Railing v. United Mine Workers

276 F. Supp. 238, 67 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2781, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9351
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. West Virginia
DecidedOctober 28, 1967
DocketCiv. A. No. 698-F
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 276 F. Supp. 238 (Railing v. United Mine Workers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Railing v. United Mine Workers, 276 F. Supp. 238, 67 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2781, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9351 (N.D.W. Va. 1967).

Opinion

CHRISTIE, District Judge:

This matter is pending on the motion of defendant United Mine Workers of America for summary judgment. The complaint herein alleges injury to plaintiffs’- business and property as a result of acts [in violation of Section 303 of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (29 U.S.C.A. § 187)] on the part of officers, agents, representatives and members of the United Mine Workers of America. In conjunction with their federal claim, plaintiffs seek recovery of both compensatory and punitive damages for non-peaceful, violent, coercive and conspiratorial activities and conduct on the part of the union of such a wilful and wanton nature as to give rise to a common-law tort liability. This latter claim is asserted under the theory of pendent jurisdiction. The activity of which plaintiffs complain began in April of 1958 and continued through July 14, 1959. Plaintiffs originally filed their complaint in this action on June 28, 1961.1

This motion for summary judgment is based on two grounds. First, it is contended that the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and affidavits show, as a matter of law, that the plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the West Virginia statute of limitations under West Virginia Code 55-2-12. Second, it is contended that the pleadings, depositions, and answers to interrogatories propounded by the defendant [241]*241demonstrate, without dispute, that the activity complained of by the plaintiffs involved only “primary activity” as opposed to the “secondary activity” proscribed by Section 303 of the Act, and, therefore, defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

A determination of the issues ■ presented by the defendant’s motion for summary judgment requires, at the outset, a consideration of the question of the rules of law that are to be applied. This initial determination becomes necessary not only because of the factual situation presented, but also as a result of the procedural developments subsequent to the bringing of the action. The activity of which plaintiffs complain occurred in Taylor and Barbour Counties within the state of West Virginia. However, plaintiffs chose to institute this action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. — a court in which they were able to obtain jurisdiction over the defendant as provided in 29 U.S.C.A. § 187(b). Upon motion of the defendant, this action was transferred under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1404(a) to this court for the convenience of the parties and witnesses and in the interest of justice. It is the effect of this transfer (with respect to the period of limitations to be applied to plaintiffs’ claim under Section 303 of the Act) with which we are now concerned.

APPLICABLE STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS, ACCRUAL OF CAUSE OF ACTION, AND COMMENCEMENT OF RUNNING OF STATUTE

In actions at law in which a federally-created right is being enforced, in the absence of a controlling federal statute of limitations, the federal courts have resorted to the application of the statute of limitations of the state where the action was instituted. 2 Moore, Federal Practice, Sec. 3.07, at 747 (2d Ed.1966). This practice has been followed in the majority of the decisions concerned with an interpretation of Section 303, since Congress has failed to provide a statute limiting the time within which an action for damages may be brought. United Mine Workers of America v. Meadow Creek Coal Co., 263 F.2d 52 (6th Cir. 1959) ; International Union of Operating Engineers v. Fischbach & Moore, Inc., 350 F.2d 936 (9th Cir. 1965). Since, under these decisions, the statute of limitations to be applied to the plaintiffs’ cause of action as originally instituted in the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky would have been the applicable Kentucky statute of limitations, the question arises as to the effect upon this determination of the subsequent transfer under Sec. 1404(a). Fortunately, in deciding this question, a valuable precedent is to be found in Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 84 S.Ct. 805, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 (1964), where the Supreme Court observed that,

“Whenever the law of the transferee State significantly differs from that of the transferor State — whether that difference relates to capacity to sue, statutes of limitations, or ‘substantive’ rules of liability — it becomes necessary to consider what bearing a change of venue, if accompanied by a change in state law, would have on ‘the interest of justice.’ ”

In resolving this potential conflict between the “interest of justice” requirement of See. 1404(a) and the possible application of different state laws upon a transfer under that section, the Court held that “in cases * * * where the defendants seek transfer, the transferee district court must be obligated to apply the state law that would have been applied if there had been no change of venue.” Thus, the effect of a change of venue under Section 1404(a), with respect to the application of state law, is “but a change of courtrooms,” and it, therefore, becomes necessary for this court to look to the law of the state of Kentucky, including any borrowing statutes, Cope v. Anderson, 331 U.S. 461, 67 S.Ct. 1340, 91 L.Ed. 1602 (1947), to determine the statute of limitations applicable to plaintiffs’ cause of action.

[242]*242Kentucky statutes of limitations provide a ten year period for actions upon which no other limitation is prescribed and a five year period for actions involving injury to real or personal property or to enforce liability created by a statute not fixing a'different limitation period, KRS 413.060. However, the scope of these limitation provisions is narrowed by the “borrowing statute” which reads,

“When a cause of action has arisen in another state or country, and by the laws of the state or country where the cause of action accrued the time for the commencement of an action thereon is limited to a shorter period of time than the period of limitation prescribed by the laws of this state for a like cause of action, then said action shall be barred in this state at the expiration of said shorter period.” KRS 413.320.

In a recent interpretation of this statute, Seat v. Eastern Greyhound Lines, 389 S.W. 908 (1965), the Kentucky Court of Appeals held that where the period of time provided by the applicable statute in the foreign state in which the cause of action arose is shorter than that provided in Kentucky, then KRS 413.320 applies and the law of the foreign jurisdiction prevails. Although there is some question as to the construction to be given the West Virginia statute of limitations, nevertheless, the fact that it provides the shorter of the two periods of time is not questioned. Thus, we must look to the statutes of the state of West Virginia (the state in which the cause of action arose) to determine whether or not the plaintiffs have brought their action within the time allotted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
276 F. Supp. 238, 67 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2781, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/railing-v-united-mine-workers-wvnd-1967.