Dyan A. Truesdell v. Southern California Permanente Medical Group, a Partnership and the Hospital and Service Employees International Union, Local 399

Plaintiff Dyan Truesdell sued her former employer, Southern California Perma-nente Medical Group (Permanente), and her union, The Hospital and Service Employees International Union, Local 399 (the Union), alleging -wrongful termination and breach of the duty of fair representation. Arguing that the complaint was factually misleading and legally without merit, Permanente moved for sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 against Plaintiffs lawyer. The district court granted the motion. We vacate the district court’s order and remand for reconsideration in the light of our recent opinion in Christian v. Mattel, Inc., 286 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir.2002).

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

A. The Employment Dispute

Between April 1996 and November 1, 1999, Plaintiff worked part-time for Per-manente as a cytotechnologist. In that capacity, she examined slides from PAP smears to determine whether the tests revealed any cellular irregularities. She worked under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (the Agreement) between Permanente and the Union, in which the parties agreed to resolve disputes through procedures that ultimately led to binding arbitration. The Union…