Section 21 Statute of Limitations

• Library: Emp-Emp Law 2000

In United Parcel Service, Inc. v. Mitchell, 451 U.S. 56 (1981), the United States Supreme Court held that a state’s ninety-day limitation period under the Federal Arbitration Act, 61 Stat. 669, would apply to actions that had proceeded to arbitration. This defense was interpreted by some courts to provide a limitation only on the action against the employer for the breach of contract claim and that it did not apply to the fair representation claim against the union. In DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151 (1983), the Court held that the six-month limitation period under § 10(b), 29 U.S.C. § 160(b), of the Labor-Management Relations Act, 61 Stat. 136, governs hybrid § 301/fair representation claims against an employer or a union (29 U.S.C. § 185). In Lincoln v. District 9 of International Ass’n of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 723 F.2d 627 (8^th Cir. 1983), the court applied the DelCostello rule retroactively to cases that were pending at the time the decision...