Donovan v. West Coast Detective Agency, Inc.
| Decision Date | 04 December 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-6322,83-6322 |
| Parties | 117 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3302, 102 Lab.Cas. P 11,273 Raymond J. DONOVAN, Secretary of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WEST COAST DETECTIVE AGENCY, INC. and Anja Engineering Co., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
John M. Rogers, Leonard Schaitman, Marleigh D. Dover, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.
Gregory G. Kennedy, Goldstein, Freedman & Klepetar, Los Angeles, Cal., Kilpatrick & Cody, Washington, D.C., Diane L. Prucino, Duane C. Aldrich, Kilpatrick & Cody, Atlanta, Ga., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Before CHAMBERS and HUG, Circuit
Judges, and EAST, * District judge.
The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 73 Stat. 519, P.L. 86-257, requires the disclosure and reporting of certain information from labor organizations, from management, and from certain individuals connected with both. See e.g. Section 201 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 431) requiring the disclosure of information from labor organizations, Section 202 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 432) from employees of labor organizations, and Section 203 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 433) from employers. More precisely, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 433(a) requires reports as to:
(4) any agreement or arrangement with a labor relations consultant or other independent contractor or organization pursuant to which such person undertakes activities where an object thereof, directly or indirectly, is to persuade employees to exercise or not to exercise, or persuade employees as to the manner of exercising, the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, or undertakes to supply such employer with information concerning the activities of employees or a labor organization in connection with a labor dispute involving such employer, except information for use solely in conjunction with an administrative or arbitral proceeding or a criminal or civil judicial proceeding; or ....
Section 29 U.S.C. Sec. 433(b) requires reports from:
(b) Every person who pursuant to any agreement or arrangement with an employer undertakes activities where an object thereof is, directly or indirectly--
(1) to persuade employees to exercise or not to exercise, or persuade employees as to the manner of exercising, the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing; or
(2) to supply an employer with information concerning the activities of employees or a labor organization in connection with a labor dispute involving such employer, except information for use solely in conjunction with an administrative or arbitral proceeding or a criminal or civil judicial proceeding ....
Section 439 of Title 29 provides criminal penalties for willful violation of these reporting requirements of the Act. Section 440 authorizes the Secretary of Labor to bring civil actions, including ones for injunctive relief, when it appears that any person has violated or is about to violate any of the provisions of the statute.
The Secretary filed actions against Anja Engineering Co. (hereafter "Anja") and West Coast Detective Agency, Inc. (hereafter "West Coast") which were consolidated by the district court. It is charged that Anja hired West Coast to investigate and report on certain employee activities, but, in violation of 29 U.S.C. Sec. 433 and Sec. 437, failed to report to the Secretary that it had done so. The action seeks injunctive relief to compel the filing of the pertinent reports.
The district judge dismissed the actions on the basis of the bar of the statute of limitations. He noted that no specific statute of limitations is included in the Act and then borrowed and applied the three-year California statute of limitations for actions founded on statute, C.C.P. Sec. 338(1). The Secretary in this appeal argues that this was error and no limitation period was intended to bar the action, as he was acting for the government in its sovereign capacity to enforce public rights and interests. 1
We agree with the Secretary. The purposes of the Act are stated in Section 2(a):
"The Congress finds that, in the public interest, it continues to be the responsibility of the Federal Government to protect employees' rights to organize, choose their own representatives, bargain collectively, and otherwise engage in concerted activities for their mutual aid and protection; that the relations between employers and labor organizations and the millions of workers they represent...
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Dole v. Local 427, Intern. Union of Elec., Radio and Mach. Workers, AFL-CIO
...with the federal policies underlying the statute, has been adopted by a number of Courts of Appeals. E.g., Donovan v. West Coast Detective Agency, 748 F.2d 1341, 1343 (9th Cir.1984) (the Ninth Circuit specifically rejected the borrowing of a state statute of limitations in the absence of a ......
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Brock v. LOCAL 427, INTERN. UNION OF ELEC., ETC., Civ. A. No. 87-3575 (AMW).
...of the LMRDA and that no statute of limitations is applicable, plaintiff relies heavily upon the case of Donovan v. West Coast Detective Agency, Inc., 748 F.2d 1341 (9th Cir.1984), in which the Ninth Circuit The Legislative history of the LMRDA stresses the interest not only of unions, and ......
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S.E.C. v. Rind
...local union from refusing to allow one of its members to review collective bargaining agreements); Donovan v. West Coast Detective Agency, Inc., 748 F.2d 1341, 1343 (9th Cir.1984) (no statute of limitations applies when Secretary of Labor sues under LMRDA to compel filing of requisite repor......
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Simpson v. Office of Thrift Supervision
...generally, the United States is not subject to a statute of limitation in enforcing its rights. See Donovan v. West Coast Detective Agency, Inc., 748 F.2d 1341, 1343 (9th Cir.1984); United States v. Tri-No Enters., Inc., 819 F.2d 154, 158 (7th Because we conclude that Congress provided no s......