Opinion ID: 397209
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: timeliness of the appointment

Text: 22 We now turn to the question whether the FMCS appointed the factfinder within the time allowed by the stipulation. The stipulation permitted the FMCS to appoint a factfinder at any time prior to February 25. Thus, to accomplish the appointment the FMCS must have completed all that was necessary for it to do by February 24. A review of the facts and the applicable law reveals that the appointment was not made by February 24. 23 The FMCS waited until February 24, the last day possible, to begin the appointment process. At that time, Jewell T. Myers of the FMCS, following customary FMCS procedure, called an arbitrator, Samuel Nicholas, to see if he was available to serve as the factfinder. Because Nicholas was not in his office on that Thursday afternoon, Myers spoke with his secretary, Martha Kelsey. Kelsey told Myers that Nicholas was available to serve as the factfinder, and that she would accept the assignment for him, as she was authorized to do, subject to his confirmation. Nicholas's standard practice was to confirm all appointments made in his absence. In Myers's deposition, she recounted the conversation she had with Martha Kelsey concerning Nicholas's confirmation: 24 (Kelsey said) (t)hat she would get back in touch with me.... I told her it was urgent. I needed to talk to him (Nicholas) that day because I had this special fact finding case that had an effective date of 2/25/77, and I needed to know that day if he would take the case. 25 Not until the next day, however, February 25, did Nicholas return to his office and call the FMCS to confirm his availability. And not until February 26 did the FMCS send a mailgram to Nicholas, and copies to the parties, officially appointing Nicholas as the factfinder. That mailgram, moreover, stated that Nicholas was appointed the factfinder in the Lake Charles Hospital dispute effective February 25. 26 On these facts, it is plain that the FMCS failed to make a timely appointment. The events of February 24 left Nicholas's appointment in limbo. Not only was it left for Nicholas to confirm his availability; the FMCS, the only body with power to make the appointment, withheld the official written communication of the appointment until it spoke with Nicholas personally. The written communication officially appointing Nicholas was not a mere formality. The FMCS's own Guidelines for Board of Inquiry give it greater stature. Guideline 5 states: A BOI will be established upon the effective date set in the official written appointment communication from the National Director. Moreover, the FMCS did nothing to inform the parties of its purported appointment on February 24 even though if a factfinder had been appointed on that date the parties would have been under a new obligation to maintain the status quo. 27 Under the age old but still viable test of Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803) the FMCS did not complete the appointment of Nicholas by February 24. In Marbury, the Court addressed the question whether President John Adams had completed his appointment of Samuel Marbury as a Justice of the Peace for the District of Columbia before leaving office, as a preliminary matter to addressing the questions for which the case is better known. The Court held that President Adams had completed the appointment because he had performed the last act that was required of him. 28 The last act to be done by the president is the signature of the commission.... This appointment is evidenced by an open, unequivocal act; and being the last act required from the person making it, necessarily excludes the idea of its being, so far as respects the appointment, an inchoate and inconclusive transaction. 29 5 U.S. at 157. Here, by contrast, the FMCS's actions on February 24 were nothing but inconclusive. The FMCS delayed issuing its official appointment communication precisely because it was waiting to speak to Nicholas personally. It did not inform the parties of its action on February 24, and it did not make February 24 the effective date of Nicholas's appointment when it did issue the official communication. 30 The district court concluded that FMCS made the appointment on February 24 and that Nicholas accepted it on February 25, relying on the distinction in Marbury v. Madison between an appointment and an acceptance. 5 U.S. at 161. We think that the district court incorrectly interpreted Nicholas's confirmation as an acceptance of an appointment already made. Rather, the appointment itself was incomplete on February 24 because the FMCS refrained from completing it until speaking with Nicholas personally. Further, Nicholas could have declined. Surely if he had waited several days and then accepted the February 24th request, this would not be sufficient. The critical point is that the delay was specifically and overtly prejudicial to the rights of the Union established by the stipulation. The Union was entitled to strict compliance with the agreed time limits. 31 In holding that the FMCS failed to make a timely appointment here, we do not suggest at all that appointment can never be made by telephone, or that an agent can never accept an appointment. We hold only that on the facts of this case Nicholas's appointment obviously was not completed by February 24, the date required by the stipulation.