Title: Galbreath v. School Bd. of Broward County

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

446 So. 2d 1045 (1984)
Ruel A. GALBREATH, Petitioner,
v.
The SCHOOL BOARD OF BROWARD COUNTY, Florida, et al., Respondents.
No. 63203.

Supreme Court of Florida.
January 26, 1984.
Rehearing Denied April 5, 1984.
*1046 Harold D. Smith, Hollywood, for petitioner.
Gordon Dean Rogers of Muller, Mintz, Kornreich, Caldwell, Casey, Crosland & Bramnick, Miami, for respondent, The School Bd. of Broward County, Florida.
Richard H. Frank, Mark F. Kelly and Richard T. Donelan, of Frank & Kelly, Tampa, for respondent, The Broward County Classroom Teachers Ass'n, Inc.
Phillip P. Quaschnick, Deputy Asst. Gen. Counsel, Tallahassee, for respondent, Public Employees Relations Com'n.
McDONALD, Justice.
This case is before us to review a district court decision, Galbreath v. School Board of Broward County, 424 So. 2d 837 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982), which certified the following question as being of great public importance:
Id. at 838. This Court has jurisdiction under article V, section 3(b)(4) of the Florida Constitution. We answer the certified question in the negative and approve the decision under review.
Ruel Galbreath is a public school teacher in Broward County. His employer, the School Board of Broward County, and the Broward County Classroom Teachers Association are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. This agreement covers all teachers including those who, like Galbreath, are not members of the Classroom Teachers Association. Galbreath filed a grievance under the collective bargaining agreement in an attempt to secure payment *1047 for certain overtime work. The Classroom Teachers Association represented Galbreath through the first two steps of the three-step grievance procedure but refused to further process his grievance through the final arbitration step. The Classroom Teachers Association based this decision not on Galbreath's non-union status but rather on the lack of merit in his grievance. The school board then rejected Galbreath's demand for arbitration because the collective bargaining agreement gave control over the arbitration step to the Classroom Teachers Association. Galbreath subsequently brought unfair labor practices charges with the Public Employees Relations Commission against both the school board and the Classroom Teachers Association. The Public Employees Relations Commission summarily dismissed these charges and Galbreath appealed.
The district court affirmed the dismissal, holding that Galbreath could be foreclosed from individual arbitration under section 447.401, Florida Statutes (1979). In affirming, the district court adopted the majority opinion of the Public Employees Relations Commission in Heath v. School Board of Orange County, 5 FPER 10074 (1979), and the "Declaratory Statement" portion of In re Leon County School Board, 7 FPER 12286 (1981). We agree with the district court and approve the following portions of In re Leon County School Board, set out in the appendix of the opinion under review, as dispositive of the issues presented in the certified question.
424 So. 2d  at 841-43 (footnotes omitted, emphasis added by fourth district).
We therefore answer the certified question in the negative. We also find Galbreath's constitutional attack on section 447.401, Florida Statutes (1979), to be without merit. Accordingly, we approve the decision under review.
It is so ordered.
ALDERMAN, C.J., and BOYD, OVERTON, EHRLICH and SHAW, JJ., concur.