West Rock Lodge No. 2120, International Ass'n of Machinists & Aerospace Workers v. Geometric Tool Co.

406 F.2d 284
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedDecember 31, 1968
DocketNo. 106, Docket 32260
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 406 F.2d 284 (West Rock Lodge No. 2120, International Ass'n of Machinists & Aerospace Workers v. Geometric Tool Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West Rock Lodge No. 2120, International Ass'n of Machinists & Aerospace Workers v. Geometric Tool Co., 406 F.2d 284 (2d Cir. 1968).

Opinion

WATERMAN, Circuit Judge:

In this appeal appellant Geometric Tool Company (hereinafter “employer”) which had obtained an arbitration award against respondent West Rock Lodge No. 2120, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO (hereinafter “union”) seeks to set aside an order of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut vacating the award as void when the arbitrator rendered it. The court handed down its decision after consideration of cross motions for summary judgment and in its written opinion noted that although federal common law controlled the rights of the parties in this situation, Textile Workers Union v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 923, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957), it was applying as part of the federal raw Section 52-416 of the Connecticut General Statutes (Revision of 1958)1 which provides that an arbitrator’s award shall be rendered within 60 days of submission; otherwise the award shall have no legal effect unless the parties extend the time in writing. The court below applied this Connecticut statutory provision to the present case because of a belief that the provision was not incompatible with federal labor law policy. We, however, hold that the adoption of the state provision was improper and we reverse the order below.

The original dispute concerned the dismissal of an employee who allegedly claimed and received dual wage payments for the same work. The grievance was not settled under the procedure provided for in the parties’ collective bargaining agreement and an arbitration hearing was conducted before Arbitrator Stein from July 14, 1967 to July 25, 1967. The arbitrator then granted permission to file briefs. The company filed one on August 18 to which the union replied on September 6. On November 13, at a meeting between the union and the employer, they agreed to notify another arbitrator to expedite decision in a dif-erent dispute from the dispute involved here, and, according to the employer, the parties also agreed at this meeting to wait one week before notifying the arbitrator in the present dispute to expedite his decision. According to the union, however, though admittedly the matter was discussed, there was no agreement to take any such action.

On November 17, Arbitrator Stein’s award, dated November 10, was received by the parties. He concluded that the dismissal had been for just cause. The award was dated 108 days after the close of the hearing and 65 days after the last brief had been filed. The union then instituted an action in the Connecticut state courts to set aside the award as having no legal effect, and on motion of the employer, pursuant to § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, the case was then removed to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

[286]*286The question presented to us of whether the adoption of Conn.Gen.Stat. § 52-416 into federal law was proper in light of the policies embodied in the Labor Management Relations Act must be answered in the negative.

The Connecticut statute establishes a 60-day mandatory period in which an arbitrator must render his award or the award is void. (The important goals of federal labor law policy include the smooth functioning of the consensual processes, i. e., the formation of collective bargaining agreements and the private and relatively speedy settlement of disputes arising under those agreements. See International Union, U. A. A. & A. I. W. v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U.S. 696, 86 S.Ct. 1107, 16 L.Ed.2d 192 (1966); Drake Bakeries, Inc. v. Local 50, American Bakery & Confectionery Workers International, AFL-CIO, 370 U.S. 254, 82 S.Ct. 1346, 8 L.Ed.2d 474 (1962); United Steelworkers v. American Mfg. Co., 363 U.S. 564, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960).

The district court in applying the state statute here appears to have relied upon the approach taken in International Union, U. A. A. & A. I. W. v. Hoosier Cardinal, supra. In the Supreme Court held that it was federally acceptable to adopt a state time-bar standard contrary to the federal policy looking toward uniform nation-wide treatment of labor-management problems under § 301 because, after the “consensual processes” of contract formation and dispute settlement have broken down a “[L]ack of uniformity in this area is therefore unlikely to frustrate in any important way the achievement of any significant goal of labor policy.” 383 U.S. at. 702, 86 S.Ct. at 1111. Here, however, we are not dealing with the time within which a party must commence a suit in court or be time-barred. Rather, we are dealing with the time in which an arbitrator can render a valid award, and private settlement of a dispute is one of the most desired federal goals and is well within the policy of furthering consensual processes. Thus, unlike the Hoosier Cardinal situation, we have a very strong need for federal uniformity here, and an incorporation of this Connecticut statute into labor-management resolution in that state derogates from that need.

In adopting a uniform federal standard, we ought not to accept an arbitration rule which encourages post-award technical objections by a losing party as a means of avoiding an adverse arbitration decision. See Ficek v. Southern Pacific Co., 338 F.2d 655 (9 Cir. 1964); Amicizia Societa Navegazoine v. Chilean Nitrate and Iodine Sales Corp., 274 F.2d 805, 809 (2 Cir. 1960). Rather, we believe it to be a better rule that any limitation upon the time in which an arbitrator can render his award' be a directory limitation, not a mandatory one, and that it should always be within a court’s discretion to uphold a late award if no objection to the delay has been made- prior to the rendition of the award or there is no showing that actual harm to the losing party was caused by the delay.

In arriving at this standard we are merely restating the rule that has been promulgated in the vast majority of statutes and cases. Thus, in a closely analogous situation, two district court decisions have held that a failure to object prior to the handing down of an arbitration award constituted a waiver of the right to contest the decision on the ground that it had not been rendered within the period agreed upon by the parties in their collective bargaining agreement. Highway Truck Drivers v. Acme Markets, 65 L.R.R.M. 2708 (E.D.Pa.1967); District Lodge 71, Int’l Ass’n of Machinists v. Bendix Corp., 218 F.Supp. 742 (W.D.Mo.1963). The only distinction in the present case from those cases is that here the time limit is contained in a state statute, not in a collective bargaining agreement. But as this is not a diversity case, but a “federal question” § 301 suit in which the federal courts are to fashion the policies under [287]*287

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West Rock Lodge No. 2120 v. Geometric Tool Company
406 F.2d 284 (Second Circuit, 1968)

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406 F.2d 284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-rock-lodge-no-2120-international-assn-of-machinists-aerospace-ca2-1968.