Opinion ID: 485224
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Survivorship of LMRDA Sec. 201(c) Claims

Text: 6 Whether Mallick's action under Sec. 201 of the LMRDA survives his death is a question of federal law. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the survivorship of a federal claim is itself an issue of federal law. Most recently, in holding that Bivens actions 4 survive the death of the wronged individual (at least in certain circumstances), 5 the Supreme Court stated: Bivens actions are a creation of federal law and, therefore, the question of whether respondent's action survives [her son's] death, is a question of federal law. Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14, 23, 100 S.Ct. 1468, 1474, 64 L.Ed.2d 15 (1980). Although the action in this case is a creation of a federal statute (whereas Bivens actions are not), the logic of Carlson dictates that federal law determines the survivorship of federal statutory claims, as they are evidently creation[s] of federal law. Indeed, the Supreme Court has stated that the question of whether a federal statutory claim survives the death of one of the parties is essentially a question of how to interpret the statute that provides for the action. Cox v. Roth, 348 U.S. 207, 210, 75 S.Ct. 242, 244, 99 L.Ed. 260 (1955). 6 7 The Supreme Court has further instructed that in deciding whether a federal action survives the death of a party, courts should formulate a federal rule of decision that best serves the goals which underlie the federal right of action itself. In Carlson, the Supreme Court referred to the deterrence goals which underlie Bivens actions and held that [a] uniform rule that claims such as respondent's survive the decedent's death is essential if we are not to frustrate in an important way the achievement of the goals of Bivens actions. 446 U.S. at 25, 100 S.Ct. at 1475 (footnote and internal quotation omitted). The Supreme Court explained that deterrence of unconstitutional conduct requires that [a] federal official contemplating unconstitutional conduct ... be prepared to face the prospect of a Bivens action and that this principle would not be well served if Bivens actions abate when the victims of unconstitutional conduct die (especially when the death is a result of the unconstitutional conduct). 8 When an Act of Congress has created the action at issue, the role of the courts in deciding the survivorship issue is to effectuate the will of Congress as best they can. As the Supreme Court observed in Cox v. Roth, supra, the fact that Congress has failed to provide a clause on survivorship to accompany the statute granting the right of action does not necessarily mean that Congress intended that the action abate upon the death of a party. Quoting its earlier opinion in Markham v. Cabell, 326 U.S. 404, 409, 66 S.Ct. 193, 195, 90 L.Ed. 165 (1945), the Court in Cox v. Roth stated: The policy as well as the letter of the law is a guide to decision. Resort to the policy of a law may be had to ameliorate its seeming harshness or to qualify its apparent absolutes. 348 U.S. at 209, 75 S.Ct. at 244. In Cox v. Roth, the Supreme Court specifically held that a suit under the Jones Act survives the death of the tortfeasor. The Court reasoned that references in the Jones Act to the earlier Federal Employers' Liability Act, in which Congress had provided for tort claims against railroads in receivorship, suggested that Congress would similarly not wish the death of the tortfeasor to defeat recovery under the Jones Act. Id. 9 Applying the approach to survivorship questions set forth by the Supreme Court in Carlson v. Green and Cox v. Roth, we hold that Mallick's lawsuit under Sec. 201 of the LMRDA survives his death, thereby allowing the substitution of Mallick's fellow union members as plaintiffs. First, as with Bivens actions, deterrence of wrongful conduct is a major goal underlying the authorization for union member lawsuits in Sec. 201 of the LMRDA. In Mallick I, we quoted at length from the House Report reflecting that deterrence motivation. See 749 F.2d at 780. We will not repeat the relevant passage in its entirety here. For our purposes, it is sufficient to note that after acknowledging the existence of abuses by union leaders in managing union funds and union affairs, the House Report asserted: 10 It is the purpose of this bill to insure that full information concerning the financial and administrative practices and procedures of labor organizations shall be ... available to the members of such organizations.... By such disclosure, and by relying on voluntary action by members of labor organizations, it is hoped that a deterrent to abuses will be established. 11 H.R.Rep. No. 741, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. 8 (1959) (emphasis added). This goal of deterrence is best served by allowing the Sec. 201 lawsuit to survive the death of the particular union member who happens to initiate the action and by substituting for the decedent other union members who seek the same information and come forward as willing plaintiffs. As in Carlson, union officials contemplating abusive conduct must know that they are readily accountable through Sec. 201 lawsuits to verify the union's reports. The congressional goal of deterring official abuse will be frustrated if unions can avoid disclosing information through protracted recalcitrance made possible, in part, by the abatement of Sec. 201 lawsuits upon the death of an individual plaintiff. In any event, a rule allowing survival and substitution would certainly prevent frustrations of the deterrence goals of [the LMRDA]. Carlson, 446 U.S. at 25, 100 S.Ct. at 1475. 12 Second, although Congress has not expressly provided for the survival of Sec. 201(c) lawsuits, the language of the statute reveals why their survival, and the substitution of the decedent's fellow union members, is appropriate. 13 Every labor organization required to submit a report under this subchapter shall make available the information required to be contained in the report to all of its members, and every such labor organization and its officers shall be under a duty enforceable at the suit of any member of such organization [in state or federal court] to permit such member for just cause to examine any books, records, and accounts necessary to verify such report. 14 29 U.S.C. Sec. 431(c) (emphasis added). As this language shows, the right to disclosure established by Congress is one shared without differentiation among all union members; they all have an equal right for just cause to inspect union records. Since the union is under the same duty to all members enforceable by any of its members, it should not matter who the particular plaintiff is at any particular point in the lawsuit. Indeed, it would be violative of the avowed purpose of Congress to insure access of all members to full information concerning their union's financial and administrative practices to say that a lawsuit seeking this kind of information abates, when several union members are still seeking the same information, simply because the particular union member who initiated the lawsuit happened to die. Rather, precisely because they have the same right to inspection, we must assume that Congress would wish any other union member to be able, upon timely application, to complete a Sec. 201 suit initiated by a now-deceased fellow member. 15 In opposing the substitution of Doyle, et al., the IBEW cites cases drawing a distinction between suits based on claims personal to the plaintiff, such as actions for injury sounding in tort, and those seeking vindication of some right of property or contract. Almour v. Pace, 193 F.2d 699, 700 n. 2 (D.C.Cir.1951) (quoted in Appellants' Brief at 17). According to these cases, personal claims abate on the theory that the rights and duties die with the person, while actions concerning property survive since they affect the estate of the deceased. Id. Although the IBEW concedes deterrence as a major goal of the LMRDA, it argues that according to these cases, the Sec. 201(c) claim must be considered personal and therefore must abate with Mallick's claim. 16 The quick answer to this contention is that these cases no longer control adjudication of survivorship issues associated with federal claims, as the Supreme Court's opinion in Carlson v. Green and Cox v. Roth make perfectly plain. The Supreme Court obviously could not have reached the result, or used the reasoning, that it did in Carlson if the formalistic approach advocated by the IBEW remained the law. Indeed, in Cox v. Roth, the Supreme Court explicitly repudiated this earlier approach to survivorship issues as incompatible with a proper interpretation of the Jones Act: The extreme harshness of the old common-law rule abating actions on the death of the tortfeasor flies in the face of the expressed congressional purpose to provide for the 'the welfare of seamen.'  348 U.S. at 210, 75 S.Ct. at 244. The Supreme Court then made plain that, regardless of the common-law approach, it must adopt the rule of decision most faithful to the statute at hand. 17 Another reason why the approach advocated by the IBEW no longer governs cases involving federal statutory rights is the difficulty of forcing many newer statutory rights into its somewhat archaic and rigid distinction between personal and property claims. These categories simply do not fit the right of action created in Sec. 201 of the LMRDA. Consequently, in deciding whether these actions abate or survive, we must use as a guide the purposes underlying the statute. As we have seen, these purposes favor a rule allowing the Sec. 201(c) suit to survive a particular union member's death and other union members to substitute themselves as plaintiffs so that they can complete the effort to obtain the information, which is owed to all union members. 18 Finally, we note that the Federal Rules do not bar the substitution of Doyle, et al. in this lawsuit. As we have stated, Fed.Rule App.P. 43(a) grants this court the discretion to provide for the substitution of appropriate parties to assure the fair and efficient administration of justice. Indeed, under the permissive rules for joinder and intervention of parties, there is no doubt that, prior to Mallick's death, the District Court could have allowed Doyle, et al. to join or intervene in Mallick's lawsuit. See Fed.Rules Civ.P. 20(a), 24(b). Given the nature of the right granted in Sec. 201(c) of the LMRDA, there is no sensible basis for construing the procedural rules governing substitution of parties, see Fed.R.App.P. 43(a), Fed.Rule Civ.P. 25(a), more rigidly than the rules providing for joinder and intervention of parties. Thus, we adopt the District Court's decision ordering substitution of Doyle, et al. in this case, and proceed to the merits of the IBEW's appeal. 19