Court Opinion

ID: 9837618
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:44:10.502504+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:27.908091
License: Public Domain

LEMELLE, Senior District Judge,
concurring:
I concur with the majority opinion to reverse the decision granting defendant’s *1189motion for summary judgment. Nonetheless, it is the role of the factfinder and not this Court to decide the relationship between Rollins’s Seniority Agreement (“SA”) and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”). The majority opinion only leaves to the jury the question of whether the Union breached its duty of representation. The factfinder should also be tasked with determining whether or not the SA should remain in effect after the negotiation of the CBA.
The relationship between the SA and CBA is less clear than the majority conveys. A jury could determine whether Rollins, who was present for negotiations of the CBA, would be entitled to have the benefits of a previous agreement considered at all without explicitly incorporating them in the subsequent agreement. The SA should be interpreted through the introduction of parol evidence, weighed by the jury in order to resolve this factual inquiry.
When reviewing similar contracts in the past, this Court has permitted the use of parol evidence. In Cappa, this Court éx-plained a CBA that was not fully integrated and recognized the existence of other agreements, like the- one at issue in the present matter, was “far from being an unambiguous instrument” and therefore allowed parol evidence of an oral agreement to vary the terms of the CBA. Cappa v. Wiseman, 469 F.Supp. 437, 440 (N.D. Cal. 1979), aff'd, 659 F.2d 957 (9th Cir. 1981) (“In light of these principles, and because the Agreement is far from being an unambiguous instrument, the terms of which are sufficient unto themselves, it is appropriate to consider parol evidence to determine the parties’ intent and interpretation of the contract terms.”). Respectfully, this Court should not summarily decide the relationship between the SA and the CBA. The parties who entered into the SA and the CBA should be given a chance to litigate the intended relationship between the two contracts using parol evidence.