Court Opinion

ID: 9466905
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:32:05.972848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:02.146103
License: Public Domain

ROSENN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I believe the issue of the effect of a failure of the Union to mail a copy of the submission to the Company is purely a procedural legal question for the court and not a matter for arbitration. None of the strong policy reasons favoring labor arbitration is implicated in this case. There is no factual dispute calling for the special expertise of the arbitrator. The arbitrator is an expert in the law of the shop, not contract law. The court is quite able to and should determine the effect of a contract provision by discerning the intent of the parties.
The majority reaches its result from, what I believe to be, an overextension of the earlier case law. In John Wiley & Sons v. Livingston, 376 U.S. 543, 84 S.Ct. 909, 11 L.Ed.2d 898 (1964), the Court ordered arbitration of a “procedural” issue which called for factual determinations concerning grievance procedures during a merger. In International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150 v. Flair Builders, Inc., 406 U.S. 487, 92 S.Ct. 1710, 32 L.Ed.2d 248 (1972), the Court held the question of laches *1095was a matter for arbitration. The determination of the laches issue required a factual determination of the conduct of the parties in failing to bring the complaint at an earlier time. In Controlled Sanitation Corp. v. District 128, 524 F.2d 1324 (3d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 915, 96 S.Ct. 1114, 47 L.Ed.2d 319 (1976), this court determined that the question of repudiation of a contract was one of fact and therefore appropriate for arbitration.
Each of the above cases involved issues of fact “which grow out of the [substantive] dispute and bear on its final disposition.” John Wiley, supra 376 U.S. at 557, 84 S.Ct. at 918. In this case, there are no disputed issues of fact. It is undisputed that the notice was not mailed. The issue of the effect of the failure to mail the notice of submission is completely unrelated to the merits of the dispute. Because I believe neither policy nor prior case law calls for the result reached by the majority, I respectfully dissent. I therefore would affirm the judgment of the district court.