Opinion ID: 480737
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Extent of the Union's Liability

Text: 61 Local 449 contends that the district court should have charged the jury that the Union could be held responsible only for the portion of Baskin's damages that was proportionate to its fault in relation to that of Stright. At trial, Local 449 neither requested such a charge nor objected to its absence. 62 In general, a party may not raise on appeal an asserted error in the giving or failure to give a particular instruction to the jury unless he has made timely objection in the trial court. Fed.R.Civ.P. 51; Air et Chaleur, S.A. v. Janeway, 757 F.2d 489, 493 (2d Cir.1985); Haskell v. Kaman Corp., 743 F.2d 113, 123 (2d Cir.1984); Goodman v. Heublein, Inc., 645 F.2d 127, 131 n. 5 (2d Cir.1981). An exception may be made only when there is plain error that may result in a miscarriage of justice, or in obvious instances of ... misapplied law. Air et Chaleur, S.A. v. Janeway, 757 F.2d at 494 (quoting City of Newport v. Fact Concerts, 453 U.S. 247, 256, 101 S.Ct. 2748, 2754, 69 L.Ed.2d 616 (1981)). 63 We find no error, plain or otherwise, in the failure to give the apportionment charge, for when a union has caused or participated in the underlying wrong of the employer, it is appropriate to hold it jointly and severally liable for the employee's loss. See Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 197 n. 18, 87 S.Ct. 903, 920 n. 18, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967); Jones v. Transworld Airlines, Inc., 495 F.2d 790, 798 (2d Cir.1974) (tacit understanding between union and employer led to underlying violation); Farmer v. ARA Services, Inc., 660 F.2d 1096, 1107 (6th Cir.1981); see also Bowen v. United States Postal Service, 459 U.S. 212, 223 n. 11, 103 S.Ct. 588, 595 n. 11, 74 L.Ed.2d 402 (1983). By breaching its duty of fair representation in not contemporaneously requiring Stright to make pension contributions from 1963 to 1967, the Union participated in the underlying wrong. 64