Sams v. United Food & Commercial Workers International Union

681 F. Supp. 1575, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2371
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 23, 1988
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 486-211, 486-221
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 681 F. Supp. 1575 (Sams v. United Food & Commercial Workers International Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sams v. United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, 681 F. Supp. 1575, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2371 (S.D. Ga. 1988).

Opinion

ORDER

ALAIMO, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs, James Sams and Jimmie Orr, claim damages from their union, United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC, and its Locals Nos. 433 and 442 (“the Unions”), arising out of injuries sustained at work. Defendants move for summary judgment based on the [1577]*1577statute of limitations. Because the Court concludes that the six-month statute of limitations of 29 U.S.C. § 160(b) applies to these particular actions, defendants’ motion will be granted.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs were severely injured when a vegetable oil boiler exploded at work on May 17, 1984. In May 1986, they brought suit in state court against several defendants, including their Unions and their employers, Hunt-Wesson, Inc., and Esmark, Inc. The complaints allege, inter alia, a breach of duty of care by the Unions and a conspiracy to create a hazardous workplace. Regarding the Unions, each complaint states:

21.
Defendants INTERNATIONAL UNION and LOCAL UNION # 433 and LOCAL UNION # 442 had the duty and/or by and through the actions of their employees, officers and agents affirmatively undertook the duty to:
(a) ensure the Plaintiffs workplace was safe; and/or
(b) determine Plaintiff’s fitness to confront and work with the dangers inherent in his job to which he had been assigned; and/or
(c) determine that qualified individuals were watching the temperature guages [sic] and/or other equipment needed to ensure the safety of Plaintiff while he was working ...; and/or
(d) ensure that a safe process was used for the boiling off of excess water in the oil bleaching process described herein that was used by Plaintiff on a regular basis; and/or
(e) ensure that properly trained and qualified individuals made the decisions as to what process or processes would be used in bleaching “blow down” oil; and/or
(f) properly train its members and Plaintiff herein in the area of bleaching water from the oil as previously described herein, prior to allowing its union members, and specifically Plaintiff herein, to conduct such an operations [sic]; and/or
(g) ensure that all safety appliances are constructed in a safe and proper manner by competent mechanics and helpers.
22.
In committing the actions complained of herein, Defendants INTERNATIONAL UNION and LOCAL UNION # 442 and LOCAL UNION # 433 negligently and/or willfully breached the above described duties of care owed by them to Plaintiff for which Plaintiff may recovery [sic] general, special and exemplary damages under Georgia law.

Sams, Amended Complaint at pp. 13-14; Orr, Complaint at pp. 18-19.

The defendants removed the suits to this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441. Plaintiffs then filed a motion to remand the action to state court, claiming that the case involved strictly matters of state law; and the employers moved for dismissal pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), contending that the allegations failed to state a claim for relief against them.

The Court denied the motion to remand,1 and on the authority of Allis-Chalmers Corporation v, Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985), ruled that reference to the collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between the Unions and the employers would be required to determine the extent of the Unions’ duties; thus, § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”), 29 U.S.C. § 185, authorized removal. The Court also ruled that a negligence action against a union based on a duty to inspect the workplace for safety is preempted and replaced with a [1578]*1578federal cause of action premised on the duty of fair representation; thus, removal of the entire case was authorized under Franchise Tax Board v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983). See Order, August 29, 1986.

The Court granted the motion to dismiss the employers, ruling that the state claims against the employers were not actionable because of the exclusive remedy provision of the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act. To the extent that any federal claims were implicitly stated against the employers, the Court found them to be time-barred. Accordingly, the Court entered final judgment as to Hunt-Wesson and Es-mark. The plaintiffs appealed and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed. Sams v. United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, AFL/CIO, CLC, 835 F.2d 848 (1988). Regarding remand, the Court of Appeals stated:

The Supreme Court’s decision in International Bhd. of Elec. Workers, AFL-CIO v. Heckler [sic], — U.S. -, 107 S.Ct. 2161, 95 L.Ed.2d 791 (1987), makes it clear that appellants’ state law claims against the union are preempted by section 301 ... [and] “if a federal cause of action completely preempts a state cause of action any complaint that comes within the scope of the federal cause of action necessarily ‘arises under’ federal law.”

Id. at 849-59 (quoting Avco Corporation v. Aero Lodge No. 735, 376 F.2d 337, 339-40 (6th Cir.1967), aff'd, 390 U.S. 557, 88 S.Ct. 1235, 20 L.Ed.2d 126 (1968)).

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal as to the employers by agreeing that workers’ compensation provided the exclusive remedy for any state claims plaintiffs may have had. Regarding the dismissal of the federal claims against the employers, it found plaintiffs’ failures to make use of the grievance procedures in the CBA fatal, and stated:

An employee may not substitute a lawsuit in federal court for use of the grievance procedure: “A rule that permitted an individual to sidestep available grievance procedures would cause arbitration to lose most of its effectiveness ... as well as eviscerate a central tenet of federal labor-contract law under § 301 that it is the arbitrator, not the court, who has the responsibility to interpret the labor contract in the first instance.”

Id. at 850 (quoting Allis-Chalmers, 471 U.S. at 220, 105 S.Ct. at 1916).

The Unions now move for summary judgment, contending that the six-month statute of limitations applicable to “hybrid” actions, developed in DelCostello v.

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681 F. Supp. 1575, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2371, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sams-v-united-food-commercial-workers-international-union-gasd-1988.