Parmer v. Globe Industries, Inc.

751 F. Supp. 1270, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17241, 1990 WL 198081
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedOctober 19, 1989
DocketNo. C 88-7774
StatusPublished

This text of 751 F. Supp. 1270 (Parmer v. Globe Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parmer v. Globe Industries, Inc., 751 F. Supp. 1270, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17241, 1990 WL 198081 (N.D. Ohio 1989).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN W. POTTER, District Judge:

This matter is before the Court on the motion of defendant Globe Industries, Inc. (Globe) to dismiss Count 1 of the complaint [1271]*1271and for summary judgment on Counts 1 and 3 of the complaint; defendant Local No. 379, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, AFL-CIO’s (Local 379) motion for summary judgment on Counts 2 and 3 of the complaint, plaintiffs opposition and motion for leave to file an amended complaint; and the reply of each defendant incorporating its opposition to the motion for leave to file an amended complaint.

Initially the Court must address plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend the complaint. It should be noted from the outset that plaintiffs motion is made rather late in the proceedings. The pretrial order issued by the Court on March 3, 1989 set a motion cut-off, date of August 28, 1989. Plaintiffs motion for leave to amend was filed on September 1, 1989. More importantly, the proposed amended complaint alleges new theories of liability based on third-party beneficiary rights alleged to be held by plaintiff under the collective bargaining agreement between defendants. If the motion to amend were granted, it would necessitate vacating the trial date of October 24, 1989. The alternative to vacating the trial date would be to require defendants to defend claims at trial which have been substantially amended since defendants conducted their discovery and which have escaped the scrutiny of motion practice. Plaintiffs stated reasons for filing its motion to amend at such a late date, that the case was removed to federal court and that discovery has yielded additional facts, are less than persuasive since the case was removed on December 5, 1988, and plaintiffs discovery was concluded no later than March of 1989. Accordingly, in light of the necessity of either vacating the trial date or prejudicing defendants, the Court finds, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a), that justice does not require that plaintiff be granted leave to amend its complaint at this late date.

Defendant Globe has moved for summary judgment on the grounds that plaintiffs claims in Counts 1 and 3 are barred by the applicable statute of limitations, that the collective bargaining agreement was not breached, and that plaintiff admitted that defendants did not conspire against her. Defendant Local No. 379 has moved for summary judgment on Counts 2 and 3 on the ground that the applicable statute of limitations barred both of plaintiffs claims and that the Union had no duty of fair representation since plaintiff was merely a probationary employee and not yet a union member.

Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, summary judgment is proper only where there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The Supreme Court has recently stated that the inquiry is “whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. [477 U.S. 242], 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2512 [91 L.Ed.2d 202] (1986).... In reviewing a motion for summary judgment, however, all inferences “ ‘must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion.’ ” See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp. [475 U.S. 574], 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356-57 [89 L.Ed.2d 538] (1986) (quoting United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655 [82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176] (1962)).

Ralph Shrader, Inc. v. Diamond International Corp., 833 F.2d 1210, 1213 (6th Cir.1987).

The party moving for summary judgment “always bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of ‘the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits if any’ which [he] believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The substantive law of the case identifies which facts are material. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Therefore, only disputes of facts affecting the outcome of the suit under the applicable substantive law will preclude the entry [1272]*1272of summary judgment. Id. A moving party may discharge its burden “by ‘showing’ —that is, pointing out to the district court — that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324-325, 106 S.Ct. at 2553-2554. Where the moving party has met its initial burden, the adverse party “must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 250, 106 S.Ct. at 2511. “[P]laintiff, to survive the defendant’s motion, need only present evidence from which a jury might return a verdict in his favor.” Id. at 257, 106 S.Ct. at 2514.

Considering first defendants’ argument that plaintiff’s claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations, the Court concludes that the claims are indeed barred. Count 1 of the complaint is a straightforward breach of the collective bargaining agreement claim. Count 2 alleges a breach of the duty of fair representation by defendant Local No. 379. Count 3 alleges that defendants conspired to change the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. Clearly, Counts 1 and 2 comprise a hybrid § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA)/duty of fair representation claim as defined by the Supreme Court in DelCostello v. Int’l. Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 165, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2291, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983). The court in DelCostello held that hybrid § 301/duty of fair representations claims are subject to the six-month statute of limitations established in § 10(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 160(b). Thus, in order to comply with that statute of limitations, plaintiff must have filed suit within six months of the date that her hybrid cause of action accrued.

A cause of action for a hybrid claim accrues when an employee discovers or, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, should discover the acts constituting the alleged violations. Chrysler Workers Assoc. v. Chrysler Corp., 834 F.2d 573, 578 (6th Cir.1987), cert. denied 486 U.S. 1033, 108 S.Ct.

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751 F. Supp. 1270, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17241, 1990 WL 198081, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parmer-v-globe-industries-inc-ohnd-1989.