Court Opinion

ID: 9462160
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:33:15.122349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:25.885200
License: Public Domain

McCREE, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the holding of the majority opinion that the local union breached the duty of fair representation that it owed appellant. However, I write separately because I do not believe that the local union’s handling of the grievance was “arbitrary” or “perfunctory” as the majority opinion determines. The district court determined that the union, through Panter, neglected to file a timely statement of unadjusted grievance, and the majority opinion does not overturn this finding. Instead, it characterizes the negligent handling of the grievance as arbitrary and perfunctory.
Arbitrary and perfunctory are adjectives characterizing intentional conduct that is capricious or superficial. Here there was an unintentional failure to act that prevented appellant’s grievance from being submitted to arbitration.
*316Nevertheless, I would hold that when a statutorily established exclusive bargaining representative fails to file a statement that is a prerequisite for submission of an employee’s claim to arbitration, not because the union has made a good faith judgment for a lawful reason that it should not file the document, but merely because of its negligent omission, then it has breached its duty of fair representation.
I do not suggest, however, that a union should be held liable for all negligence in processing an employee’s grievance. Such a rule would put the courts in the position of second-guessing union representatives’ decisions. In accordance with the “general congressional policy favoring expert, centralized administration, and remedial action” of employee grievances, Motor Coach Employees v. Lockridge, 403 U.S. 274, 301, 91 S.Ct. 1909, 29 L.Ed.2d 473 (1970), I believe courts should not try to determine whether, in fulfilling its duty of fair representation, a union has adopted the tactic best suited to the needs of an aggrieved employee.
Nevertheless, I believe that a total failure to act, whether negligent or intentional, except for a proper reason, is behavior so egregious that, as in the case of bad faith, hostile discrimination, arbitrariness, or perfunctoriness, the union should be held responsible. We have stated that an action will lie against a union for “. . . such gross mistake or inaction as to imply bad faith.” Balowski v. International Union, 372 F.2d 829, 834 (1967). It requires only a slight extension of this principle to require the local to answer to a member if it precludes any consideration of the employee’s grievance by its sheer neglect to timely file a paper that the employee is prevented by law for filing for himself.
I believe that the incidence of an injury of this magnitude should be shifted from the innocent employee to the union whose flagrant negligence was responsible for it.