Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n v. Southern Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 28 November 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-8513,87-8513
• Citation: Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n v. Southern Ry. Co., 860 F.2d 1038 (11th Cir. 1988)
• Parties: 129 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3092, 110 Lab.Cas. P 10,860 RAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES' ASSOCIATION, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1038

860 F.2d 1038

129 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3092, 110 Lab.Cas. P 10,860

RAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES' ASSOCIATION, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 87-8513.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Nov. 28, 1988.

Randall Blackwood, Randall Blackwood, P.C., Atlanta, Ga., Lawrence M. Mann, Alper & Mann, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellants.

Sidley & Austin, Linzey D. Jones, James S. Whitehead, Chicago, Ill., Neely & Player, Haas-Howell, Edgar A. Neely, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge, HENDERSON ^*, and HENLEY ^**, Senior Circuit Judges.

HENDERSON, Senior Circuit Judge:

Railway Labor Executives Association and seventeen individual railway unions (collectively, "the Unions") appeal from the order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granting summary judgment in favor of the defendant Southern Railway Company ("Southern") in this action for injunctive relief brought pursuant to the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 151 et seq. ("RLA"). We affirm.

For approximately thirty years, Southern has required periodic, routine medical examinations that have included urinalyses. Originally, these urine samples were tested to determine the sugar and albumin levels of employees. Since 1974, the medical examinations have been mandatory for employees returning from furloughs of a specified length of time. Southern's revised medical standards for 1981 denied employment to employees who are dependent upon or use drugs that impair their sensory, mental or physical conditions.

It is undisputed that since about 1970 Southern began conducting periodic drug screening on urine samples taken during the course of routine medical examinations. In 1979, according to Dr. John P. Salb, Southern's Medical Director, the carrier's drug screening of urine specimens taken from routine medical examinations became more frequent. In 1983, Southern included testing for marijuana in its drug screens.

In October, 1984, Southern decided to impose drug testing on all urine specimens obtained during routine physical examinations and return-to-work examinations. The carrier announced this policy to its employees and the unions representing them in February, 1985.

Under this policy, if an employee's tests results are positive for any of the prohibited drugs, ¹ then that employee is held out of service without pay until he provides a drug-free sample. The employee has 45 days from the date of notification to supply a drug-free specimen. Noncompliance with this 45-day rule can lead to an employee's dismissal for failure to obey instructions. If, on the other hand, an employee submits a negative specimen within the 45-day period, then he is immediately considered fit for work and returned to duty.

In lieu of compliance within the specified time period, an employee whose test result is positive for drugs may enter the Norfolk Southern Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Services ("DARS") program. If an employee elects the DARS option, then he has five days from the end of the program to supply a clean sample. Again, failure to comply can result in termination.

From the commencement of the drug testing program to the time this action was filed, Southern performed over 4000 drug screens on urine specimens. During that time, slightly under six percent of those tests yielded a positive result. Of the employees who tested positively for drugs, more than ninety percent subsequently provided a drug-free sample and returned to work. Nine have been discharged for failure to supply a clean specimen.

On July 18, 1986, the Unions brought this action in district court to enjoin Southern from conducting drug screen urinalyses during routine medical examinations. They maintained that Southern's unilateral imposition of this drug testing procedure constituted a major dispute under the RLA, and, therefore, the district court had jurisdiction to enjoin the testing procedure while settlement negotiations between the company and the union proceed as required by the Act. Southern moved for summary judgment urging that the dispute was minor and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Railroad Adjustment Board ("NRAB"). See 45 U.S.C. Sec. 153. Additionally, Southern contended--in both its answer and summary judgment motion--that the applicable statute of limitations barred the Unions' action. Without discussing whether the complaint was time barred, the district court granted the carrier's motion. The Unions now appeal that order. Because we agree with Southern that the Unions failed to file this action during the relevant period within which the suit could be brought, we affirm. ² Consequently, we need not reach the merits of the case.

The RLA contains no limitations period applicable to actions, such as the one before us, predicated on violations of its provisions. When a federal statute fails to provide such a limitations period, courts do not assume a legislative intent that all actions under the statute be timely. Rather, courts ordinarily borrow a suitable rule of timeliness from another source. DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 158, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2287, 76 L.Ed.2d 476, 485 (1983). Often, the most analogous statute of limitations is found in state law.

While federal courts generally prefer to borrow state limitations periods, they are not compelled to do so. Id. at 159-60 n. 13, 103 S.Ct. at 2288-89 n. 13, 76 L.Ed.2d at 45-46 n. 13. Indeed, the federal courts must decline to adhere to state limitations laws where doing so would impair federal policies. Id. at 161, 103 S.Ct. at 2289, 76 L.Ed.2d at 487. Where national interests are implicated, a need for national uniformity arises. Whether a uniform federal limitations period ought to apply to a particular type of action arising under a federal statute depends upon the relationship between the litigants' interests and the national policies promoted by the statute. If the interests of the parties are of especial concern to the federal policy, the need for national uniformity for the timeliness of such actions is compelling. In such cases, courts look to federal rather than state law for the appropriate limitations period, frequently applying a related federal statute's express rule or an alternative such as laches. Id. at 162, 103 S.Ct. at 2289, 76 L.Ed.2d at 487.

Some actions involving the important national policies promoted by federal labor laws presently are subject to a uniform limitations period. In DelCostello, the Supreme Court examined hybrid suits brought by employees against their employers and unions. A hybrid suit combines a claim under section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185, for an employer's breach of a collective bargaining agreement, with an action resting on a union's breach of the duty of fair representation implied under the scheme of the National Labor Relations Act. The Court characterized hybrid actions as direct challenges to one of "those consensual processes that federal labor law is chiefly designed to promote," International Union, United Auto Aerospace and Agr. Implement Workers of America (UAW), AFL-CIO v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U.S. 696, 702, 86 S.Ct. 1107, 1111, 16 L.Ed.2d 192, 198 (1966): the private settlement of disputes under the collective bargaining agreement, DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 165, 103 S.Ct. at 2291, 76 L.Ed.2d at 489. Searching for a state statute of limitations both analogous and appropriate, the Court found none. The strongest candidates, state limitations periods for vacating arbitration awards and for legal malpractice, loosely analogous at best, failed primarily because their application would hinder the policies of federal labor law, either by cutting off employees' rights too quickly, or by letting those rights linger too long, precluding "the relatively rapid final resolution of labor disputes favored by federal law...." Id. at 168, 103 S.Ct. at 2292, 76 L.Ed.2d at 491.

Rejecting state law, the Court turned to a federal statute of limitations which it believed better balanced the parties' and the policies' interests: Sec. 10(b) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 160(b). Section 10(b) provides that charges of unfair labor practices must be filed with the National Labor Relations Board within six months of the offending practice's occurrence. The Court reasoned that Sec. 10(b) supplied the best analogy to the hybrid claims at issue in that case, because a union's breach of its duty to provide fair representation either is an unfair labor practice, or closely akin thereto. More important, the Court stressed that Sec. 10(b) embodied Congress' view respecting the proper balance between the national and individual interests at stake, considerations common to the two related labor law contexts. Concluding that uniform procedures should govern similar claims, the Court adopted the six-month period specified in Sec. 10(b) as the appropriate statute of limitations for hybrid breach of collective bargaining agreement/fair representation cases.

In the wake of DelCostello, circuit courts began using the six-month limitations period in actions brought under the RLA, particularly those founded on breach of the duty of fair representation implied by Sec. 2, Fourth, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 152, Fourth. See Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Ry. Co., 323 U.S. 192, 65 S.Ct. 226, 89 L.Ed. 173 (1944) (union must represent nonunion or minority union members fairly and in good faith). These courts reasoned that fair representation cases under the RLA implicated policy considerations and litigant concerns similar to the individual and national interests balanced by the Court in DelCostello. This reasoning persuaded every circuit addressing the issue, and as a result, six months...