Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-railroad’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-union’s appeal of arbitration award by National Railroad Adjustment Bd. that had denied plaintiff’s grievance of employee who had been terminated for falsifying safety and training documents without providing hearing. Bd. could properly find that employee had no right to said hearing under terms of collective bargaining agreement, where employee was serving as supervisor at time of termination. Ct. rejected plaintiff’s claim that Bd. lacked jurisdiction to rule on engineer’s grievance, since thrust of grievance was issue as to whether putative engineer had guarantee of pre-termination hearing under collective bargaining agreement. Moreover, Bd. articulated good-faith basis for terminating employee. Ct. further imposed sanctions on plaintiff for filing frivolous appeal that contained only implausible arguments that were foreclosed by case law and text of collective bargaining agreement.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Railroads