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

Heading: The Change from Prior Law.

Text: 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