Adams v. Am. Fed'n of State, Cnty. & Mun. Emps. Int'l

• Decision Date: 01 March 2016
• Docket Number: Case No.: PWG-14-4023
• Parties: Shirley Adams, et al., Plaintiffs, v. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees International, a/k/a AFSCME International, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

167 F.Supp.3d 730

Shirley Adams, et al., Plaintiffs,

v.The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees International, a/k/a AFSCME International, et al., Defendants.

Case No.: PWG-14-4023

United States District Court, D. Maryland, Southern Division.

Signed March 1, 2016

Charlene Sukari Hardnett, Law Office of C. Sukari Hardnett, Silver Spring, MD, for Plaintiff.

Matthew H. Clash Drexler, Andrew Roth, Caitlin Kekacs, Bredhoff & Kaiser PLLC, Mark J. Murphy, Mooney Green Saindon Murphy and Welch PC, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Paul W. Grimm, United States District Judge

This labor dispute involves local union members; the national organization American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees International (“AFSCME” or “AFSCME International”); the Association of Classified Employees of the Prince George's County School System (“Local 2250” or “ACE”), and Local 2250's Executive Board members (“Executive Board”). Local 2250 is AFSCME's local affiliate, pursuant to an agreement between the local and national unions (“ACE-AFSCME Agreement”). Plaintiff Shirley Adams was elected president of Local 2250 in 2010, at which point the events giving rise to this litigation began. Briefly, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants, through various breaches of contracts and their duties of fair representation, improperly charged her with misconduct and ultimately removed her from office, while failing to address union members' grievances. Defendants have moved to dismiss. ECF Nos. 33, 34. Because this Court lacks jurisdiction over the statutory claims against Local 2250 and members of its Executive Board (together, “Local 2250 Defendants”), I will dismiss those claims. And, because Plaintiffs fail to state a claim against AFSCME, I will dismiss those claims as well. Further, I will decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the common law claims against Defendants.

Factual and Procedural History

Although the 172-paragraph Amended Complaint is far from a model of clarity, it appears that the crux of this dispute is that Plaintiffs Adams, Terry Allen, and Todd Kingman,¹ members of Local 2250, believe that Defendants Local 2250, AFSCME, and Local 2250 Executive Board members Shirley Kirkland, Wanda Newman, William Gray, Yvonne Wilson, James Owen, William Lutholtz, and Lyneshia Woodland engaged in ongoing conduct in breach of the ACE-AFSCME Agreement, the local and national unions' constitutions and bylaws, and their duty of fair representation in an effort to terminate Adams's presidency prematurely. The core factual allegations involve two Local 2250 Executive Board decisions and two administrative hearings before AFSCME's Judicial Panel (“Panel”),² triggered by Adams's entering into a $5,000 retainer fee agreement on behalf of Local 2250, for its defense in a lawsuit that a staff member brought against Local 2250. Mar. 21, 2013 Panel Dec. & Apr. 29, 2014 Panel Dec., AFSCME's Mem. Exs. D, F, ECF Nos. 34–6, 34–8; see AFSCME's Mem. Ex. G, ECF No. 34-9 (affirming April 29, 2014 Panel Dec.).³ Adams insists that she had the authority to enter into the retainer agreement and that the Executive Board's decisions and administrative charges were simply part of the Executive Board's campaign to tarnish her name.

Specifically, the Executive Board brought before the Panel charges that Adams, inter alia , exceeded her authority in agreeing to the retainer fee without prior approval. The Panel held a hearing on February 4, 2013, and in a March 21, 2013 decision, the Panel agreed with the Executive Board regarding the fee agreement, ordering Adams to pay the fee. On September 25, 2013, the Local Executive Board directed Adams to comply with the Panel decision and pay the fee by December 5, 2013. Apr. 29, 2014 Panel Dec. 8–9. When Adams did not pay, the Local 2250 Executive Board held a Special Board meeting on December 16, 2013 and suspended Adams from office for entering into the retainer agreement; Adams “refuse[d] to abide by the Board's decision.” Id.

Meanwhile, the retained attorney (Plaintiffs' counsel in this case) filed suit in Montgomery County District Court to recover her fee, and on May 22, 2013, the state court judge ordered Local 2250 to pay it based on Adams's “apparent authority” to enter into the retainer agreement. State Ct. Tr. 5, AFSCME's Mem. Ex. E, ECF No. 34-7. The judge acknowledged that how the Panel's March 21, 2013 finding that Adams lacked authority “plays out between the union administration and the union president [was] not the issue before the Court.” Id. Nonetheless, in Plaintiffs' view, “[t]he outcome of the May 22d [state court] trial exposed the omissions and affirmative misrepresentations to AFSCME … by Kirkland and a seven-member faction of ACE's Executive Board.” Am. Compl. ¶ 37. And, believing the state court judgment to mean that she no longer was obligated to reimburse the union, Adams refused to reimburse the Local 2250 for the retainer fee, which led to a second administrative hearing before the Panel on March 14, 2014. In an April 29, 2014 decision, the Panel removed Adams from office for failure to comply with its previous decision, suspended her from running for another office for four years, and directed her to reimburse the Local 2250 for the retainer fee or be expelled from the union.

Plaintiffs also allege that Local 2250 misrepresented to AFSCME that Adams was responsible for the delay in renewing the Local 2250 Executive Director's term, when in their opinion the Executive Director's renewal resulted from “improper voting procedures” that Adams properly challenged and Local 2250 prevented Adams from correcting. Am. Compl. ¶¶ 20-27. And, unrelated to the purported efforts to oust Adams, Plaintiffs claim that Local 2250 and AFSCME “[f]ail[ed] to administer over eighty (80) pending Member grievances on their merits.” Id. ¶ 96.

Adams, Kingman, Antoinette Murphy, Debbie Coghill, “and Limes et al.” filed a complaint in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and injunctive relief against the Executive Board Defendants and AFSCME “for imposing sanctions on the member elected President [Adams] of Local 2250.” Compl., ECF No. 2. They claimed that Defendants' imposition of sanctions breached their local constitution and deprived them “of the right to vote for the candidate of their choice, the right to hold office.” They also claimed that Defendants “fail[ed] to improve working conditions and to promote the welfare of the membership.” Id. at 1. They sought Adams's reinstatement as president and asked for the current election to be enjoined until she is placed on the ballot.

AFSCME removed to this Court, ECF No. 1, and then sought leave to file a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, noting that, with regard to Plaintiffs' unjust enrichment claim, it appeared to be a claim against Local 2250, and not AFSCME, despite Local 2250's absence as a defendant on the original complaint. ECF No. 22. The Executive Board 2250 Defendants also sought leave to file a motion to dismiss, claiming that the claims were not directed at them and in any event failed to state a claim. ECF No. 23. The parties agreed in a February 12, 2015 conference call that Plaintiffs would file an amended complaint to address the deficiencies that Defendants identified, after which Defendants could file their motions to dismiss, if they still had a basis for doing so, and any dismissal of the amended complaint would be with prejudice. ECF No. 29.

Plaintiffs filed their Amended Complaint, adding Local 2250 as a defendant, completely rewriting the factual allegations and causes of action, of which there now are ten, each as to all Defendants. ECF No. 32. Count I alleges breach of contract, and Count IV alleges violations of the unions' constitutions and bylaws. Count II alleges a hybrid action, pursuant to § 301 of the Labor–Management Relations Act of 1947 (“LMRA”), 29 U.S.C. § 185, for the unions' breach of their duty of fair representation. Count III also alleges a breach of the duty of fair representation, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), 29 U.S.C. § 158. Counts V, VI, and VII allege violations of the Labor–Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (“LMRDA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 411(a)(1), (2) (5), 501(a), with Count VII also including a common law breach of fiduciary duty claim. Counts VIII and X are Maryland common law claims of unjust enrichment and abuse of process. Count IX is entitled “Restraining Order.”

The Executive Board Defendants, along with Local 2250 (together, “Local 2250 Defendants”), moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, ECF No. 33, and AFSCME moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, ECF No. 34. The parties fully briefed the motions, ECF Nos. 33–1 (Local's Mem.), 34-1 (AFSCME's Mem.), 35 (Pls.' Opp'n to AFSCME), 38 (Pls.' Opp'n to Local), 39 (AFSCME's Reply), 40 (Local's Reply). Additionally, Plaintiffs sought leave to file a surreply to the Local 2250 Defendants' motion “to present information not supplied to the Court by Defendants in their Reply.” Pls.' Mot. to File Surreply to Local's Mot. to Dismiss 1, ECF No. 50. And, Plaintiffs sought leave to file a Surreply to AFSCME's motion “to respond to the new cases cited by Defendants in their Reply.” Pls.' Mot. to File Surreply to AFSCME's Mot. to Dismiss 1, ECF No. 44. Defendants opposed Plaintiffs' motions to file surreplies. ECF Nos. 45, 51. A hearing is not necessary. See Loc. R. 105.6.

Motions for Leave to File Surreplies

Surreplies may not be filed without leave of court, see Loc. R. 105.2(a), but they “may be permitted when the moving party would be unable to contest matters presented to the court for the first time in the opposing party's reply.” Khoury v. Meserve , 268 F.Supp.2d 600, 605 (D.Md.2003), aff'd , 85 Fed.Appx. 960 (4th Cir.2004) (citing Lewis v. Rumsfeld, 154 F.Supp.2d 56, 61 (D.D.C.2001) ). Plaintiffs' proposed Surreply to the...