Court Opinion

ID: 9447834
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:45:34.653907+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:12.444399
License: Public Domain

HASTIE, Circuit Judge
(concurring in result).
The court below entered judgment against the plaintiff because he had not sought administrative redress, which seemed to be available to him within his labor organization, before instituting this action under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. Section 101(a) (4) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 411(a) (4), provides that any aggrieved union “member may be required to exhaust reasonable hearing procedures (but not to exceed a four-month lapse of time) within such organization, before instituting legal or administrative proceedings against such organizations or any officer thereof * * Pursuant to this provision the court below concluded that there appeared to be avenues of redress available to the plaintiff within the labor organization which seemed reasonably calculated to correct such a wrong as he alleged. Though, on the present record, the appropriate intraunion procedures are not made as clear as one might wish, I think enough appears to justify the district court’s conclusion. For this reason I would affirm the judgment, making it clear that the plaintiff would not be barred from again asking the court for relief, if the union should reject his claim or dispose of it arbitrarily.
This court’s basis of affirmance is quite different. It finds that this suit cannot be maintained because the plaintiff does not allege or sufficiently indicate that the defendants, in their wrongful interference with a local union meeting, acted under color of and in abuse of their authority as regional representatives of the International Union. Even though the defendants are described as representatives of the International Union, the complaint is viewed as alleging misconduct unrelated to this official capacity. If this were the only defect in the plaintiff’s case, I would at most direct that the complaint be dismissed with leave to plead over.