Slip Op. 03 - 166
UNITED STATES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE
__________________________________________
:
FORMER EMPLOYEES OF MOTOROLA, INC. :
:
Plaintiffs, :
:
v. : Before: MUSGRAVE, JUDGE
:
THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT : Court No. 02-00820
OF LABOR :
:
Defendant. :
__________________________________________:
[Plaintiffs brought this action challenging the Department of Labor’s decision denying the former
employees of Motorola, Inc.’s Arlington Heights, IL facility certification for Trade Adjustment
Assistance benefits. The Department of Labor moved to dismiss this action on the ground that it
was filed 21 days after the 60 day period provided by 19 U.S.C. § 2395(a) and 28 U.S.C. § 2636(d)
to bring such an action had expired. HELD: As Plaintiffs’ suit was untimely and Plaintiffs have not
demonstrated a basis for equitable tolling of the statute of limitations, the Department of Labor’s
Motion to Dismiss is granted.]
Decided: December 17, 2003
Sonnenberg & Anderson (Paul S. Anderson and M. Jason Cunningham) for plaintiffs.
Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, David M. Cohen, Director, Patricia M.
McCarthy, Assistant Director, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of
Justice (John H. Williamson), and Employment and Training Legal Services Division, Office of the
Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor (Jayant Reddy), of counsel, for defendant.
OPINION
Plaintiffs, former employees of Motorola Inc.’s Global Telecommunications Solution Sector,
Engineering Computing Level 2 Group located in Arlington Heights, Illinois, brought this action on
Court No. 02-00820 Page 2
December 30, 2002 seeking judicial review of the negative determination by Defendant, the United
States Department of Labor (“Labor”), regarding their eligibility for trade adjustment assistance
benefits. Presently before the Court is a motion by Labor to dismiss this action for lack of
jurisdiction on the ground that Plaintiffs filed their summons and complaint with the Court outside
the 60 day time limit prescribed by 19 U.S.C. § 2395(a) and 28 U.S.C. § 2636(d). For the reasons
which follow, Labor’s motion is granted.
Background
Plaintiffs, acting pro se,1 submitted a petition for trade adjustment assistance to Labor via
certified mail on December 14, 2001. On March 7, 2002 Plaintiff’s were notified via a form letter
that they were denied eligibility for trade adjustment assistance because they failed to meet one of
the eligibility requirements. Attached to the form letter was a copy of Labor’s negative
determination dated December 12, 2001, which was based on an investigation of an earlier petition
submitted by engineering and administrative employees of Motorola’s Arlington Heights, Illinois
facility.
On May 2, 2002 Labor approved a petition for trade adjustment assistance submitted by
former employees of Motorola’s Global Telecommunications Solution Sector and Commercial,
Government, Industrial Solutions Sector in Schaumburg, Illinois. Plaintiffs subsequently contacted
a trade adjustment assistance representative with the Illinois Department of Employment Security
(“IDES”), who advised them to petition Labor to amend the certification for the Schaumburg facility
1
Present counsel for Plaintiffs was appointed by the Court on March 4, 2003.
Court No. 02-00820 Page 3
to include the Arlington Heights facility. On June 25, 2002 Plaintiffs submitted a formal request for
such an amendment. Labor treated this request for amendment as a request for reconsideration of
another negative determination of the Arlington Heights employees eligibility for trade adjustment
assistance dated June 27, 2002. In a decision dated October 1, 2002 Labor once again determined
that Plaintiffs were ineligible for trade adjustment assistance. The cover letter to this decision, dated
October 2, 2002, stated that “interested parties have 60 days from the date this decision is published
in the Federal Register to file for judicial review.” The decision was published in the Federal
Register on October 10, 2002, and the 60 day period during which Plaintiffs were permitted to file
an action in this Court ended December 9, 2002. Plaintiffs’ letter, constituting their summons and
complaint, was filed with the Court on December 30, 2002.
Discussion
Plaintiffs acknowledge that they commenced this action after the 60 day period had expired,
but argue that the doctrine of equitable tolling should apply in this case since they exercised “the
requisite due diligence in pursuing their claim.” Mem. in Supp. of Pl.s’ Opp’n to Def.’s Mot. to
Dismiss (“Pl.’s Br.”) at 6. In Former Empl. of Siemens Info. Comm. Networks, Inc. v. Herman, 24
CIT 1201, 120 F. Supp. 2d 1107 (2000) the court explained:
Equitable tolling is generally limited to situations where a claimant has
actively pursued judicial relief by filing a defective pleading within the statutory time
period, or where a claimant has been “induced or tricked by his adversary’s
misconduct into allowing the filing deadline to pass.” Equitable tolling is not
available where the plaintiff failed to exercise due diligence. Whether a plaintiff has
acted with due diligence is a fact-specific inquiry, guided by reference to the
hypothetical reasonable person.
24 CIT at 1208, 120 F. Supp. 2d at 1114 (citations omitted).
Court No. 02-00820 Page 4
In support of their argument, Plaintiffs note that when they were preparing their petitions for
trade adjustment assistance they sought guidance from other workers who had experience filing such
petitions. After filing their petition, Plaintiffs’ pro se representative avers that he regularly checked
the status of their petition on Labor’s website and contacted a representative with IDES for further
assistance. Moreover Plaintiffs allege that they were confused by the March 7, 2002 denial of their
eligibility for trade adjustment assistance since the determination attached to the letter denying their
eligibility pertained to an earlier petition filed by other former employees at the Arlington Heights
facility. Plaintiffs’ representative once again contacted a representative with IDES and at that
person’s recommendation filed a petition for Labor to amend the certification for the Schaumburg
facility to include the Arlington Heights facility. Finally, when Plaintiffs’ received the denial of
their petition to amend the certification, they allege that they were further confused by the fact that
this was treated as a request for administrative reconsideration of a different decision than the one
attached to the denial of eligibility they received on March 7. Plaintiffs state that their representative
“had little or no idea what Labor had actually received from him, what they had actually decided, and
when he was expected to file a petition with this court based on the inconsistent notices from Labor.”
Pl.s’ Br. at 8.
Although it is clear from the facts that Labor made an already complicated process even
harder for Plaintiffs, despite its “obligat[ion] to conduct its investigations with the utmost regard for
the interests of the petitioning workers,” Stidham v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, 11 CIT 548, 551, 669 F.
Supp. 432, 435 (1987), there is no evidence that Labor’s actions prevented Plaintiffs from filing their
summons and complaint within the 60 day period. The cover letter dated October 2, 2002, which
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accompanied the Notice of Negative Determination Regarding Application for Reconsideration,
plainly stated that the Notice would be published in the Federal Register and that interested parties
would have 60 days from the date of publication to file with this court for judicial review. Plaintiffs’
pro se representative “contacted the Court of International Trade in late October 2002 regarding his
options for judicial review.” Pl.s’ Br. at 3. Although Plaintiffs’ representative was unable to access
forms the Office of the Clerk of the Court sent to him electronically, printed forms were
subsequently sent to him via the U.S. Postal Service and Plaintiffs do not allege that this delay
caused them to miss the filing deadline. Plaintiffs assert that their representative was unaware that
the documents would be deemed filed when they were received unless they were sent via certified
mail. Nevertheless, the documents were mailed eight days after the 60 day period expired. Thus,
the Court concludes that while Plaintiffs may have been reasonably diligent in pursuing their claim
for trade adjustment assistance prior to October 2002, the fact that they did not file their summons
and complaint by the December 9, 2002 deadline was at best an instance of simple neglect, which
does not provide grounds for equitable tolling. See Bonneville Assoc. Ltd. v. Barram, 165 F.3d 1360,
1365 (Fed. Cir. 1999) (“[T]he principals of equitable tolling . . . do not extend to what is at best a
garden variety claim of excusable neglect.” (quoting Irwin v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, 498 U.S. 89,
96 (1990))) .
Plaintiffs also argue that Labor never “properly considered [their] petition of December 12,
2001” and thus “substantial justice requires that they be allowed to proceed before this court and
plead their case on the merits, or alternatively that the matter be remanded to Labor for further
review.” Pl.s’ Br. at 11. While the degree of consideration Labor afforded Plaintiffs’ petition is
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uncertain, the October 2, 2002 cover letter clearly notified Plaintiffs that they had 60 days to seek
redress in this court. Because Plaintiffs did not satisfy this jurisdictional requirement, the substantive
merits of their claim are not properly before the Court for review.
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, Labor’s Motion to Dismiss is granted.
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R. KENTON MUSGRAVE, JUDGE
Dated: December 17, 2003
New York, New York