grievance, Plaintiff transferred to another department and waited nearly thirty-six months to file suit in late March 2004. This was over twenty months after he left his employment in early July 2002. The six-month limitation period was subsequently adopted as a regulation under Prohibited Practices Proceedings, Part 3 of Chapter 21 in Title 11 of the New Mexico Administrative Code, 11.21.3.9 NMAC (3/15/2004). The history at the end of Part 3 provides that the predecessor to Part...