Court Opinion

ID: 9467620
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:52:38.126029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:26.207836
License: Public Domain

KEARSE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in the reversal of the judgment appealed from insofar as it dismissed plaintiff’s claim against the employer. I dissent, however, from the decision to reverse the dismissal of the claim that, in failing to pursue plaintiff’s grievance further, the union failed to give plaintiff fair representation.
The Supreme Court has recognized that district courts may, within the bounds of their discretion, require that an aggrieved union member exhaust his intra-union remedies, unless such remedies are inadequate, before instituting suit against the union. NLRB v. Marine Workers, 391 U.S. 418, 426, 88 S.Ct. 1717, 1722, 20 L.Ed.2d 706 (1968). The imposition of such a requirement in the labor-management context is recognition of the policy against unnecessary judicial interference with union affairs. See, e. g., Clayton v. ITT Gilfillan, 623 F.2d 563, 566 (9th Cir.), cert. granted, --U.S.--, 101 S.Ct. 352, 66 L.Ed.2d 213 (1980); Geddes v. Chrysler Corp., 608 F.2d 261, 264 (6th Cir. 1979). See also majority op., ante, at 1084. Whether interference is necessary or unnecessary is a matter to be decided by the court in the context of a given case. “The requirement of exhaus*1087tion is a matter within the sound discretion of the courts.” NLRB v. Marine Workers, supra, 391 U.S. at 426 n.8, 88 S.Ct. at 1722 n.8. This Circuit has followed this principle, recognizing that the discretion of the district court should be exercised with particular reference to the facts of the case before it. Giordani v. Upholsterers International Union, 403 F.2d 85, 88 (2d Cir. 1968); Detroy v. American Guild of Variety Artists, 286 F.2d 75, 78 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 366 U.S. 929, 81 S.Ct. 1650, 6 L.Ed.2d 388 (1961).
In the present case the union’s constitution permits a member to appeal the decision of local union officials not to pursue a grievance; plaintiff concededly had not pursued these remedies. Plaintiff contended that he should be excused from exhausting these intra-union remedies because he was unaware of them, the union not having advised him of such remedies or furnished him with a copy of the constitution, and because the local union president had told him that nothing more could be done for his grievance. The district court noted, however, that plaintiff did not contend that the remedies provided were inadequate or that resort to them would have been futile.
The court found persuasive the reasoning of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Newgent v. Modine Manufacturing Company, 495 F.2d 919 (7th Cir. 1974), that, by joining the union, a member obligated himself to become aware of the nature and availability of his union remedies:
Newgent was not “justified in remaining in ignorance of the provisions governing his own union or, in fact, relying on a statement by an officer that there was nothing he would do.”
Id. at 928. The facts in the present case were remarkably similar, and “on these facts,” the district court declined to excuse plaintiff’s failure to exhaust his intra-union remedies. This appears to me to have been within the bounds of the court’s discretion. I do not believe that these facts required the district court as a matter of law to excuse plaintiff’s failure.
Accordingly, I would affirm the dismissal of the claim against the union.