Opinion ID: 2615
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether, under the RLA, the Board and BLE Are Proper Parties to a Petition for Review in District Court

Text: Because the issue remains relevant to Ollman's claim against BLE, we next address his claim that the District Court erred in deeming the Board and BLE improper parties to the petition for review. Like the District Court, we believe that our decision in Skidmore v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 619 F.2d 157 (2d Cir.1979), controls this issue. In Skidmore, a railroad employee appealed from a district court order dismissing his petition for review of an award of the NRAB. After concluding that the petitioner's claim was foreclosed by prior litigation, and that in any event, the petition was properly dismissed because the district court lacked power to remedy the error complained of, we noted that the NRAB was not a proper party to the petition for review. We explained that, unlike an agency such as the Federal Trade Commission, which both adjudicates and quasi-legislates, and therefore maintains an interest in each decision, the NRAB functions solely as an impartial adjudicatory tribunal and so has no inherent interest in defending its decisions on appeal. Id. at 159; accord Mitchell v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 408 F.3d 318, 320 (7th Cir.2005); Sheehan v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 576 F.2d 854, 855 (10th Cir.1978), rev'd on other grounds, 439 U.S. 89, 99 S.Ct. 399, 58 L.Ed.2d 354 (1978). In such a scheme, the adjudicator has no stake in the outcome of a petition for review, and so is not a proper party to it. Skidmore, 619 F.2d at 159. A special board of adjustment is as much an impartial adjudicator as the NRAB  indeed, special boards resolve disputes otherwise referable to the NRAB and are its functional equivalent  so they, too, are not proper parties to a petition for review under the RLA. See Merchants Despatch Transp. Corp. v. Sys. Fed. No. One, 444 F.Supp. 75, 77 (N.D.Ill.1979). Accordingly, we hold that the District Court correctly dismissed the Board from this proceeding. [13] As for BLE, its involvement in the dispute before the Board was as Ollman's representative. Therefore, we agree with the District Court that BLE was properly made party to the petition for review only to the extent that Ollman asserted a claim that BLE breached its duty of fair representation owed to him. To the extent that Ollman sought to use his petition for review to vacate the Board's award because the Board proceeding failed to comply with the procedural requirements of the RLA, BLE was not a proper respondent. The appropriate respondent was NSRC, the party whose disciplinary actions Ollman contested before the Board.