Opinion ID: 720663
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Andrew Gilchrist

Text: 18 Just as Traynor has tried to shift liability to Gilchrist due to the signatures on the collective bargaining agreements, Gilchrist attempts to shift liability back to Traynor. Notwithstanding the fact that he continued to sign collective bargaining agreements after selling the business to Traynor (signatures which he now contests), Gilchrist claims that he was out of the plumbing business on July 31, 1985 and therefore could not be obligated to make benefit contributions. Gilchrist further claims that he was completely unaware of the unpaid benefit contributions, and that he attended the JAB hearing only because Traynor asked him to do so. 19 To the extent that these claims represent a challenge to the merits of the arbitration award, Gilchrist also is bound by the 90-day limitations period. See, e.g., Centor, 831 F.2d at 1311; Domas, 778 F.2d at 1268. For this reason, the district court also initially entered summary judgment against Gilchrist. However, Gilchrist later produced evidence of an issue of fact pertaining to his receipt of the JAB decision. The district court held a trial on the matter, and Gilchrist now contends that several of the district court's findings of fact were clearly erroneous. 20 In his effort to prove that he never received notice of the JAB decision and award, Gilchrist emphasized the following facts. First, all of the relevant mail was addressed to Gilchrist-Traynor Plumbing Contractor rather than to Andrew Gilchrist. Second, Gilchrist offered testimony from Oak Park Postmaster Ronald H. Pusateri that a mail carrier familiar with the information on a letter would forward mail to the correct destination irrespective of the address on the envelope. And third, Gilchrist referred to Section 153.42 of the Domestic Mail Manual, which requires mail addressed to an organizational official by title or by organization name to be delivered to the organization if it so directs. 21 The JAB sent seven copies of its decision, yet Gilchrist insists that taken together, this evidence demonstrates that the JAB may have sent the arbitration decision to him, but that he never received it because the post office would have forwarded plumbing mail directly to Traynor. Gilchrist would have us believe that postal carriers delivered each of the seven letters, all of which were addressed to 513 Madison Street, to an address other than the one on the envelope. Moreover, Gilchrist's argument ignores Postmaster Pusateri's testimony that a letter carrier would deliver mail only to the address on the envelope unless a forwarding address had been requested in writing. Postal Regulation 153.31 provides that jointly addressed mail is delivered as addressed by the sender as long as one of the addressees can receive it there. 22 After reviewing the evidence, the district court concluded that one, if not all, of the copies of the JAB award were delivered to 513 Madison Street, and that Gilchrist either ignored the mail or relied upon Traynor to attend to it. Our task is not to reweigh the evidence or determine the credibility of the witnesses. See Blakley v. Amax Coal Co., 54 F.3d 1313, 1321-22 (7th Cir.1995). We defer to the district court's findings of fact, and see no reason to disturb them here.