Dist. of Columbia Metro. Police Dep't v. Fraternal Order of Police/Metro. Police Dep't Labor Comm., No. 08-CV-1590.
Decision Date | 24 June 2010 |
Docket Number | No. 08-CV-1590. |
Parties | DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, Appellant,v.FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE/METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT LABOR COMMITTEE, Appellee. |
Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
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James C. McKay, Jr., Senior Assistant Attorney General, with whom Peter J. Nickles, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Donna M. Murasky, Deputy Solicitor General, were on the brief, for appellant.
Marc L. Wilhite, with whom James W. Pressler, Jr., Washington, DC, and Timothy D. Zessin, were on the brief, for appellee.
Bruce A. Fredrickson, with whom Cedar P. Carlton, Washington, DC, was on the brief, for the District of Columbia Public Employee Relations Board as amicus curiae.
Before KRAMER and OBERLY, Associate Judges, and PRYOR, Senior Judge.
The Fraternal Order of Police/Metropolitan Police Department Labor Committee (“FOP”) obtained an arbitral award in favor of several of its members, pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”). MPD appealed the award to the District of Columbia Public Employee Relations Board (“PERB” or “the Board”), and the Board entered an order affirming the award. FOP then filed a motion in Superior Court to confirm the arbitration award under the D.C. Uniform Arbitration Act. D.C.Code §§ 16-4301 (2001) et seq. The Superior Court granted FOP's motion. We reverse. We hold that the Comprehensive Merit Personnel Act (“CMPA”), D.C.Code §§ 1-601.01 et seq. (2001 & 2009 Supp.), preempts FOP's motion to confirm the award under the Arbitration Act. Second, even if the CMPA does not have such preemptive effect, we hold that FOP had no right to proceed under the Arbitration Act because FOP failed to exhaust its remedies before the Board before seeking relief in Superior Court.
Before turning to the merits, we must resolve two threshold issues. First, there is a question of appellate jurisdiction. After the Superior Court granted FOP's motion to confirm the award, MPD filed a motion for reconsideration. Contrary to FOP's argument, we hold that the motion tolled MPD's time for noting its appeal of the order confirming the award. Second, we must address MPD's argument that the trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over it because FOP initiated its action without serving the Mayor of the District of Columbia or the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. We reject MPD's personal jurisdiction argument.
On December 12, 2003, MPD Officer Pablo Figueroa, along with four other officers and on behalf of all similarly situated employees, brought a grievance against MPD, complaining that MPD assigned him the duty of Detective Sergeant without providing him an associated $595.00 per year, as allegedly required by law. The Chief of Police denied the grievance on December 29, 2003, and the dispute went to arbitration pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement between MPD and appellee, FOP. On June 28, 2004, the arbitrator ruled for FOP.
MPD then filed an Arbitration Review Request with the Board, seeking review of the arbitrator's award. On September 30, 2005, the Board denied the request and entered an order affirming the award. Although FOP asserts that MPD failed to comply with the terms of the award, FOP did not-as it could have see 6-B DCMR § 560.1-petition the Board to enforce its order affirming the award. Nor did FOP file a complaint with the Board alleging that MPD's failure to honor the award constituted an unfair labor practice. See D.C.Code § 1-605.02(3) (2001); 6-B DCMR §§ 520.1 et seq.
Instead, on April 21, 2006, FOP filed in Superior Court a motion to confirm the award as a judgment under the District of Columbia Uniform Arbitration Act, D.C.Code §§ 16-4301, et seq. In the caption of its motion, FOP listed “Fraternal Order of Police, Metropolitan Police Department Labor Committee” as the “Plaintiff,” and “District of Columbia/Metropolitan Police Department” as the “Defendant.”
According to the affidavit of service, FOP caused service of its motion to confirm the award to be made on MPD at “MPD Headquarters, 300 Indiana Avenue (Fourth Floor), NW, Washington, DC 2000[1].” The process server left a copy of the summons, complaint (meaning, presumably, FOP's motion to confirm), and the initial order in the case with one Linda Tolson; the affidavit averred that Ms. Tolson “works with the defendant.” MPD has never disputed that its headquarters are located at the address stated in the affidavit.
The District's Attorney General responded to FOP's motion and, on MPD's behalf, moved to dismiss. (For ease of reference, we will refer to the Attorney General's position as MPD's position.) MPD argued first that FOP failed to comply with Super. Ct. Civ. R. 4(j)(1), which prescribes the method for service “upon the District of Columbia, an officer or agency thereof, or upon other government entities subject to suit.” Raising no objection to its capacity to be sued in its own name (more on this later), MPD argued that to “serve a District agency, a plaintiff must serve: (1) the Mayor; (2) the Attorney General; and (3) the agency.” MPD did not question FOP's service of the agency, i.e., itself, and did not contest that Ms. Tolson was authorized to accept service on MPD's behalf. Rather, MPD argued that service was ineffective, and thus personal jurisdiction was lacking, because FOP failed to serve the Mayor and the Attorney General. Second, MPD argued that FOP could not invoke the Arbitration Act because FOP “fail[ed] to exhaust its administrative remedies” and because “the CMPA places the authority to enforce PERB's orders exclusively with the PERB.”
Judge Mary Terrell denied MPD's motion to dismiss and, on February 26, 2008, granted FOP's motion to confirm. On March 13, 2008, MPD sought reconsideration of the order granting FOP's motion to confirm. On October 31, 2008, Judge Natalia Combs Greene orally denied MPD's motion for reconsideration, reasoning that the motion was untimely and that she could not “get behind Judge Terrell's reasoning on the other issues.” On December 1, 2008, MPD filed a notice of appeal, seeking review of the Superior Court's order granting FOP's motion to confirm the arbitration award and the Superior Court's order denying MPD's motion for reconsideration.
On February 6, 2009, MPD filed in this court a motion for summary reversal, largely repeating the arguments that it made in its pleadings before the Superior Court. With respect to its “personal jurisdiction” argument, MPD asserted: In response, FOP argued that it did not have to serve the District because it filed its motion against MPD, not the District; FOP also argued that it properly served MPD by delivering a copy of the summons and motion to confirm to Ms. Tolson, an agent of MPD. In reply, MPD complained for the first time that the affidavit of service did not sufficiently establish that Ms. Tolson had authority to accept service on behalf of MPD. MPD did not contest, and never has contested, that Ms. Tolson in fact possessed such authority.
We denied the motion for summary reversal because summary treatment is reserved for cases where “the trial court's ruling rests on a narrow and clear-cut issue of law,” Oliver T. Carr Mgmt., Inc. v. National Delicatessen, Inc., 397 A.2d 914, 915 (D.C.1979) (per curiam), and, as should become apparent, this case does not fit the bill. Our order denying the motion directed the parties to brief the basic assumption underlying MPD's personal jurisdiction argument-whether, given that FOP was proceeding against MPD, not the District, FOP was required to serve the District. In addition, we invited the Board to file an amicus brief addressing the question whether FOP had a right to seek confirmation of the award in the Superior Court. The Board indeed filed a brief at the merits stage, siding in important respects with MPD. We thank the Board for its submission.
We first must decide whether we have jurisdiction to review the Superior Court's order granting FOP's motion to confirm the award. The timely filing of a notice of appeal is a jurisdictional requirement. Patterson v. Sharek, 924 A.2d 1005, 1009 (D.C.2007). As a general rule, “[t]he notice of appeal in a civil case must be filed with the Clerk of the Superior Court within 30 days after entry of the judgment or order from which the appeal is taken.” D.C.App. R. 4(a)(1). The thirty-day period is tolled, however, by a Rule 59 motion to alter or amend the judgment or a Rule 60 motion for relief from final judgment, provided that such a motion, whether under Rule 59 or Rule 60, is filed within ten days after judgment is entered. D.C.App. R. 4(a)(4)(A)(iii) & (v); Super. Ct. Civ. R. 59(e), 60; Nichols v. First Union Nat'l Bank, 905 A.2d 268, 271-72 (D.C.2006). MPD filed its notice of appeal on December 1, 2008-thirty business days after the Superior Court denied its motion for reconsideration, but many months after the court entered the order granting FOP's motion to confirm. The question, therefore, is whether MPD's motion for reconsideration tolled MPD's time for noting its appeal.
The Superior Court entered the order granting FOP's motion to confirm the award on February 26, 2008, and served the order electronically on the parties on the next day. As explained above, to toll the time for noting an appeal, MPD had ten days from the date that the order was entered to file a motion for reconsideration. Under Super. Ct. Civ. R. 6(a), we exclude from the count February 26-the day the order was entered. Ten days from February 27, excluding...
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