Source: https://openjurist.org/950/f2d/579/livingstone-v-schnuck-market-inc
Timestamp: 2017-10-22 23:18:04
Document Index: 199155443

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 10', '§ 160', '§ 301', '§ 301', 'art:\n29', '§ 160', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 435', '§ 516']

950 F2d 579 Livingstone v. Schnuck Market Inc | OpenJurist
950 F. 2d 579 - Livingstone v. Schnuck Market Inc
950 F2d 579 Livingstone v. Schnuck Market Inc
950 F.2d 579
139 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2148, 120 Lab.Cas. P 11,035
Guy LIVINGSTONE, Appellant,
SCHNUCK MARKET, INC., Appellee.
No. 90-2918.
Submitted Sept. 9, 1991.
On September 1, 1989, appellant filed suit against Schnuck seeking to enforce the arbitration award of back pay. The district court granted Schnuck's motion for summary judgment holding that appellant's suit was time-barred by the six-month statute of limitations set out in DelCostello v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983) (DelCostello ).
Under DelCostello, it is now well-established that the six-month statute of limitations in § 10(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. § 160(b), governs hybrid § 301/fair representation actions. See DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 158-72, 103 S.Ct. at 2287-95; see also Tripp v. Angelica Corp., 921 F.2d 794, 795 (8th Cir.1990) (Tripp ) (a cause of action under § 301 must be filed within six months after the claim arises). Section 10(b) provides in part:
29 U.S.C. § 160(b). The suit is labelled a hybrid § 301/fair representation action because it combines a straightforward § 301 breach-of-contract suit against an employer with a suit against the union for breach of the union's duty of fair representation. See DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 164-65, 103 S.Ct. at 2290-91.
The law is clear that regardless of whom the employee sues, a hybrid claim is one in which the employee has a cause of action against both the union and the employer, the two actions are "inextricably interdependent", and the case to be proven is the same whether the employee sues the employer, the union, or both. See id.; McKee v. Transco Prods., Inc., 874 F.2d 83, 86 (2d Cir.1989) (McKee ); see also Trompeter v. Boise Cascade Corp., 877 F.2d 686, 687-88 (8th Cir.1989) (Trompeter ) (in order to proceed with a § 301 action against employer, employee must allege that union breached its duty of fair representation).
In the instant case, appellant brings suit against his employer to enforce the arbitration back pay award. He argues that because he did not sue his union, his claim cannot be characterized as a hybrid action. The district court disagreed and analyzed the nature of appellant's claim by examining the relationship between appellant and his union. The district court derived this analysis from Samples v. Ryder Truck Lines, Inc., 755 F.2d 881 (11th Cir.1985). In Samples, the Eleventh Circuit held that:
[W]here a collective bargaining agreement specifies an arbitration procedure in which the union functions as the individual's exclusive representative, the job of asserting the individual's potential right of action to enforce the arbitration award under section 301 is presumed to have been delegated to the union as one of its duties as exclusive representative. Samples' right to bring this hybrid claim was therefore contingent on a showing that his union's failure to do so amounted to inadequate representation under Vaca [v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 87 S.Ct. 903, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967),] and Hines [v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc., 424 U.S. 554, 96 S.Ct. 1048, 47 L.Ed.2d 231 (1976) ].
The district court found that (1) under the collective bargaining agreement it was the union's duty to enforce the arbitration award, (2) Schnuck made an offer of back pay, and (3) the fact that appellant never received an award of back pay was due to Local 610's failure to enforce the award after appellant refused Schnuck's initial offer. Livingstone v. Schnuck Markets, Inc., No. 89-1637-C-5, slip op. at 8 (E.D.Mo. Oct. 5, 1990) (Livingstone ). Accordingly, the district court found that an employee's action against the employer to enforce an arbitration award necessarily includes a claim against the union for inadequate representation, since it is the union's duty under the collective bargaining agreement to enforce such an award. Id. at 7. The district court therefore concluded that because appellant's action against Schnuck presupposed a claim against Local 610 for inadequate representation, the appellant's action was a hybrid § 301/fair representation claim. Id. at 8-9.
To hold otherwise would allow employees to circumvent the hybrid six-month statute of limitations by choosing to sue only their employers. See McKee, 874 F.2d at 86; see also Bailey v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry., 852 F.2d 185, 187 (6th Cir.1988) (complaint showed that plaintiffs alleged a hybrid claim despite their attempt to label it as something else). It is clear from the record that appellant here was extremely dissatisfied with his union's representation of him: he wrote a letter complaining of Local 610's lack of enforcement of his arbitration award, phoned to complain of their representation of him during negotiation, and filed N.L.R.B. charges against them.
Appellant urges this court to apply Mo.Rev.Stat. § 435.400 (1986), which governs confirmation of an award, in conjunction with Mo.Rev.Stat. § 516.350.1 (1986), which allows a successful litigant a statutory period of ten years in which to collect a judgment, thereby giving appellant a ten-year statute of limitations in which to enforce his arbitration award. The application of such a rule would run contrary to the policy of "relatively rapid final resolution of labor disputes favored by federal law." DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 168, 103 S.Ct. at 2292.
The district court found that the six-month statute of limitations began to run at the latest on the date on which appellant filed an unfair labor practice charge with the N.L.R.B. The district court based this finding on Gustafson v. Cornelius Co., 724 F.2d 75 (8th Cir.1983) (Gustafson ).
Livingstone v. Schnuck Markets, Inc., No. 89-1637-C-5 (E.D.Mo. Oct. 5, 1990) (memorandum and order)