Opinion ID: 439051
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Trial of the Duty of Fair Representation Claim

Text: 36 The same line of Supreme Court cases also compels our conclusion that Quinn was entitled to a jury trial on his claim for damages resulting from a breach of the duty of fair representation. Although the two leading circuit court cases holding that a jury trial was available for DFR claims, Cox v. C.H. Masland & Sons, 607 F.2d 138 (5th Cir.1979), and Minnis v. UAW, 531 F.2d 850 (8th Cir.1975), involved, as far as we can tell, claims for damages only, the Supreme Court's pronouncements in this area do not permit us to take away Quinn's right to a jury trial simply because he sought and was granted equitable relief in addition to damages. Although the duty of fair representation is judicially implied, it is simply a new legal duty, like the duties created by the LMRDA, the breach of which gives rise to liability for any damages that result. The trial judge thus properly sent to the jury the questions of whether the union had breached its duty of fair representation and what damages, if any, Quinn suffered as a consequence; the court properly reserved for itself the question of what equitable relief, if any, Quinn was entitled to. 37 The defendants argue that Del Costello v. Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983), in which the Supreme Court held that the six-month statute of limitations for NLRB charges, and not any statute of limitations borrowed from state law, applied in DFR suits, compels the opposite result. But the Supreme Court's determination in Del Costello that DFR suits had no close analogy to ordinary state law actions so as to recommend a particular state statute of limitations offers little support for the union's argument that the DFR action is equitable in nature for seventh amendment purposes. In determining whether there is a right to a jury trial of claims under a modern statutory cause of action, the nature of the remedies authorized and sought has become a more reliable clue to whether the action is legal or equitable in nature than the existence of a precise common law analogy to the modern cause of action. See Curtis v. Loether, 415 U.S. at 196-97, 94 S.Ct. at 1009-1010. An action for damages for breach of the duty of fair representation, like a damages action for housing discrimination, is an action to enforce a legal right, and the plaintiff is entitled to a jury trial of that action. 38 We are fully cognizant of the danger that jury prejudice against unions in claims like Quinn's will infect the verdict and inflate damage awards. But an analogous, if not more acute, concern over the possible influences of prejudice against minority victims of housing discrimination was considered and rejected by the Supreme Court in Curtis v. Loether as a basis for denying the seventh amendment right to a jury trial of legal claims in a statutory cause of action. 415 U.S. at 198, 94 S.Ct. at 1010. We can only echo the Court's consolation in Curtis that the trial judge's power to direct a verdict, to grant judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or to grant a new trial provides substantial protection against this risk [of jury prejudice]. Id. The judge must be attentive to the danger of jury prejudice in LMRDA and duty of fair representation cases, and must be prepared to exercise its powers to guide the jury, to override a verdict or to reduce its award if necessary to insure a fair result.