Court Opinion

ID: 9472900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:14:15.834814+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:13.018019
License: Public Domain

NORRIS, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur because I believe the majority is correct in treating the disposition of this case as controlled by Robesky v. Qantas Empire Airways, 573 F.2d 1082 (9th Cir. 1978). I do so reluctantly, however, because I believe that in holding a union liable for an unexplained procedural failure in processing an employee’s grievance, we signify that ordinary negligence may constitute a breach of a union’s duty of fair representation under the doctrine of Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 190, 87 S.Ct. 903, 916, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967).
I agree with Judge Kennedy in his concurring opinion in Robesky that the root of the problem is traceable to the Supreme Court’s use of the imprecise term “arbitrary” in defining a standard of care for union representation. Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 191, 87 S.Ct. 903, 917, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967). As Judge Kennedy pointedly observed:
The standards imposed here, however, are not clear. I suggest the difficulty stems from use of the term “arbitrary” to define a standard of care, when instead it should describe the standard we apply on reviewing the adequacy of the procedures followed by the union in the processing and resolution of grievances. The court attempts to define the term “arbitrary” by using tort law concepts of culpability. As such the term apparently proscribes conduct not involving bad faith, see Beriault v. Local 40, Super Cargoes and Checkers, 501 F.2d 258 (9th Cir.1974), but which is more blameworthy than ordinary negligence. Dente v. International Organization of Mas*1277ters, Mates and Pilots, Local 90, 492 F.2d 10, 12 (9th Cir.1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 910, 94 S.Ct. 2607, 41 L.Ed.2d 214 (1974). Neither the law of torts nor precedents in the federal common law of labor relations provide adequate guidance to define the term “arbitrary” in this manner.
Robesky, 573 F.2d at 1091-92.
I fear that the confusion spawned by Vaca v. Sipes was compounded by our court in Robesky. There the possibility of a breach of duty occurred because the union failed to disclose to an employee information critical to her interests. 573 F.2d at 1085 & n. 4, 1087. The district court found, however, that this failure occurred subsequent to the union’s decision “to withhold the information” and that Robesky “was kept in ignorance ... because of a deliberate decision by Union officials and not through oversight.” Id. at 1088 (emphasis added). On that record, our court held that the trier of fact could find the union’s conduct “arbitrary” in that it “was without rational basis or was reckless and extremely prejudicial.” Id. at 1091.
The facts of the case now before us are markedly different. The record here reflects nothing more than the unexplained missing of a deadline. Nevertheless, because the majority in Robesky appears to conclude that, even without a finding that the union intentionally withheld critical information, the union could have breached its duty, see id. at 1089 & n. 15, I feel that Robesky, however flawed it may be, controls the disposition of this case. The law of the Ninth Circuit now seems to be that simple negligence may be enough to breach a union’s duty of fair representation, notwithstanding Robesky’s explicit disclaimer to the contrary. Id. at 1089.