## Facts

- The Writers Guild of America (WGA) served as the certified collective-bargaining representative for screenwriters and, under the applicable agreements, determined screenwriting credit through internal credit arbitration.
- WGA credit arbitration followed a multi-step procedure administered under WGA rules, with decisions made based on written submissions and with arbitrators’ identities kept confidential.
- Nick Marino, a WGA member, wrote an adaptation for *The Godfather Part III* that was purchased but not produced, and later wrote another draft that was not purchased.
- Paramount ultimately produced *The Godfather Part III* from a screenplay credited to Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo.
- Marino sought screen credit through the WGA arbitration process; the arbitration panel awarded credit solely to Coppola and Puzo.
- Marino challenged the process as unfair, focusing on arbitrator anonymity, the lack of an in-person evidentiary hearing, limits on presentation of materials, and an allegation that an arbitrator did not initially review part of his submission; WGA conducted a limited internal review and left the award unchanged.
- Marino sued to vacate the credit award and for declaratory relief, alleging fundamental unfairness and breach of the union’s duty of fair representation; the case was removed to federal court, where summary judgment was entered for the WGA and the individual defendants.

## Issues

1. Whether Marino waived challenges to WGA credit-arbitration procedures by participating without timely objection.
2. Whether the WGA’s credit-arbitration procedures were so fundamentally unfair that the award should be vacated.
3. Whether WGA breached its duty of fair representation in adopting or administering the credit-arbitration process in Marino’s case.
4. Whether Marino was entitled to discovery of the arbitrators’ identities after the award.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the defendants.
- Marino waived procedural objections, including arbitrator anonymity and the lack of a live hearing, by failing to raise them during the arbitration before a decision issued.
- The court found no breach of the duty of fair representation because WGA’s conduct was not arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.
- The district court properly denied discovery into arbitrators’ identities because anonymity objections were waived and no viable basis for vacatur or bias-based challenge remained.

## Legal Principles

- A party who knows (or should know) arbitration procedures and proceeds without timely objection waives later challenges to those procedures, including objections analogous to bias-based claims.
- Federal courts give strong deference to labor-arbitration outcomes arising from collective bargaining relationships; judicial review is limited and does not permit relitigation of the merits.
- A union breaches the duty of fair representation only if its conduct is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith; disagreement with procedural design choices or ordinary imperfections does not satisfy this standard.
- Arbitrator anonymity and reliance on written submissions, without evidence of improper motive or misconduct and absent timely objection, do not establish fundamental unfairness warranting vacatur or post-award discovery.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit upheld the WGA’s credit-arbitration award and rejected Marino’s procedural and fair-representation challenges because he failed to object during arbitration and could not show that the union’s administration of the process was arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.


Marino v. Writers Guild of Am., 992 F.2d 1480 (9th Cir. 1993)