Karahalios v. Defense Language Institute

• Decision Date: 31 December 1984
• Docket Number: No. C-81-2745 RFP.,C-81-2745 RFP.
• Citation: 613 F. Supp. 440
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
• Parties: Efthimios A. KARAHALIOS, Plaintiff, v. DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY; and Local 1263, National Federation of Federal Employees, Defendants.

613 F. Supp. 440

Efthimios A. KARAHALIOS, Plaintiff, v. DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY; and Local 1263, National Federation of Federal Employees, Defendants.

No. C-81-2745 RFP.

United States District Court, N.D. California.

December 31, 1984.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Thomas R. Duffy, Richard DeStefano, Duffy & Milgrom, Monterey, Cal., for plaintiff.

William T. McGivern, Asst. U.S. Atty., San Francisco, Cal., Hermes Fernandez, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant Defense Language Institute.

Saul M. Weingarten, Saul M. Weingarten, Inc., Seaside, Cal., Patrick J. Riley, Nat. Federation of Federal Employees, Washington, D.C., for defendant Local 1263, Nat. Federation of Federal Employees.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

PECKHAM, Chief Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

The plaintiff in this case, Efthimios Karahalios, has for many years been a teacher at the Defense Language Institute (hereinafter "DLI") in Monterey, California.¹ Like the other teachers at DLI, he is within a bargaining unit for which Local 1263 of the National Federation of Federal Employees (hereinafter "the Union") is the exclusive bargaining representative. He is not a Union member, however, and he is not satisfied with the representation he has received from the Union. Specifically, he brought this lawsuit against the Union in 1981, alleging that the Union had mishandled grievances relating to his employment status at DLI, and had thereby breached the duty of fair representation that it owed to him.

He also named DLI as a defendant in his suit, asserting that DLI had refused to arbitrate a grievance he had filed. He maintained that such action constituted a breach of DLI's obligations under its collective bargaining agreements² and a violation of his rights to due process and equal protection of the law. The court disagreed with those claims, however, dismissing the equal protection claim and granting summary judgment on the remaining claims against DLI.

But the court declined to grant summary judgment for the Union on plaintiff's claim against it. Thus, that claim proceeded to trial before the court on June 20, 1984. The trial lasted two days, and, at its conclusion, the court took the case under submission for consideration and decision. Having since carefully reviewed the evidence presented and the relevant case law, the court now enters its findings of fact and conclusions of law as set forth below.

II. FINDINGS OF FACT

This dispute arose in 1976, when DLI opened a course developer position in its Greek Department. Two instructors in the Greek Department at DLI sought that position: plaintiff and a man named Simon Kuntelos. For both men, the possibility of being promoted from instructor (pay grade GS-9) to course developer (pay grade GS-11) represented a chance for a substantial increase in pay and prestige.

Both plaintiff and Mr. Kuntelos were well-qualified for the course developer position. Plaintiff had never held the title of course developer, but he had performed course development duties during his long tenure at DLI, and his work had been highly praised. Mr. Kuntelos, in contrast, had previously served as a course developer for DLI for a number of years. He had, however, been demoted to instructor in 1971 when DLI instituted an organizational change eliminating his course developer position.

Upon learning in 1976 that DLI had reopened the Greek Department course developer position, Mr. Kuntelos believed that he was entitled to noncompetitive consideration for that post. DLI did accord him such consideration, but decided not to award him a noncompetitive promotion. It therefore informed Mr. Kuntelos that he could obtain further consideration for the job only by going through DLI's competitive selection procedures, which included a written essay test. Mr. Kuntelos responded to DLI's decision by refusing to participate in the competitive selection procedures. Consequently, DLI gave him no additional consideration in the hiring process, and, early in 1977, it awarded the course developer position to the only person who went through the competitive selection process: Mr. Karahalios.

Although Mr. Kuntelos did not attempt to secure the course developer position through participation in the competitive selection process, he did file a grievance against DLI regarding his nonpromotion. In that grievance, he alleged that DLI had not given him proper noncompetitive consideration.

The Union represented Mr. Kuntelos through the first three stages of DLI's grievance procedure, but was unsuccessful in persuading DLI that Mr. Kuntelos' grievance was meritorious. The next and final step in the grievance procedure was arbitration, a step that could be taken only upon approval of the Union.

To Mr. Kuntelos' satisfaction, the Union decided to request arbitration of his grievance.³ In making that decision, however, the Union did not seriously consider the relative qualifications of Mr. Kuntelos and Mr. Karahalios,⁴ or the effect that arbitration might have on Mr. Karahalios' employment status. It neither consulted Mr. Karahalios regarding his course developer qualifications, nor determined his qualifications through an examination of his personnel file. Indeed, it did not even inform Mr. Karahalios that Mr. Kuntelos had filed a grievance.

Mr. Kuntelos' grievance went to arbitration before Alvin J. Goldman on June 22, 1977. The Union did not notify plaintiff of the arbitration hearing, and plaintiff did not learn of the hearing until well after it was over. Thus, plaintiff had no opportunity to present his views to the arbitrator.

Arbitrator Goldman rendered his decision on August 4, 1977. He ruled in favor of Mr. Kuntelos, finding that Mr. Kuntelos had not received proper noncompetitive consideration. To remedy that error, he ordered DLI to reconstitute the course developer selection process in accordance with certain guidelines.⁵

Thereafter, DLI gave Mr. Kuntelos another opportunity to take the written essay test that plaintiff had taken. Prior to administering the test, DLI informed Mr. Kuntelos that it would refer him to the selecting official as a repromotion eligible if he obtained a score of 85 or better.

Although the essay test that Mr. Kuntelos took was the same in content as the one that Mr. Karahalios had taken, DLI's testing procedure was different. Whereas Mr. Karahalios had only been given two hours to complete the test, Mr. Kuntelos was given a full three-and-one-half hours. Further, the tests of the two competitors were graded almost a year apart, and, because each man took the test at a time when no others were taking it, the graders were aware of whose exam they were grading. Most significantly, however, Mr. Karahalios was not afforded an opportunity to take the exam at the same time and under the same conditions as Mr. Kuntelos.

The graders gave Mr. Kuntelos a score of 83, and Mr. Karahalios a score of 81. Thus, DLI did not refer Mr. Kuntelos to the selecting official as a repromotion. Instead, it referred both Mr. Kuntelos and Mr. Karahalios for competitive evaluation.

The selecting official, Alex Szaszy, considered both candidates and chose Mr. Kuntelos. Accordingly, even though plaintiff had performed satisfactorily in the course developer position for approximately one year, DLI demoted him to the rank of instructor effective May 7, 1978.

Plaintiff then filed two grievances against DLI, one in May of 1978 and one in October of that year. His grievances were lengthy, detailed, and based on numerous grounds. See Plaintiff's Exhibits 6 & 7. But one of his major arguments was that DLI should invalidate his demotion because it had used improper testing procedures in selecting Mr. Kuntelos.

Mario Iglesias acted as union representative for plaintiff during the first three stages of the grievance process. Mr. Iglesias believed that plaintiff's grievances were meritorious, yet he was unable to convince DLI of that. On December 20, 1978, DLI completed the third stage of the grievance procedure by denying both of plaintiff's grievances.

Plaintiff then asked the Union to take his grievances to arbitration, and the Union officials met to consider his request. The minutes of that meeting have disappeared, so the details of what transpired are not entirely clear. It is undisputed, however, that the Union rejected plaintiff's request.⁶

From the testimony at trial, it further appears that the Union did not base its decision on a discussion of the merits of plaintiff's grievances. Rather, it seems to have relied solely on a letter from its counsel advising that arbitrating on plaintiff's behalf would constitute an untenable conflict of interest due to the earlier arbitration for Mr. Kuntelos.⁷ Admittedly, the testimony on this point was hardly unambiguous. But the court is confidant that Mr. Iglesias was correct in his assertion that the meeting did not include a discussion of plaintiff's complaints about the testing procedures. The court is also convinced that Mr. Iglesias was not asked to, and consequently did not, describe or comment on the merits of plaintiff's grievances at the meeting. Given the centrality of the testing procedures to plaintiff's grievances, as well as Mr. Iglesias' familiarity with the grievances through his role as plaintiff's representative in the grievance process, those omissions strongly suggest that the Union did not consider the merits of plaintiff's grievances at its meeting. The court therefore finds that the Union's decision regarding arbitration of plaintiff's grievances was grounded on reasons unrelated to the merits of plaintiff's claims.⁸

After plaintiff discovered that the Union would not take his grievances to arbitration, he attempted to obtain an arbitration without the assistance of the Union. But DLI refused to arbitrate, maintaining that it was only compelled to arbitrate upon receiving a request from the Union.

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