Opinion ID: 603505
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Achilli's Appeal

Text: 24 Achilli makes two arguments. First, he says that the district court should have ordered Nissen to reinstate him, something that Nissen is now no longer willing to do. The district court, however, could lawfully have found that reinstatement is no longer practicable. See De Arroyo v. Sindicato de Trabajadores Packinghouse, 425 F.2d 281, 292 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, Puerto Rico Tel. Co. v. De Arroyo, 400 U.S. 877, 91 S.Ct. 117, 27 L.Ed.2d 114 (1970). 25 Regardless, Achilli's complaint did not mention reinstatement; and, during trial, when Achilli was asked whether he had any interest in returning to Nissen, he said that he did not. We concede that, at the very end of trial, Achilli's counsel, in the context of talking about insurance benefits, said that Achilli would receive credit ... if reinstated, and, in response to the court's question whether Achilli was asking for reinstatement answered, he is. But, counsel immediately added the rather obscure comment that Achilli might take the position that the Court can order reinstatement, and, if the court did so, he can make a decision as to whether he would accept reinstatement or not. In this context, the court found that Achilli had waived the reinstatement remedy. That finding, in our view, is lawful. Tinsley v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 665 F.2d 778, 779 (7th Cir.1981), overruled on other grounds, Rupe v. Spector Freight Sys. Inc., 679 F.2d 685 (7th Cir.1982). 26 Second, Achilli says that the district court wrongly decided to end its damage calculation as of January 1, 1989, when the court found that Achilli had stopped trying to mitigate his damages. Achilli concedes that, on that date, he stopped looking for bread delivery work, and began his own house painting business. He says his decision to start that alternative, lower paying, business amounted to reasonable mitigation. The problem for Achilli, however, is that the district court decided that his decision to stop searching and start painting was not reasonable mitigation, but, rather, constituted a failure to use reasonable diligence in obtaining new employment, and thereby to mitigate loss of income. Arduini, 394 F.2d at 423. This is a matter primarily for the district court. In reviewing this conclusion, we have compared the more extensive search efforts made in NLRB v. Ryder System, Inc., 983 F.2d 705 (6th Cir.1993), with Achilli's efforts here. In Ryder, a wrongfully discharged trucker diligently sought work as a truckdriver, taking short-term jobs at seven different trucking firms for two years, and sending applications to twenty others. Id. at 714-15. Achilli, by contrast, looked for work for nine months, during which time he failed to follow up on several union-provided leads. However we would have decided the question were we a trial court, these circumstances are sufficient on appeal to justify a district court conclusion that Achilli gave up too soon. 27 For these reasons the judgment of the district court is 28 Affirmed.