Chao v. Branch 4798 Nat. Ass'n of Letter Carriers

• Decision Date: 25 January 2008
• Docket Number: No. 1:07cv708.,1:07cv708.
• Citation: 532 F.Supp.2d 783
• Parties: Elaine L. CHAO, Plaintiff, v. BRANCH 4798 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia

532 F.Supp.2d 783

Elaine L. CHAO, Plaintiff, v. BRANCH 4798 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, Defendant.

No. 1:07cv708.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Alexandria Division.

January 25, 2008.

Gerard J. Mene, United States Attorney's Office, Alexandria, VA, for Plaintiff.

Francis Jude Martorana, O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

T.S. ELLIS, III, District Judge.

In this labor dispute, Elaine Chao, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor ("the Secretary"), seeks to void an election held by Branch 4798 of the National Association of Letter Carriers ("Branch 4798"), on the ground that the election violated certain provisions of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act ("the LMRDA").¹ At issue on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment are the following questions:

1. Whether a district court, on finding election violations under the LMRDA, has equitable discretion to decline to order a new election in certain circumstances, and, if not,

2. Whether a district court nonetheless has discretion as to the timing of a new election such that a court may order the Secretary to supervise a union's next regularly scheduled election rather than ordering an immediate new supervised election.

For the reasons that follow, summary judgment must be granted in part in favor of the Secretary, insofar as a new election is ordered. The Secretary's motion for summary judgment is denied insofar as the Secretary requests an immediate remedial election. Branch 4798's motion for summary judgment is denied, although its argument on the timing of the remedial election is accepted.

I.

The material facts are essentially undisputed. Branch 4798 is a branch labor organization representing fewer than 200 postal workers at several post offices in Fairfax County, Virginia. This Branch is part of the National Association of Letter Carriers ("NALC"); the collective bargaining representative for over 200,000 United States Postal Workers letter carriers across, the country. Pursuant to its bylaws, Branch 4798 conducts elections of officers every other December. These elections are supervised by an Election Committee appointed by the Branch.

This dispute arises from the December 5, 2006 regularly-scheduled election ("the December election") to choose the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Sergeant-at-Arms, and three Trustees for Branch 4798. At the time of the December election, Charles Jones had been Branch 4798 President for more than six years and was seeking reelection. Shortly before the election, Branch 4798 member Manuel Perez distributed a flier to all Branch members, criticizing Jones and contending that Jones mismanaged Branch 4798's funds and improperly used the Branch's offices as his personal residence. In his flier, Perez stated that Jones had refused repeated requests to vacate Branch 4798's offices. In addition to his efforts to thwart Jones's reelection attempt, Perez ran for election as Branch 4798 Vice President.

In preparation for the December election, the Election. Committee, appointed by Jones, distributed ballots at all Branch 4798 post offices. Pursuant to Branch 4798 bylaws, December 5, 2006 was the final day on which election ballots could be received, and the Election Committee tallied the ballots on that day, as scheduled. The results had Jones failing to win reelection by two votes. One of the trustee slots was decided by a margin of one vote. Yet, the Election Committee did not release the election results on December 5, and at Jones's urging, counted seven additional ballots that arrived after that day. The new tally, which took place on December 8, 2006, had Jones winning by a three-point margin. The seven additional ballots also changed the result, of one of the trustee positions. Later that day, the Election Committee released the results of this new tally to Branch 4798 members, as the final election results.

On December 14, 2006, Manual Perez sent a letter to Branch 4798, protesting the December election under the NALC Constitution. He charged the Election Committee with "election fraud" for "authorizing an unlawful recount" and failing to report the election results on December 5, 2006. Perez's letter also charged the Election Committee with violating Branch 4798 bylaws and the NALC Constitution, inter alia, by (i) failing to provide proper notice of the election; (ii) failing to inform members that their ballots would be discounted if they did not include identifying information on the ballot envelope, and (iii) not providing for absentee balloting. In total, Perez listed fourteen charges against President Jones and the Election Committee, and sought disciplinary action against them, including expulsion from Branch 4798 membership.²

Branch 4798 responded, to Perez by letter on February 12, 2007, denying his election charges. Specifically, the letter stated that Perez was "misguided and misunderstood" and had offered "no concrete evidence of valid charges." Perez then sought assistance from NALC, which sent a letter to Jones on February 27, 2007, informing Jones that Branch 4798 must establish a committee to review Perez's charges before dismissing them. The same day, NALC forwarded a copy of this letter to Perez and told him that it had advised Branch 4798 to review and process his charges properly.

On March 12, 2007, Perez wrote to NALC President William Young, reiterating his charges against Branch 4798. He stated (i) that his complaints were not being resolved by Branch 4798, (ii) that he had "contacted the Labor department concerning these issues," and (iii) that he was planning to submit an "appeals package" to the Department of Labor ("the DOL") "as three months [had passed] and the charges are not being investigated." After receiving this letter, NALC President Young "concluded that the issues raised are of sufficient gravity to warrant some form of intervention" by NALC, and appointed NALC Vice President Gary Mullins "to investigate all matters pertaining to the administration of Branch 4798." Letter from William Young to Branch 4798, Mar. 20, 2007. Pursuant to this appointment, Mullins attended Branch 4798's regularly-scheduled meeting on April 3, 2007, at which Jones conceded that many of Perez's alleged election violations were true and suggested that Branch 4798 conduct "a complete rerun of the branch election." Letter from Gary Mullins to William Young, Apr. 16, 2007.³

Branch 4798 never told Perez it had decided to hold a re-run election. Rather, it sent Perez a letter on April 16, 2007, stating that most of Perez's fourteen election charges had been "Cleared" by the Branch.⁴ Three days later, on April 19, 2007, Mullins sent a letter to Perez outlining the steps for "appeal[ing] the charges [Perez] brought up against Branch 4798." Mullins also stated that he had attended the April 3 meeting, at which "[a]ll charges were read ... and the committee chairmen responded to each of the charges," but Mullins did not advise Perez that Branch 4798 had decided to hold a re-run election.

As Perez had received no favorable response from either Branch 4798 or NALC regarding his election charges, Perez protested the December election to the DOL on April 12, 2007. The DOL began investigating Perez's claim on April 18, 2007, and received election records from Branch 4798 one week later, on April 25, 2007. On May 1, 2007, DOL investigator Kenric Michel asked NALC to postpone its re-run election until the DOL could complete its investigation. NALC refused to do so, stating that it believed Branch 4798 was in "turmoil" because of the flawed December election and thus could not afford to wait until the DOL completed its investigation to hold a new election. Declaration of Keith. E. Secular, at ¶ 3. Instead, NALC offered to allow the DOL to supervise Branch 4798's scheduled election. The DOL declined this invitation, as it felt it was necessary to complete the investigation of the December election before it would be in a position to supervise any remedial election. Thus, the DOL continued its investigation of the December election while NALC continued to prepare for its new election.

The DOL completed its investigation of the December election on May 18, 2007, and released its findings to NALC and Branch 4798 on May 24, 2007. The DOL found that the December election violated the LMRDA in several respects:

1. Branch 4798 failed to mail ballots to members' last known addresses as required by § 401(e) of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 481(e), but instead simply distributed ballots at local post offices. The Election Committee also failed to publish the election nomination notice and notice of election in the Postal Record, as required by the NALC Constitution and Branch 4798 bylaws;⁵

2. Branch 4798 failed to insure a fair election, in violation of § 401(c) of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 481(c), when it failed to provide for absentee balloting, as required by NALC regulations;

3. Branch 4798 failed to insure a fair election, as required by § 401(c) of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 481(c), when the Election Committee improperly counted eight ballots submitted without identifying information and improperly counted seven ballots received after December 5, 2006;

4. Branch 4798 failed to insure a fair election, as required by § 401(c) of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 481(c), when it distributed ballots stating that members were to "Vote for Two (3)" trustee positions;⁶ and

5. Branch 4798 failed to insure a fair election, as required by § 401(c) of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 481(c), when non-Election Committee members distributed and collected ballots.

Despite receiving the. DOL's report that the December election had violated the LMRDA, NALC decided to continue with the re-run election on May 30, 2007, as scheduled. NALC Vice President Mullins supervised the election to ensure that election violations did not occur.⁷ Ballots in the re-run election...