Opinion ID: 413331
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: same limitations statute applies to both the wrongful

Text: DISCHARGE AND THE UNFAIR REPRESENTATION CLAIMS 10 In both cases, the employee appeals the dismissal of the case against the union on limitation grounds, and in the postal case Leach appeals the dismissal of the employer as well. In both cases the alleged wrongful discharge was addressed in the collectively bargained grievance and arbitration process and a final decision was rendered. If United Parcel Service v. Mitchell, supra, is applied retroactively--a question we will address momentarily--it is clear that the action against the employer in the postal case was barred by Ohio's 90-day arbitration statute. That was the holding of Mitchell. 11 The narrow holding in Mitchell covers the wrongful discharge case against the employer but does not necessarily cover the unfair representation case against the union, as Justice Stevens points out in his concurring opinion in Mitchell, 451 U.S. at 71, 101 S.Ct. at 1568. Since Mitchell, however, this Court has clearly held in Badon v. General Motors Corp., supra, that the Mitchell rule also applies to Badon's unfair representation claim because the same statute of limitations should be applied to both branches of the labor dispute, 679 F.2d at 98. Judge Martin's opinion for the Court in Badon relied on Gallagher v. Chrysler Corp., 613 F.2d 167, 168 (6th Cir.1980), which states the policy of this Circuit that the same statute of limitations should apply to both wrongful discharge and unfair representation cases. Although, as Justice Stevens points out in his concurring opinion in Mitchell, the two causes of action conceptually are based on somewhat different theories, Badon and Gallagher are the law of this Circuit until overruled or reversed, and they require application of the same limitations statute to both types of actions--the wrongful discharge claim against the employer and the unfair representation claim against the union. 2 III. RETROACTIVE APPLICATION OF MITCHELL 12 The rule of Mitchell should be applied retroactively to pending actions against employers and unions. The normal rule is that in civil cases a recent authoritative opinion interpreting the law should be applied to pending cases unless it represents a clean break with the past and unless in addition it would be fundamentally unfair or otherwise burdensome to so apply it, see Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 106-07, 92 S.Ct. 349, 355-56, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971); United States v. Johnson, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 2579, 2587 n. 12, 2595, 73 L.Ed.2d 202 (1982). 13 As Mitchell makes clear, the law on the limitations question in Sec. 301 wrongful discharge and unfair representation cases has been in a state of confusion for some time. This Circuit and other circuits, prior to Mitchell, had adopted various state statutes of limitations, depending on the peculiarities of the limitations law of the state in question and the arguments of counsel in the particular case. Although Smart v. Ellis Trucking Co., Inc., 580 F.2d 215, 219 (6th Cir.1978) (action for wrongful discharge is not in the nature of a motion to vacate or modify an arbitration award) had rejected as not applicable the Michigan statute of limitations for setting aside arbitration awards, we do not believe that Mitchell represents the kind of clean break with past precedent contemplated in Chevron and Johnson, supra. Mitchell was simply a clarification, an attempt to impose a single policy and a single rule in a legally chaotic situation. Mitchell was intended to resolve widespread confusion and conflict in the circuits concerning the applicable statute of limitations in these cases. We do not think that a clean break occurs every time the Supreme Court clarifies the law by resolving an issue on which there is circuit conflict and confusion. To so hold would reverse the regular common law rule, applied in Chevron and Johnson, that we should not normally have one law for old cases and another law for new cases. We note also that both this Circuit and others have assumed that the Mitchell rule applies retroactively; see Badon, supra, and Davidson v. Roadway Express, Inc., 650 F.2d 902 (7th Cir.1981). But see Singer v. Flying Tiger Line, Inc., 652 F.2d 1349 (9th Cir.1981) (Mitchell not retroactive). Compare Singer with Local 1020 v. FMC Corp., 658 F.2d 1285, 1289-90 (9th Cir.1981) (applying Mitchell retroactively).