In the latest in a string of litigation victories that S&C has delivered for FCA US, the automaker was granted its motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 47 powertrain engineers who worked for FCA. U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan held on March 23 that their claims were time barred, dismissing them with prejudice.
The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in October 2020 alleging that they were transferred from their work location in Auburn Hills, Michigan, to Trenton, Michigan, nine years earlier in violation of their collective bargaining agreement. They claimed that FCA and the UAW, which was also a defendant, colluded to ignore their complaints and deny their grievances, violating RICO and the Labor Management Relations Act.
The judge rejected the plaintiffs’ claims that the statute of limitations was tolled for the entire time that they pursued unsuccessful grievances with their union, which stretched to May 2020. Instead, the LMRA’s six-month statute of limitations and RICO’s four-year statute of limitations barred their claims.
The S&C team representing FCA included Julie Jordan, Steve Holley, Jacob Cohen, and Justin Zaretzky. Julie was recognized by the American Lawyer’s Litigation Daily for this result, receiving a “Shout Out” for Litigator of the Week, which noted her series of victories for the client in related litigation.