Opinion ID: 519232
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Accrual of the Cause of Action

Text: 12 The determinative question we must answer is did the cause of action accrue more than six months before suit was brought. Ghartey contends that her cause of action accrued no earlier than March 9, 1987, the day the arbitration award upholding her discharge was issued. Thus, she argues, her filing of the complaint on September 8, 1987 was within the six month limitations period. The appellees' position, on the other hand, is that because proof of the Union's breach of duty in representing Ghartey is an essential part of her claim, see DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 165, 103 S.Ct. at 2291, accrual occurred when the last of the Union's representative acts occurred, i.e., on the final day of the arbitration hearing, at the latest. 13 The general rule in this circuit is that a cause of action accrues when 'the plaintiff could first have successfully maintained a suit based on that cause of action.'  King, 785 F.2d at 33 (quoting Santos v. District Council, 619 F.2d 963, 968-69 (2d Cir.1980) (in turn quoting Bell v. Aerodex, Inc., 473 F.2d 869, 873 (5th Cir.1973))). 14 The appellees argue that Ghartey could have maintained her suit at any time after a breach in the Union's duty of fair representation. For example, if, as Ghartey alleges, the Union committed a breach during the arbitration hearing by failing to arrange for the testimony of a supporting witness, the appellees contend that she could have filed this suit at that moment. 15 We find the appellees' argument unsound. We deal here with a situation in which a union represented an employee throughout an arbitration hearing, through to its termination by the arbitrator's issuance of an award. Under such circumstances, we believe that a hybrid suit challenging the adequacy of that union representation, if filed by the employee before the issuance of an award in that arbitration, would be inefficient and premature. See Childs v. Pennsylvania Federation Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees, 831 F.2d 429, 434-35 (3d Cir.1987). Surely a federal district court should not be called upon to consider a suit based in part on the claim that a union lawyer's preparation for or performance in an arbitration hearing was inadequate before the effectiveness of that representation can be measured. It is quite possible that, missing witness or inadequate cross-examination notwithstanding, the employee would prevail in the arbitration proceeding, perhaps obtaining reinstatement and back pay. In such a case, intervention by the district court would be unnecessary, superfluous and wasteful. We believe that requiring a district court to consider such a suit by a plaintiff who may yet prevail in the pending arbitration proceeding would be an intolerable drain on precious judicial resources. 16 Apart from our concerns with judicial economy, we also fail to see how a district court could with confidence decide such a case. In a hybrid section 301/duty of fair representation action in which the union has undertaken to represent the employee in contractual grievance procedures, the court must focus on whether there is substantial reason to believe that a union breach of duty contributed to the erroneous outcome of the contractual proceedings. Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc., 424 U.S. 554, 568, 96 S.Ct. 1048, 1058, 47 L.Ed.2d 231 (1976). Such an inquiry presumes that the employee has been harmed by some outcome of the contractual proceeding. Where there remains a possibility that the employee may yet prevail in the ongoing arbitration proceeding, we fail to see how a plaintiff could be expected to demonstrate such injury. At oral argument, the appellees contended that, in the absence of any arbitrator's determination, the court could itself undertake to examine the merits of the wrongful discharge claim. We do not think a district court should have to speculate on the outcome of an arbitration to make the necessary determination as to whether a union's breach affected that outcome. 1 The better course is to permit the plaintiff claiming inadequate representation in an arbitration to wait until there has been some adverse outcome in the arbitration before seeking the intervention of a federal court. 17 We recognize that there is a fundamental arbitration policy of prompt resolution of disputes that, to some degree, is disserved by postponing the accrual of an employee's cause of action against her union and employer. See Santos, 619 F.2d at 969. But federal policy also prefers that labor disputes such as these be settled, if possible, through contractually agreed upon arbitration procedures rather than through resort to the federal judiciary. See Hines, 424 U.S. at 562-63, 96 S.Ct. at 1055-56; cf. Clayton v. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, 451 U.S. 679, 689, 101 S.Ct. 2088, 2095, 68 L.Ed.2d 538 (1981) (internal union remedies). Where, as here, the employee has yet to receive any adverse decision in the arbitration proceeding, we believe the policy favoring private resolution through arbitration should control. 18 Judge Nickerson, in dismissing Ghartey's action, apparently felt compelled by our expressed concern in Santos about the danger of protracted delays in the enforcement of arbitration awards that unduly extend the exposure to suit of ... defendant union[s]. See Santos, 619 F.2d at 969; J.App. at 64. In Santos, we were cognizant of the need to balance the sometimes conflicting policies favoring both prompt and non-judicial resolution of labor disputes. There, we addressed a situation where three distinct levels of a union were available for pursuit of nonjudicial remedies in an intra-union dispute. We cited the federal policy favoring prompt resolution of disputes in holding that the plaintiff could not wait until all such remedies were exhausted, but rather only until at least one of the union organizations responsible for enforcement efforts has breached its duty to union members. Santos, 619 F.2d at 969. We recognized that [w]hile ... a breach at only one level of union organization does not preclude all possibility that efforts at other levels might eventually achieve success, [the breach was] sufficiently serious to make ultimate compliance unlikely. Id. 19 The federal policy that favors prompt resolution of the dispute in this case would carry greater weight if Ghartey were charged with not having exhausted either the Union's internal procedures, as was the case in Santos, see also Clayton, 451 U.S. at 689, 101 S.Ct. at 2095; Wozniak v. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America-UAW, Local 897, 842 F.2d 633, 635-36 (2d Cir.1988), or contractually required non-judicial remedies, see Republic Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650, 652-53, 85 S.Ct. 614, 616-17, 13 L.Ed.2d 580 (1965). But the issue here is not one of nonexhaustion. Rather, the issue we address is whether Ghartey's suit could or should have been filed during an arbitration hearing or, instead, upon the issuance of an award. We hold that in a hybrid action alleging the Union's inadequate representation during the course of an arbitration hearing, Ghartey cannot be expected to maintain the action before there has been any decision issued in the arbitration. 20 Indeed, we think it would be unfair to expect an employee to sue her union representative before obtaining any decision. The Supreme Court, in DelCostello, opted for a longer statute of limitations partly out of a concern for the significant barriers facing an employee ... unsophisticated in collective-bargaining matters who must construct a case on an evaluat[ion of] the adequacy of the union's representation. 462 U.S. at 166, 103 S.Ct. at 2291; see also Reed v. United Transportation Union, --- U.S. ----, ---- n. 4, 109 S.Ct. 621, 627 n. 4, 102 L.Ed.2d 665 (1989). At least until the adverse award is issued, the employee should be entitled to rely on the skill and professionalism of her advocate and to focus her energies on the matter at hand rather than a possible future lawsuit. See Childs, 831 F.2d at 435; King, 785 F.2d at 35; Butler v. Local Union 823, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 514 F.2d 442, 450 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 924, 96 S.Ct. 265, 46 L.Ed.2d 249 (1975). 21 Contrary to the arguments of the appellees, our decision in Santos does not require a different result here. The appellees rely heavily on our statement in Santos that: 22 Where, as here, the cause of action did not exist unless a duty of fair representation had been breached, we think the cause of action accrued no later than the time when plaintiffs knew or reasonably should have known that such a breach had occurred, even if some possibility of nonjudicial enforcement remained. 23 Santos, 619 F.2d at 969. We have already noted that the exhaustion concerns suggested by the Santos rule are not present here. Moreover, the language of the Santos rule was formulated in the context of an attempt by union members to obtain enforcement of an arbitration award in an intra-union dispute. Neither Santos nor our subsequent cases have focused on the situation where the cause of action is based on a union's inadequate representation during the course of and through to the conclusion of an arbitration. Rather, they have dealt with various other distinguishable contexts where a union had allegedly failed to fulfill adequately duties owed to a plaintiff. 24 Where a union refuses or neglects to assist a union member, see King, 785 F.2d at 35 (failure to make timely demand for arbitration), decides to stop assisting a member, see Demchik v. General Motors Corp., 821 F.2d 102, 105-06 (2d Cir.1987) (refusal to pursue grievance to next step in process for lack of merit), or acts against the interests of a member, see Legutko v. Local 816, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 853 F.2d 1046, 1047, 1055 (2d Cir.1988) (acceptance of overtime provision in violation of union constitution), a breach of duty by the union is apparent to the member at the time she learns of the union action or inaction about which she complains. In such contexts, it would indeed be nonsensical to say that the member, left to go it alone or with the aid of a non-union representative, only learns of the union's breach later, when she suffers an adverse result. Moreover, the concerns that warrant protecting an unsophisticated grievant from having to assess the ongoing performance of her union representative, see DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 166, 103 S.Ct. at 2291, do not apply where she and the union have already taken on an adversarial posture. See Childs, 831 F.2d at 435 (distinguishing Santos ). 25 In contrast to such prior applications of the Santos rule, here we deal not with a union manifestly opposing, rejecting or abandoning the interests or claims of a member, but rather with a union purporting to fulfill its duty of fair representation throughout an arbitration hearing process. In such circumstances, we will not attribute to an unsophisticated employee instant knowledge of tactical or legal errors made by her own advocate, the best possible champion of [her] cause, see Childs, 831 F.2d at 435. Rather, the employee is entitled, during the hearing process, to trust in the abilities of her representative and reasonably believe[ ] the Union [is] proceeding in good faith, see King, 785 F.2d at 35, at least until an adverse arbitral decision suggests otherwise. Knowledge of the breach by the Union will not be attributed to Ghartey prior to the issuance of the award. See Samples v. Ryder Truck Lines, Inc., 755 F.2d 881, 887 n. 7 (11th Cir.1985). 2 26 In seeking to distinguish the Third Circuit's reasoning in Childs, the appellees argue that the Union here fully completed its representation of Ghartey on February 18. The argument seems to be that the Union cannot be said to have continued to represent Ghartey beyond the final day of the hearing. See Childs, 831 F.2d at 436. Discovery may indeed reveal that the Union did no further work on Ghartey's case after the completion of the hearing. But there is before us no indication that Ghartey was informed that the Union would complete its representation of her on the final hearing day. See Demchik, 821 F.2d at 105 (notification of withdrawal of grievance). Nor is there any sign of a rift in the relationship between Ghartey and her Union counsel having occurred prior to issuance of the award. While awaiting a decision from the arbitrator, Ghartey had every reason to assume that the Union still represented her, and that it was prepared to take further action on her behalf if necessary. The mere fact that no further action was taken before issuance of the award does not mean that the Union no longer served as Ghartey's representative during that period, absent some indication to the contrary. 27 While the appellees are correct to assert that the Supreme Court in DelCostello did not explicitly address the issue of accrual of the statute of limitations, we believe our decision here finds support in the Court's analysis. In the course of considering whether to borrow state arbitration statutes of limitations, the Court touched upon the issue of accrual. While the Court did say that it may not be an easy task to ascertain when the cause of action accrues, the Court was there talking of situations where the union's breach of duty ... consist[s] of a wrongful failure to pursue a grievance to arbitration ... or a refusal to pursue it through even preliminary stages. 462 U.S. at 166 n. 16, 103 S.Ct. at 2291 n. 16. But the Court explicitly contrasted such a situation with the case where a grievance has run its full course, culminating in a formal award by a neutral arbitrator. Id. Under such circumstances, the Court said, [a]pplication of an arbitration statute [of limitations] seems straightforward enough. Id. The Court seemed to have meant that the straightforward application would involve taking the date of the award to be the accrual date, as its own analysis of the case before it did just that. See id. at 172, 103 S.Ct. at 2294; Freeman v. Local Union No. 135, Chauffeurs, Teamsters, Warehousemen and Helpers, 746 F.2d 1316, 1319 n. 5 (7th Cir.1984). 28 Finally, we find support for holding Ghartey's cause of action to be timely in the decisions of several Courts of Appeals. See Dement v. Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Co., 845 F.2d 451, 459 n. 16 (4th Cir.1988); Childs, 831 F.2d at 434-36; Galindo v. Stoody Co., 793 F.2d 1502, 1509 (9th Cir.1986); Dowty v. Pioneer Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc., 770 F.2d 52, 56-57 (6th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1021, 106 S.Ct. 572, 88 L.Ed.2d 557 (1985); Samples, 755 F.2d at 887 n. 7; Freeman, 746 F.2d at 1319 & n. 5; Butler, 514 F.2d at 449-50. 29