Johnson v. Holway

439 F.Supp.2d 180

Valda T. JOHNSON, et al., Plaintiffs, v. David HOLWAY, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 03-2513 (ESH).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

July 21, 2006.

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Elizabeth A. Baker, Chevy Chase, MD, pro se.

David W. Sanford, Stefanie Roemer, Laura C. Fentonmiller, Shayna Michelle Bloom, Sanford, Wittels and Heisler, LLP, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

Steven K. Hoffman, James & Hoffman, Dora V. Chen, John Miller West, W. Gary Kohlman, Jeffrey R. Freund, Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C., Washington, DC, for Defendants.

Abigail V. Carter, Bredhoff & Kaiser, PLLC, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs/Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HUVELLE, District Judge.

On December 9, 2003, plaintiffs Valda T. Johnson and Stuart E. Bernsen¹—employees of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ("PBGC"), a federal agency, and former officers of the National Association of Government Employees ("NAGE") Local R3-77—filed suit under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act ("LMRDA"), 29 U.S.C. § 401 et seq., seeking to overturn a trusteeship imposed by the national union on their local. Following the Court's denial of plaintiffs' two motions to temporarily enjoin the emergency trusteeship, see Johnson v. Holway, 329 F.Supp.2d 12 (D.D.C.2004), plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint on October 20, 2004, to add claims against Stephanie Zaiser, then-trustee of Local R3-77 ("the local"), and Gerald Flynn, a national vice president who presided at the local's trusteeship hearings. The amended complaint alleged defamation, additional violations of the LMRDA, and discriminatory and retaliatory conduct under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq.

In a December 6, 2005 Memorandum Opinion, the Court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment in part, concluding that the challenge to the trusteeship was moot as a result of the trusteeship's February 2, 2005 termination; plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that the trusteeship was either procedurally or substantively improper under Title III of the LMRDA and they were unable to challenge the trusteeship under Title I of the LMRDA; they had failed to show any procedural deficiencies with respect to their disciplinary hearings; their various challenges to the national's investigation and funding of arbitration cases could not be sustained under Title I; they lacked standing to raise the Title VII claims of other local members; Johnson had failed to demonstrate discrimination based on her sex or her race (African-American) and there was, as a matter of law, no claim for defamation. See Johnson v. Holway, Civ. No. 03-2513, 2005 WL 3307296 (D.D.C. Dec.6, 2005) (Mem.Op.). Plaintiffs were allowed, however, to go forward with three allegations: (1) that NAGE removed them from office pursuant to the imposition of the trusteeship in retaliation for conduct protected under Title VII; (2) that they were disciplined in retaliation for their civil rights activities, in violation of Title VII; and (3) that they were disciplined in retaliation for their criticism of the national union, in violation of Title I of the LMRDA.

The case was tried before the Court between April 3 and April 7, with an additional trial day on April 27, 2006. Seven witnesses testified for plaintiffs: Valda Johnson; Ms. Johnson's husband, Jeffery Johnson; Stuart Bernsen; Elizabeth Baker, the former Secretary of Local R3-77 (see n. 1, supra); former members of the local Stephen Williams and Duncan Cooper; and Joseph Donnellan, former Chief Counsel of NAGE. Defendants introduced fourteen witnesses: Jennifer Wasserstein, a former attorney for NAGE; Jason Weyand, a former PBGC attorney and local steward; Cynthia Greene, another former PBGC attorney and member of the local; Dwayne Jeffers, an actuary with the agency and a former steward of the local; Robert Perry, a PBGC auditor and former Vice President at Large of the local; Mychael Patterson, a member of NAGE's Executive Board; Marc Lawson, a NAGE National Vice President and the hearing examiner during both plaintiffs' disciplinary proceedings; Barbara Osgood, a NAGE National Executive Vice President; Gina Lightfoot-Walker, former Washington Regional Counsel for the national union and its current Deputy General Counsel; Susanne Pooler-Johnson, a NAGE's National Representative; David Bernard, former administrator to NAGE's National Executive Board and the national union's current National Director for the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics; John Sabulis, a National Representative and NAGE monitor prior to the trusteeship; Stephanie Zaiser, NAGE's Director of Communications and the former trustee of Local R3-77; Richard Barry, Jr., General Counsel of NAGE; and David Holway, President of the national union. Based on the testimony and documentary evidence, the Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law submitted by the parties, and governing law, the Court makes the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

As the origins of this dispute are as old as Local R3-77, the Court must begin its factual recitations with the union's formation.

I. Formation of the Local

1. Prior to the establishment of the NAGE Local R3-77, bargaining unit employees of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation were represented by a chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union ("NTEU"). (See Bernsen Test. at 258:11-12; Johnson Test. at 8:13-16.) In 1995, following a round of contractual negotiations between the agency and the national union, dissatisfaction with NTEU's representation emerged among the chapter's members. (Bernsen Test. at 259:8-10.) Subsequent events affirmed the membership's desire to leave NTEU. According to Stuart Bernsen—who joined PBGC's NTEU chapter in 1988—the union's inadequate response to the termination of minority employees Louis Snead and Sylvia Pierce, among other issues, solidified members' discontent. (Id. at 258:11-12, 259:10-14.) According to Valda Johnson—who joined the chapter in 1996 and later served as its Vice President at Large—NTEU refused to take the "EEO cases" arising at the agency, leading many employees to conclude that "management was over the union as well as the EEO." (Johnson Test. at 9:3-8.)

2. A committee formed to identify an alternate union ultimately settled on NAGE, a 45,000-member labor union that represented municipal, state and federal employees. (Bernsen Test. at 258:24-259:3, 259:17-24; Johnson Test. at 9:11-13; Holway Test. at 1292:18-1293:4.) NAGE, including its President, Kenneth Lyons; National Vice President, Susanne Pooler-Johnson; and one of the union's attorneys, Edward Smith, campaigned for the support of PBGC's employees by promising to contest the terminations of Snead and Pierce and providing both with representation prior to the election. (Bernsen Test. at 260:21-261:15.) The union also distributed campaign literature regarding its representation of workers in "lawsuits, arbitrations and in collective bargaining[,]" declaring that members with "a workplace complaint regarding discrimination, workers' compensation, or an adverse action" were "entitled to representation by an attorney employed by NAGE at no cost [.]" (Pls.' Ex. 3 (emphasis in original); see also Bernsen Test. at 562:11-563:9.) With the assistance of Johnson, Bernsen and others, NAGE prevailed in the election and was certified as the official representative of Local R3-77 on January 29, 1999. (See Bernsen Test. at 259:23-24.)

3. In April 1999, Johnson and Bernsen ran without opposition in the first of the local's elections. (Johnson Test. at 10:21-11:4.) Johnson was elected President, and Bernsen was elected Executive Vice President. (Id.; Bernsen Test. at 265:24-25.) Plaintiffs were similarly unopposed in two subsequent elections, winning the same offices in August 2000 and March 2003. (Johnson Test. at 11:9-12:5.)

II. The Local's Bylaws

4. In the year following their election, Johnson, Bernsen and other members of the Executive Committee worked to draft a governing set of bylaws for the local. (See Bernsen Test. at 267:19-268:3; Johnson Test. at 13:3-22.) After a series of discussions with the membership, a final document was adopted on June 29, 2000, and later approved by the national office. (Id.; Pls.' Ex. 2 at 000273 (hereinafter "Bylaws").)

5. The local's bylaws consist of thirteen Articles. Under Article III, membership meetings are "normally" to be held monthly, requiring a quorum of thirty percent for ordinary business. (Bylaws Art. III.) Article IV establishes a five-member Executive Committee—consisting of the union's President, Executive Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President at Large—responsible for "the overall governing authority of the Local between membership meetings." (Id. Art. IV § 1, Art. V § 1.) The Executive Committee is required to hold "regular meetings at least monthly"—meetings that are to be, "[t]o the extent practicable," both "publicized and open to Local members." (Id. Art. IV § 2; see also id. ("All Executive Committee members' voices and votes shall be of equal weight in deciding matters of policy or procedure.").) The bylaws, however, also provide that "Mlle Executive Committee may hold closed, executive sessions and may close portions of sessions." (Id.) Emergency Committee action is also provided for: "[i]n emergencies, the President may confer with at least two other officers and reach a decision on behalf of the Executive Committee provided that at least two officers and the President agree to the decision." (Id. Art. VI.)

6. The functions and authority of the Executive Committee are defined in Article IV. The Committee is responsible for union appointments, including the local's stewards. (Bylaws Art. IV § 4.) This power includes the authority to "remove appointees" who, under the same provision, are expressly barred from making ...