Opinion ID: 427024
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: RETROACTIVITY OF DelCOSTELLO.

Text: 8 As a general rule an appellate court must apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision. Gulf Offshore Co. v. Mobil Oil Corp., 453 U.S. 473, 486 n. 16, 101 S.Ct. 2870, 2879 n. 16, 69 L.Ed.2d 784 (1981); United States v. Schooner Peggy, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 103, 110, 2 L.Ed. 49 (1801). Plaintiffs' Vaca-Hines suit against their employer and the Union is indistinguishable from the suits involved in DelCostello. Consequently, if DelCostello applies retroactively, section 10(b)'s six-month statute of limitations, rather than any state statute of limitations, applies to bar Plaintiffs' claims. 9 Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 92 S.Ct. 349, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971), sets forth three factors that we must consider to determine whether a civil statute of limitations applies retroactively. First, we must decide whether the decision establishes a new principle of law, either by overruling clear past precedent on which the litigants may have relied, or by deciding an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed. Chevron, 404 U.S. at 106, 92 S.Ct. at 355. Second, we must look to the prior history of the decision in question, and to its purpose and effect, to ascertain  'whether retrospective operation will further or retard its operation.'  Id. at 106-07, 92 S.Ct. at 355 (quoting Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 629, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 1738, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965)). Third, we must weigh the inequity imposed by retroactive application. Chevron, 404 U.S. at 107, 92 S.Ct. at 355. 10
11 To determine whether DelCostello created a new principle of law by overruling clear past precedent or deciding an issue of first impression, we must compare DelCostello with prior law. If DelCostello wrought an abrupt and fundamental shift in doctrine as to constitute an entirely new rule which in effect replaced an older one on which Plaintiffs relied, retroactive application may be inappropriate. Hanover Shoe v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 392 U.S. 481, 498, 88 S.Ct. 2224, 2234, 20 L.Ed.2d 1231 (1968). 12 Prior to DelCostello, the Supreme Court had not determined the statute of limitations applicable to Vaca-Hines actions. In International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), AFL-CIO v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U.S. 696, 86 S.Ct. 1107, 16 L.Ed.2d 192 (1966), the Supreme Court considered the limitations period for a different type of section 301 action, 2 and stated that the timeliness of a Sec. 301 suit, such as the present one, is to be determined as a matter of federal law, by reference to the appropriate state statute of limitations. Id. at 704-05, 86 S.Ct. at 1113. However, the Court specifically noted that it was not required to decide [w]hether other Sec. 301 suits different from the present one might call for the application of other rules of timeliness, and that it indicated no view whatsoever on that question. Id. at 705 n. 7, 86 S.Ct. at 1113 n. 7. 13 Prior to the determination in DelCostello that the section 10(b) six-month statute of limitations applies to both the contract suit under section 301 and the fair representation claim, the circuits could not agree on whether the same statute of limitations governed both the action against the employer and the action against the union. 3 This circuit had held that different statutes of limitations applied to the two actions composing hybrid section 301/fair representation claims. See, e.g., Rigby v. Roadway Express, Inc., 680 F.2d 342, 344 (5th Cir.1982). 14 From the time Plaintiffs' action arose until they filed suit, there was no clear precedent on which Plaintiffs could rely in waiting thirteen months to file their suit against Sea-Land. Texas has not assigned a specific limitation to arbitration actions arising from collective bargaining agreements and, prior to our vacated decision in this case, we had never addressed the question as to which Texas statute of limitations would be applicable to an action against an employer under section 301 of the LMRA. Although the four-year Texas statute of limitations for breach of contract, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 5527 (Vernon 1982), had been applied to a section 301 claim in Hensley v. United Transports, Inc., 346 F.Supp. 1108, 1115 (N.D.Tex.1972), this decision, from a district court other than that in which Plaintiffs filed suit, hardly constitutes clear past precedent as contemplated by Chevron. 15 The existence of precedent with regard to the fair representation claim, however, presents a greater problem. Prior to Plaintiffs' layoff, we held in Sanderson v. Ford Motor Co., 483 F.2d 102, 114 (5th Cir.1973), that an employee's action against a union for fair representation should be governed by the state statute of limitations for tort actions. See also Cox v. C.H. Masland & Sons, Inc., 607 F.2d 138, 143 (5th Cir.1979). Thus, with regard to the statute of limitations governing fair representation claims, DelCostello overrules past precedent, at least in this circuit. 16
17 We next examine whether retrospective operation of the Supreme Court's ruling in DelCostello will further or retard its operation. Chevron, 404 U.S. at 106-07, 92 S.Ct. at 355. The Supreme Court expressed three purposes underlying the DelCostello rule. First, the Court recognized the need for uniformity as one reason for rejecting the borrowing of diverse state statutes of limitations. DelCostello, 103 S.Ct. at 2294 (quoting Mitchell, 451 U.S. at 70, 101 S.Ct. at 1568 (Stewart, J., concurring in the judgment)); see id. at 2289. Second, the Court emphasized that state statutes of limitations for the vacation of arbitration awards, which Mitchell had held applicable, typically provide very short limitations periods, and thus failed to provide an aggrieved employee with a satisfactory opportunity to vindicate his rights. Id. at 2291. Third, the Court reaffirmed that federal labor law favored the relatively rapid final resolution of labor disputes, and rejected the adoption of long limitations periods which would allow grievance and arbitration decisions to be called into question long after the fact. Id. at 2292-93; see Mitchell, 451 U.S. at 63-64, 101 S.Ct. at 1564-1565. The Court concluded that the six-month limitations period of section 10(b) was best attuned to the proper balance between the national interest in stable bargaining relationships and finality of private settlement, and an employee's interest in setting aside what he views as an unjust settlement under the collective-bargaining system. DelCostello, 103 S.Ct. at 2294 (quoting Mitchell, 451 U.S. at 70-71, 101 S.Ct. at 1568 (Stewart, J., concurring in the judgment)). 18 In weighing these competing interests, the Third Circuit said: 19 We believe that [this balance] is best struck if DelCostello is applied retroactively. Given the uncertainty that has characterized the borrowing of state statutes of limitations for Vaca-Hines actions, simple application of section 10(b)'s statute of limitations will serve to increase the uniformity of treatment among similar claims. More important, the imposition of the six-month limitations period will promote the finality of grievance-arbitration decisions and prevent the belated raising of claims after years have passed. Finally, the retrospective application of section 10(b) will not undermine the goal of providing adequate opportunity for the employee to vindicate his rights, for the Court has determined, in effect, that six months is long enough. We thus find that the second Chevron factor counsels in favor of retroactivity. 20 Perez v. Dana Corp., Parish Frame Division, 718 F.2d 581, 588 (3d Cir.1983). 21 We believe this reasoning to be sound, and likewise conclude that this second criterion of Chevron favors DelCostello's retroactive application. 22
23 Finally, we must consider whether application of DelCostello to the Plaintiffs' suit would be inequitable. In Chevron, the Court noted the harshness of applying a statute of limitations retroactively to deprive a plaintiff of any remedy whatsoever. 404 U.S. at 107-08, 92 S.Ct. at 355-56. In Chevron, however, the superseding legal doctrine was quite unforeseeable. Id. at 108, 92 S.Ct. at 356. The change of law in that case occurred after a year of costly discovery; here, Plaintiffs' suit was successfully challenged at the outset as untimely. See Perez v. Dana Corp., Parish Frame Division, supra, at 588. Finally, despite the fact that dismissal of their action will deprive the Plaintiffs of a remedy, we do not find that the Plaintiffs actually relied on established precedent in failing to safeguard their claims. As previously noted, no clear past precedent existed as to limitations on the section 301 claim. While Cox v. C.H. Masland & Sons, Inc., supra, and Sanderson v. Ford Motor Co., supra, may have established a tort statute of limitations as to the fair representation claim, the Plaintiffs did not cite or rely upon these authorities in their briefs. 24