Edwards v. International Union, United Plant Guard Workers of America (UPGWA)

• Decision Date: 31 January 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-7035,94-7035
• Citation: 46 F.3d 1047
• Parties: 148 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2398, 130 Lab.Cas. P 11,306 Jerry L. EDWARDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED PLANT GUARD WORKERS OF AMERICA (UPGWA) and its Affiliated Local 796, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1047

46 F.3d 1047

148 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2398, 130 Lab.Cas. P 11,306

Jerry L. EDWARDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED PLANT GUARD WORKERS OF AMERICA (UPGWA) and its Affiliated Local 796, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 94-7035.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Jan. 31, 1995.

Jack Marwood Short, Tulsa, OK (R. Forney Sandlin, Muskogee, OK, with him on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Scott A. Brooks of Gregory, Moore, Jeakle, Heinen, Ellison & Brooks, P.C., Detroit, MI (Lisa S. Lane with him on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees.

BALDOCK and BRORBY, Circuit Judges, and KANE ^*, Senior District Judge.

KANE, Senior District Judge.

Jerry L. Edwards brought this action against his collective bargaining agent, United Plant Guard Workers of America and its affiliated Local 796 (collectively, the "Union"), alleging the Union breached its duty of fair representation by mishandling his wrongful discharge grievance against his former employer, Trover Security Svc. ("Trover"). The district court dismissed the action as barred by the six-month statute of limitations applicable to "hybrid" breach of collective-bargaining agreement/unfair representation claims under the rationale set forth in DelCostello v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983), and this appeal ensued.

Edwards asserts the district court erred in characterizing his suit as a "hybrid" action and contends it more closely resembles one for legal malpractice to which Oklahoma's two-year statute of limitations should apply. Alternatively, Edwards argues the Union's dilatory conduct in processing his grievance and responding to demand letters he sent after all grievance procedures were exhausted tolled the running of his unfair representation claim. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. Background

Jerry L. Edwards was an employee of Trover and a member of the Union until his discharge on June 28, 1991. The Union and Trover are parties to a collective bargaining agreement covering the terms and conditions of employment of all employees in the bargaining unit. The agreement incorporates Article VI, Sec. 14 of the Constitution and By-Laws of UPGWA which describes and governs the grievance process and "irrevocably" designates the Union "to appear exclusively and act as [each member's] agent to represent and bind him in the presentation, prosecution, adjustment and settlement of all grievances, complaints or disputes of any kind or character arising out of the employer-employee relationship."

On July 1, 1991, the Union timely filed a grievance on behalf of Edwards protesting his discharge. On July 23, 1991, the Union notified Trover of its intent to arbitrate but did not select an arbitrator until December 23, 1991. The Union justified the five month delay as having been "due to the grievance being reviewed by the regional and national union office ... [and] then sent for review by counsel." (Aplt.'s App. at 14.) Trover agreed to the selection, but reserved an objection as to its timeliness.

On March 26, 1992 the arbitrator dismissed Edwards' grievance as untimely in light of the delay between the time the Union notified Trover of its intent to arbitrate and the time the arbitrator was actually selected. On June 22, 1992, still acting exclusively on behalf of Edwards, the Union filed suit against Trover in the district court (Case No. 92-378-S) seeking an order vacating the arbitration award and requiring the arbitrator to consider Edwards' grievance on the merits. Trover moved for summary judgment and on October 28, 1992, the district court upheld the arbitrator's decision and dismissed the Union's suit.

Edwards was notified of the district court's decision in early November, 1992 and retained legal counsel. On November 28, 1992, counsel mailed the first of four letters to the Union, claiming money damages for Edwards' losses caused by the Union's mishandling of the arbitration process. (Aplt.'s App. at 48-49). The letter requested payment of a sum certain by December 21, 1992. Id. After receiving no response by the requested date, counsel mailed follow-up letters on December 23, 1992, March 29, 1993, and May 7, 1993. Edwards assumed the delay, like the delay in selecting the arbitrator, was the result of the intra-union review process. (Aplt.'s Br. at 6.)

Eight months after being notified of the district court's order denying the Union's motion to vacate the award, and still having received no response from the Union to his demand letters, Edwards filed suit against the Union for breach of its duty of fair representation. See Complaint, No. 93-455-NJ (filed July 6, 1993) (Aplt.'s App. at 1-4). Edwards asserted no claims against Trover in this second lawsuit, and Trover was not a named defendant.

The Union moved to dismiss Edwards' suit on July 29, 1993, asserting it was barred by the six-month statute of limitations prescribed by Sec. 10(b) of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), applicable to "hybrid" Sec. 301/unfair representation actions under DelCostello. The district court agreed and entered its Order Granting Defendants' Motion to Dismiss on December 14, 1993. (Aplt.'s App. at 59-64.) Edwards' Motion for Reconsideration was denied, and the present appeal ensued.

II. Merits

Edwards raises two issues on appeal. First, he contends the fact the Union filed, and lost, a separate Sec. 301 suit against Trover on his behalf precluded him from filing a Sec. 301 claim against Trover and distinguishes this from a "hybrid" Sec. 301/unfair representation action subject to the LMRA's six-month statute of limitations. Instead, Edwards argues his suit more closely resembles a legal malpractice action to which Oklahoma's two-year statute of limitations applies. Second, Edwards claims the six-month limitations period, if applicable, was tolled by the Union's breach of its fiduciary duty (1) to inform him of his right to sue after his grievance was dismissed for untimely selection of the arbitrator; and (2) to respond to his four demand letters.

We review the Union's motion to dismiss Edwards' claims under the same standard applied by the district court. We accept all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and construe them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Mascheroni v. Bd. of Regents, 28 F.3d 1554, 1560 (10th Cir.1994). We review the district court's determination of the applicable statute of limitations de novo. Trustees of Wyoming Laborers Health & Welfare Plan v. Morgen & Oswood Constr. Co., Inc., 850 F.2d 613, 617 (10th Cir.1988). Where, as here, the dates on which the pertinent acts occurred are not in dispute, the date a statute of limitations accrues is also a question of law reviewed de novo. Galindo v. Stoody Co., 793 F.2d 1502, 1509 (9th Cir.1986); see Lucas v. Mountain States, 909 F.2d 419 (10th Cir.1990).

A. Statute of Limitations

1.

Section 301 of the LMRA makes collective bargaining agreements enforceable in federal court, but provides no statute of limitations for claims brought under it. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185 (1988). Under these circumstances, courts generally infer Congress intended the most closely analogous state statute of limitations to apply. See generally Agency Holding Corp. v. Malley-Duff & Associates, Inc., 483 U.S. 143, 147, 107 S.Ct. 2759, 2762-63, 97 L.Ed.2d 121 (1987) (Rules of Decision Act usually requires application of statute of limitations and "[g]iven our longstanding practice of borrowing state law, and the congressional awareness of this practice, we can generally assume that Congress intends by its silence that we borrow state law").

This general rule is neither rigid nor mechanically applied, however. Where state limitations periods are at odds with the purpose or operation of federal substantive law, or where they are determined to be unsatisfactory vehicles for its enforcement, federal courts may decline to borrow them and draw instead from federal law. DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 161-62, 103 S.Ct. at 2289. ¹ In DelCostello, the Supreme Court determined federal labor policies and the practicalities of Sec. 301 litigation supported the application of the six-month statute of limitations prescribed by Sec. 10(b) of the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 160(b), to "hybrid" Sec. 301/unfair representation suits charging an employer breached a collective-bargaining agreement and the union breached its duty of fair representation. Id., 462 U.S. at 154-55, 103 S.Ct. at 2285-86. We have followed DelCostello and applied Sec. 10(b)'s statute of limitations in Aguinaga v United Food & Commercial Workers Int'l Union, 993 F.2d 1463, 1472 (10th Cir.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 880, 127 L.Ed.2d 75 (1994), Lucas v. Mountain States Tel. & Tel., 909 F.2d 419, 420 (10th Cir.1990), and Rucker v. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co., 917 F.2d 1233, 1237-38 (10th Cir.1990).

The "hybrid" suit is a judicially created exception to the general rule that an employee is bound by the result of grievance or arbitration remedial procedures provided in a collective-bargaining agreement. Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 185-86, 87 S.Ct. 903, 914-15, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967), discussed in DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 163-64, 103 S.Ct. at 2289-90. Where an employee can prove he suffered a wrongful discharge in violation of a collective-bargaining agreement that would have been remedied through the grievance process had the union fulfilled its statutory duty to represent the employee fairly, federal law will provide a remedy. Vaca, 386 U.S. at 185-86, 87 S.Ct. at 914-15, applied in Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc., 424 U.S. 554, 96 S.Ct. 1048, 47 L.Ed.2d 231 (1976), United Parcel Service, Inc. v. Mitchell, 451 U.S. 56, 101 S.Ct. 1559, 67 L.Ed.2d 732 (1983), and Aguinaga, 993 F.2d at 1471-72 ("[i]n such instance, the union has effectively ceased to function as the employee's representative"). To leave the employee remediless under these...