Gruca v. United States Steel Corporation

• Citation: 495 F.2d 1252
• Decision Date: 17 April 1974
• Docket Number: No. 73-1803,73-1804.,73-1803
• Parties: Robert L. GRUCA v. UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, Appellant in No. 73-1083 and United Steelworkers of America and United Steelworkers of America, Local No. 4889 (Defendants on Cross-Claim).
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

495 F.2d 1252 (1974)

Robert L. GRUCA v. UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, Appellant in No. 73-1083 and United Steelworkers of America and United Steelworkers of America, Local No. 4889 (Defendants on Cross-Claim).

Nos. 73-1803, 73-1804.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued March 12, 1974.

Decided April 17, 1974.

David C. Toomey, Duane, Morris & Heckscher, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellant.

Robert E. Kopp, Karen K. Siegel, U. S. Dept. of Justice, Appellate Section, Civil Division, Washington, D. C. and A. E. Lawson, Pittsburgh, Pa., Irving Jaffee, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Robert E. J. Curran, U. S. Atty., Philadelphia, Pa., for appellees.

Before ALDISERT, GIBBONS and ROSENN, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

ALDISERT, Circuit Judge.

The question raised by this appeal is whether a veteran's claim for legal and equitable relief under the Military Selective Service Act of 1967, 50 App. U.S.C. § 459,¹ is barred by laches or the Pennsylvania six year statute of limitations² because the veteran failed to commence his action until at least nine years had elapsed from the date his cause of action accrued. The district court viewed the claim as equitable in nature and held that the doctrine of laches governed plaintiff's demands for adjustment in job seniority dates and back pay. It concluded that plaintiff's claim was not barred by laches, granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, awarded damages in the amount of $4,937.66 and ordered the defendant to amend plaintiff's job service dates.³ The employer has appealed. We reverse.

I.

The material facts are not in dispute. The United States Steel Corporation employed Gruca as a general laborer in its Open Hearth Department at its Fairless Works beginning September 30, 1958. This became Gruca's Department Date for seniority purposes. Plaintiff worked continuously in that position until he left on December 8, 1960, to enter the military service. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army on December 14, 1962, returned to Pennsylvania and was reemployed by U.S. Steel on January 18, 1963. He was assigned his previous job classification of general laborer, and retained his original Department Date of September 30, 1958.

From the position of general laborer a U.S. Steel employee has the choice of following several promotional ladders. One of these ladders is Seniority Unit No. 8 — Cranes. To reach the rung of craneman a general laborer must first obtain Crane Extra Board Status. This is achieved by receiving special training in crane operation and passing a test. Once an employee obtains Crane Extra Board status he is assigned a Crane Extra Board Date, which is essentially a seniority date. Therefore, employees on Crane Extra Board climb to the position of Stockyard Crane Operator, if they bid for the opening, on the basis of the earliest Crane Extra Board Date and if the physical fitness factor is relatively equal.

While Gruca was on active duty, U.S. Steel had, from time to time, advertised openings for crane operators. Four employees responded, each having Open Hearth Department Dates later than plaintiff's. They completed their training, passed the test and were assigned to the Crane Extra Board. Therefore, because of plaintiff's absence from his civilian occupation due to military obligations, employees junior to him had the chance to, and did, hold positions superior to him.

Shortly after his reemployment,⁴ plaintiff learned of his plight and took the matter up with his union grievance committeeman. Specifically, he asked "whether something could be . . . done about the men moving ahead of . . . him to Crane Extra Board." The union representatives knew that it was company policy that "a returning veteran did not have a statutory right to any promotion for which he might have been entitled to apply had he been employed at the time that the promotion became available." Therefore, plaintiff was told that he "was only guaranteed that he would get his old job back." Because plaintiff thought "it would be useless to try to grieve this matter" and "it would do no good" he neither submitted a grievance nor complained to management.

However, Gruca remained undaunted in his career aspirations. He later signed up for training in crane operation, passed his test and was assigned a Crane Extra Board date of March 28, 1963. But, because Gruca's board date was later than the other four employees, he was not awarded the position of Stockyard Craneman until March 8, 1969.

Plaintiff did nothing to pursue his veteran's rights until, in April, 1969, he again requested the union to process a grievance on his old claim. This request came approximately seven months after Judge Sorg's decision in Foremsky v. United States Steel Corporation, 297 F. Supp. 1094 (W.D.Pa.1968), which held that a returning veteran is entitled to enjoy the seniority status which he would have acquired by virtue of continued employment but for his absence in the military service if, as a matter of foresight, it was reasonably certain that advancement would have occurred, and if, as a matter of hindsight, it did in fact occur. The union denied his grievance request and advised him to seek assistance from the United States Department of Labor, which he did on April 18, 1969. Finally, on August 15, 1972, more than nine years after his being rehired, and three years after he applied to the Department of Labor, plaintiff commenced this action.

Defendant does not deny that Gruca was wrongfully denied his seniority status upon his return from the military.⁵ In fact, the defendant has applied the Foremsky rationale on a prospective basis. But, because of "extraordinary" practical problems, U.S. Steel "felt that it would be impossible to grant retroactive promotions to veterans reemployed prior to the judgment in Foremsky, who, like the plaintiff in this case, had not presented their claims promptly after reemployment or pursued them effectively thereafter." Thus, we are presented with the question of whether there is a legal barrier to applying the Foremsky doctrine in this case.

II.

Mr. Justice Frankfurter's stark observation in Holmberg v. Armbrecht, 327 U.S. 392, 395, 66 S.Ct. 582, 584, 90 L.Ed. 743 (1946), is particularly applicable to veterans' claims under Section 459 of the Military Selective Service Act:

If Congress explicitly puts a limit upon the time for enforcing a right which it created, there is an end of the matter. The Congressional statute of limitation is definitive. * * * The rub comes when Congress is silent. Apart from penal enactments, Congress has usually left the limitation of time for commencing actions under national legislation to judicial implications.

Since Congress was silent concerning the limitations period for bringing veterans' claims under § 459, we are relegated to fashioning the appropriate remedial details. Thus, we take as our threshold inquiry whether Pennsylvania's six year statute of limitations applies as a bar to Gruca's claim seeking legal and equitable relief.

Gruca argues that the statute of limitations does not bar the demand for either legal or equitable relief. He contends that we have held that claims for relief under the Act are equitable in nature, Carmalt v. General Motors Acceptance Corporation, 302 F.2d 589 (3d Cir. 1962); that a state statute of limitations is inapplicable in an equitable action arising under a federal statute except where the state limitations statute applies to equitable remedies in like cases, Russell v. Todd, 309 U.S. 280, 60 S. Ct. 527, 84 L.Ed. 754 (1940); and that "even though the Pennsylvania statute applies in law and in equity", the "like case" requirement is not met. For its part, U.S. Steel would have us apply the statute of limitations even though the plaintiff cumulatively sought legal and equitable relief. Defendant argues that this is an issue of first impression in this court; that it was not decided in Carmalt; and that Russell v. Todd squarely controls. We reject the parties' "all or nothing" approach and hold that the Pennsylvania statute of limitations applies to plaintiff's claim insofar as it seeks legal relief, and that the doctrine of laches governs the demand for equitable relief.

A.

In Carmalt we held that a veteran's claim for reinstatement and back pay was barred by plaintiff's laches because "there were seventeen years between his alleged claim for reemployment and the beginning of his lawsuit."⁶ 302 F.2d at 590. Although we recognized the well-established rule that the analogy to the statute of limitations was helpful in determining the issue of laches, we did not address the question of the operation of the statute of limitations qua statute of limitations as a bar to plaintiff's claim. Thus, while Carmalt provides the governing precepts for the question of laches, it does not foreclose the precise inquiry we are called upon to make here.

Mr. Justice Stone's opinion in Russell v. Todd, supra, serves as the springboard for our analysis. There the Court was called upon to decide whether New York's three year statute of limitations would apply to an action brought by the creditors of an insolvent bank against the bank's shareholders under the Federal Farm Loan Act. The Court reasoned that the claim was brought "exclusively in equity to enforce rights cognizable only in equity", that it was not exercised in aid or support of a legal right, and that the state statute applied only to legal remedies. Specifically, the Court emphasized:

Where the equity jurisdiction is exclusive and is not exercised in aid or support of a legal right, state statutes of limitations barring actions at law are inapplicable, and in the absence of any state statute barring the equitable remedy in like cases, the federal court is remitted to and applies the doctrine of laches as controlling.

309 U.S. at 289, 60 S.Ct. at 532. Since plaintiffs' claim met the necessary criteria, the Court...