Opinion ID: 775794
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Summary Judgment Against the Employer

Text: 34 The plaintiffs contend that ABF breached the CBA by failing to recall the plaintiffs from layoff according to seniority. In addition, plaintiffs argue that ABF artificially inflated its seniority roster by hiring new, less expensive drivers in order to avoid its obligation to employ or recall the plaintiffs. Finally, plaintiffs submit that ABF is in breach of the CBA by failing to dovetail the seniority of the recalled plaintiffs in the prescribed manner. ABF asserts that the order granting summary judgment for it is correct since it did not have any knowledge of ongoing negotiations between the plaintiffs and union representatives and, thus, the statute of limitations on the S 301 claim began to run on the date of the ERJAC decision -- May 10, 1999. 35 The governing case is Vadino v. A. Valey Engineers, 903 F.2d 253 (3d Cir. 1990). Vadino involved a claim brought by an employee against his employer but not the union, alleging both breach of the collective bargaining agreement and breach of the duty of fair representation. In the typical hybrid DFR/S 301 case where an employee sues the union for breach of the duty of fair representation and the employer under S 301 for breach of the collective bargaining agreement, the same statute of limitations applies to both defendants. As we noted in Vadino, the case was atypical because the plaintiff sued only his employer, but we observed that such suits are permissible under DelCostello. Thus, in Vadino we had to decide whether the statute of limitations could be tolled as to the employer based on the employer's own actions as well as any assurances given by the union when the employee brings a hybrid DFR/S 301 action only against his employer, and not the union as well. 36 We held in Vadino that the relevant statute of limitations question... is not only when Vadino knew, or should have known, that the employer breached the contract but also when he knew, or should have known, that further appeals to the Union would be futile. Id. at 261. In reaching this conclusion, we noted that to hold otherwise would put the plaintiff in an untenable position because of the interconnection between the two claims. Id. at 261. More precisely, if Vadino's cause of action against the employer accrued as of the time of the breach of the collective bargaining agreement, but before it was clear whether further union appeals were futile, Vadino's ability to file a S 301 suit against [his employer] would be ephemeral because such a claim could not be maintained until he could fairly allege that the Union refused to process his grievance. The unfair representation claim is the necessary `condition precedent' to the employee's suit. Id. (emphasis added). Moreover, we observed that tolling the S 301 claim until the unfair representation claim accrued is consistent with the congressional goal of resolving labor disputes in the first instance through the collectively bargained grievance procedure. Id. 37 We are guided by our observation in Vadino that a plaintiff's ability to file a S 301 suit against his employer would be elusive if a plaintiff had to file the S 301 claim prior to resolving grievances with the union. A breach of the duty of fair representation claim is a necessary condition precedent to the S 301 claim; in hybrid suits where the employee sues both the employer and the union, an employee must still allege that the union refused to process his grievance as a condition precedent to the S 301 claim. Thus, it would not make analytic sense to conclude that the statute of limitations begins to run on the S 301 claim when it has not begun to run on the duty of fair representation claim. 11 We conclude that the statute of limitations may be tolled against the employer in a hybrid case when the employee sues both the employer and the union, even when the reason for tolling the statute of limitations is due to the action of the union alone. 38 Although we affirmed the grant of summary judgment for the employer in Vadino, we did so because we found that Vadino had not filed his lawsuit within the six-month period of time. We rejected Vadino's argument that a request for a grievance within six months of filing suit tolled the statute of limitations, noting that repeated requests to a union to institute a grievance...[could not] perpetually toll the statute of limitations, despite the employee's belief that such requests were futile. Id. at 262-263 (emphasis added). The facts of the case before us are different; here we conclude that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether or not the plaintiffs did know or should have known that further appeals were futile. Since that is, as of yet, unknown, we cannot conclude that summary judgment was appropriate for the employer and will therefore set aside the order of the District Court granting summary judgment for ABF. 39 We do not believe this result to be inconsistent with the federal labor policy of promoting a prompt resolution of disputes within the framework of the collective bargaining agreement. We have recognized speedy resolution as a policy of federal labor law, see Grasty v. Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union, 828 F.2d 123, 132-133 (3d Cir. 1987), but we have also recognized the congressional goal of resolving labor disputes in the first instance through the collectively bargained grievance procedures, Vadino, 903 F.2d at 262. Affirming summary judgment for ABF, while reversing summary judgment for the Union, would thwart this goal. As we noted in Vadino, to require a plaintiff to sue in court while the grievance procedure has not run its course would be both inefficient, as the grievance procedure may afford the plaintiff all the relief s/he seeks, and unfair, as the plaintiff will be put in the position of suing the union while it still represents him/her. Id. at 262 n.11.